Programmatic Advertising for Law Firms | Eric Elliott

David McBee: Hello and welcome to Simpli.fi TV, the web series and podcast for agencies, marketers, media buyers, and business owners. I'm David McBee. Our guest today is Eric Elliott, CEO and founder of VIP Marketing, a top digital agency recognized nationwide and craft creative, a high-end video production agency serving major brands like Ford, NBC, and Toyota. Eric is a marketing expert who has been in the field for nearly two decades. He has redefined what it means to craft impactful campaigns. He's also the host of Going Forward, the go-to podcast for marketers and advertisers seeking expert insights. With a team of over 30 and clients nationwide, Eric is shaping the future of marketing and branding. Eric, welcome to Simpli.fi TV. Eric Elliott: David, thanks for having me, man. I mean, what an intro. You said two decades. I had to shave my face to come to the interview with a baby face for you. David McBee: I did the same thing. I sometimes have a beard, but I'm feeling baby face today. Eric Elliott: There you go. David McBee: All right. I understand that you do quite a bit of programmatic media specifically for law firms and some political, so I'd really like to ask, how do you feel like that media is transforming the landscape of legal advertising and political, if you want to throw that in too. Eric Elliott: David, that's a great question. Truthfully, I watched the legal landscape. These guys, the legal advertisers, they were more of a pray and spray, do a lot of traditional television, spend thousands and thousands, some spend millions of dollars in traditional television. And then they all got a little wiser and they started doing more Google Ads. And what they've come to find out is those pay-per-click ads, they've become pretty expensive, especially when you don't get a lead. As you know, Google's introducing new products. But also another product that's out there that can actually really help legal advertisers pinpoint who they're going after is programmatic advertising. And so with the different vehicles that you're able to do with programmatic, especially platforms like Simpli.fi, it's a no-brainer for us. David McBee: It's funny you mentioned the cost of Google AdWords going up. I remember I actually was a Google AdWords specialist before coming to Simpli.fi, and I remember saying click for Mesothelioma would cost you 86 bucks or whatever it was, versus using Mesothelioma in a keyword campaign at programmatic was the same as any other keyword. So I'm glad you brought that up. Eric Elliott: Yeah. David McBee: Are there other reasons to lean into programmatic besides cost and competition on Google? Eric Elliott: Yeah. What's the old John Wanamaker quote? He says, "I know my advertising works, I just don't know which half." And I feel like when you have programmatic advertising, you get to find out what half of that advertising is working for you. For us, we started out years ago as a traditional firm, and the one thing that was always hard was the renewal. When you're coming back in the renewal and you say to an advertiser, "Hey, did you get any calls?" I remember those days, David, and I'm dating myself. You would say, "Hey, are you getting any calls, or what's it like?" Well, with programmatic advertising, I know beforehand on what happens. I know how they respond to it, especially if they're targeting a certain audience. I mean, we had one law firm that actually was looking for referrals from other law firms, and they said, "Hey, these are our ideal clients, our ideal law firms that we want to do work for or get referral work from." And so what we were able to do through that Simpli.fi platform, you got to think of it as more than just programmatic because Simpli.fi's more than that, you're able to use that data and go directly to those law firms that our client wanted to target for referrals. And you can't do that in a lot of other mediums, and you can't get that technology in any other programmatic platform. David McBee: Which tactic are you speaking of specifically in that scenario? Eric Elliott: Well, we would geofence, we would actually go through, we'd actually search a list of other law firms within the platform, find those law firms, pinpoint them within the area, download a CSV form, upload that CSV to be able to target directly to the law firm offices of the people that our clients wanted to target for referrals. You can't do that with broadcast television, you can't do that with radio. You're able to do that with programmatic through Simpli.fi, and that's how we were able to use it. David McBee: Yeah, I think of geofencing in that manner like you just described as almost like direct mail, but digital version of it. Right? Eric Elliott: Yeah, I mean, you make a great point, and we just got out of the political season and it was always a big thing for candidates to send out mailers. They felt like it's something that they had to do because it was traditional in a sense. Years ago when someone wanted to do advertising, what did they do? They ran to radio, television or billboard, and now you think of a tool being able to do the programmatic advertising or being able to send, like we call, digital direct mail to their homes over and over and over again. I mean, that is an investment that you can get a better ROI out of. David McBee: Yeah. So we mentioned geofencing. Are there other programmatic tactics that you lean into heavily for law firms? Eric Elliott: For law firms, what we've focused on more is, like with personal injury law firms, you may have folks who have gotten hurt or they may have to visit an emergency room or a clinic. What you can do is you can actually geofence those hospitals or those urgent care places with a message that's going to say, "Are you hurt? Do you need help," to be able to be top of mind. Usually while people are sitting inside of the hospital, I mean, what else are they going to do? They got their legs up, they're going to sit there and watch television, but the majority of the time they have their phones in there, so why not be able to target places where you can be able to be of service with your law firm? David McBee: Are there specific rules around programmatic as it pertains to attorneys that you have to follow? Eric Elliott: Well, I would say with attorney advertising, you definitely always have to be ethical in making sure that you have disclaimers, proper disclaimers written out, and also in your ads as well. The one thing about, we talked about possibly targeting medical facilities is, I mean, you can't violate any HIPAA regulations, but you're not getting any HIPAA information or any private information. You're actually just location targeting, which is probably the best thing to do for ideal people that you're looking for. David McBee: All right, so do you have any other favorite success stories? I know you've shared a couple already, but do you have any? Eric Elliott: Yeah. One of my favorite success stories, and I told our representative with Simpli.fi, Josephine, this too, is that we had a political campaign that we worked on with a client that just went in 2024, but we also worked with them in 2020. So here's something that's really big, and we attribute Simpli.fi to this success. Back in 2020, we won by 19,000 votes. Well, this time we almost won by over 50,000 votes, over 50,000 votes and the only tactic that we used differently was Simpli.fi this time. David McBee: I mean, that's pretty powerful. I mean, there's an A-B test, right? Eric Elliott: Yeah, that's powerful. We were able to go places where competitors didn't know how to get to or where we were a step ahead of people. So I attribute a lot of that to the tools and one of the main tools that we have is Simpli.fi. David McBee: So there are a lot of DSPs out there, demand-side platforms. You obviously have mentioned Simpli.fi a few times, so why are you such a fan of Simpli.fi as it compares to other DSPs? Eric Elliott: Yeah. Well, and that's a great question, and for all those people out there, I'm not paid by Simpli.fi, not at all. And here's what I would tell you, what makes it different for us. There's a ton of other DSPs out there, tons of them. Some of them have minimums, some of them do not. Some of them have great UIs, some of them don't. Some of them have great tech and some of them don't. But I think the biggest thing for me is not only just the UI and the technology, but also the service that you're going to get from it. We've developed this relationship with our representative, Josephine's our representative. We've developed this relationship where we feel like we're not working with a vendor, but we're working with a partner. And I think that is the biggest thing that any agency or advertiser should look for, because I could talk to tons of DSPs and I can name them all until I'm blue in the face. But the truth is, at the end of the day, you want to know what the partnership's going to be like, how's it going to work? What's the tech like, and how are you going to be served? And that was important to us. David McBee: Those are very kind words and I'm so grateful to hear you say that. Thank you very much. Eric Elliott: Oh, no worries, man. David McBee: Before we wrap things up, why don't you tell everyone a little bit about your podcast. Eric Elliott: Man? Oh, great, man. My podcast is named The Going Forward Podcast where we have moving conversations with entrepreneurs and leaders. A lot of times we hear of the Elon Musk, the Jeff Bezos, these types of people, but we don't understand or know exactly what got them to where they are. So that's what our podcast is designed for. We ultimately want leaders and entrepreneurs to listen to us, gain some value and insight, and take it into the world and spread some good. David McBee: Awesome. Perfect. All right, well, what is the best way for viewers to learn more about you? Eric Elliott: Sure, man. You can go to ericelliott.com or follow me on all socials at Eric M. Elliott. That's two L's and two T's, because the guy that has one T gets really ticked off when people email him looking for me. But that's where you can go. David McBee: He literally gets ticked off like he resents- Eric Elliott: Yeah, he does. I actually got an email from him. He said, "Hey, man. I get your emails all the time." And I was like, "Hey, I'm doing my job." David McBee: Hey, just pass them along, just be nice, right? Eric Elliott: Yeah, just pass them along, man. Just pass them along. David McBee: Well, Eric, I appreciate you so much. Thank you for being my guest today on Simpli.fi TV. Eric Elliott: Thank you for having me. David McBee: And thank you all for watching Simpli.fi TV. Please help us out with a like, a comment, a share, a review, and be sure to follow or subscribe to be informed about new episodes. Simpli.fi TV is sponsored, of course, by Simpli.fi, helping you to maximize relevance and multiply results with our industry leading media buying and workflow solutions. For more information, visit simpli.fi. Thanks for joining us today. I'm David McBee, be awesome, and we'll see you next time.