What Is a Good Cost Per Case for a Personal Injury Firm?

“What's a good cost per case?” is one of the most common questions personal injury marketing leaders ask — and one of the hardest to answer well. The honest answer is: it depends. But that doesn't mean you can't benchmark your numbers against meaningful reference points.

This article breaks down what cost per case actually means, what ranges PI firms typically see across different source types and case categories, and — most importantly — how to evaluate whether your numbers are healthy for your firm.

What “Cost Per Case” Actually Measures

Cost per case (CPC) is the total marketing spend required to produce one signed case. It's calculated by dividing your total spend on a given source or channel by the number of signed cases that source produced in the same period.

For example: if you spend $30,000 per month with a lead vendor and that vendor produces 10 signed cases in the same period, your cost per case for that vendor is $3,000.

This sounds straightforward, but there are two important nuances:

• Time lag matters.A lead that arrives in January might not sign until March. If you compare January spend to January signings, you're mixing two different cohorts. Accurate cost per case requires tracking leads from arrival through signing — not just comparing monthly totals.
• Not all cases are equal. A $3,000 cost per case for a soft tissue auto accident is very different from a $3,000 cost per case for a traumatic brain injury. Cost per case needs to be evaluated alongside case type and expected settlement value.

Cost Per Case Ranges by Source Type

The following ranges represent what we typically see across PI firms. These are not prescriptive benchmarks — they're reference points to help you evaluate your own numbers. Your specific market, case mix, and firm capacity will shift these ranges.

Google Ads (Search)

Google search ads typically produce cost per case numbers between $2,000 and $8,000 for personal injury firms. The wide range reflects differences in market competition, case type targeting, and landing page conversion rates.

Firms in highly competitive metro areas (Los Angeles, Houston, Miami) will trend toward the higher end. Firms in mid-size markets with well-optimized campaigns can achieve the lower end. The key variable isn't just click cost — it's how many of those clicks become leads, and how many leads become signed cases.

Local Service Ads (LSA)

LSAs have become an increasingly popular channel for PI firms. Cost per case from LSAs typically ranges from $1,500 to $5,000. LSAs tend to produce lower cost per lead than search ads, and the leads often have slightly higher intent because they've selected your firm from a Google-verified listing.

That said, LSA lead volume is harder to scale than paid search. Many firms use LSAs as a baseline channel and supplement with search ads for additional volume.

Lead Generation Vendors (Mass Tort and PI Aggregators)

Third-party lead vendors typically produce cost per case numbers between $1,500 and $6,000. The range varies significantly by vendor quality, exclusivity, and the types of cases being generated.

Exclusive leads (sold to one firm) cost more per lead but often produce lower cost per case because conversion rates are higher. Shared leads cost less upfront but convert at lower rates because multiple firms are competing for the same prospect.

Social Media (Facebook/Instagram Ads)

Social media ads for PI tend to produce cost per case numbers between $3,000 and $10,000. Cost per lead from social is often low — sometimes under $50 — but conversion rates from lead to signed case are typically much lower than search-based channels.

This is where cost per lead as a metric can be especially misleading. A source with $30 cost per lead and a 2% conversion rate produces a $1,500 cost per case. A source with $30 cost per lead and a 0.5% conversion rate produces a $6,000 cost per case. Same cost per lead, very different economics.

Referrals and Organic

Referred cases and organic inbound typically have the lowest cost per case — often under $500 when measured against the indirect costs of maintaining a referral network or producing content. These channels are high-value but difficult to scale predictably.

Why the Same Cost Per Case Can Mean Different Things

Two vendors with identical cost per case numbers can represent very different value to your firm. Consider this example:

• Vendor A:$3,000 cost per case. Average case settles for $45,000. That's approximately a 15:1 return on marketing spend (before attorney fees and costs).
• Vendor B:$3,000 cost per case. Average case settles for $15,000. That's a 5:1 return — still profitable, but a very different picture.

This is why cost per case alone isn't the complete picture. The firms that make the best budget decisions also track case severity and expected settlement value by source. Cost per case tells you what you're paying. Settlement value per source tells you what you're getting.

How to Evaluate Your Own Numbers

Rather than asking “is my cost per case good?” — which depends on too many variables to answer generically — ask these more specific questions:

1. How does cost per case compare across your own vendors?

The most actionable comparison isn't against industry benchmarks — it's against your other sources. If Vendor A produces cases at $2,500 and Vendor B produces similar cases at $5,000, that's a signal worth investigating — regardless of what the “industry average” says.

2. Is cost per case trending up or down?

A vendor with a $3,000 cost per case that's been climbing for six months is a different situation than one that's been stable or declining. Trends matter as much as snapshots.

3. What is the cost per case relative to expected case value?

A $5,000 cost per case is expensive for soft tissue auto cases that settle for $15,000. It's reasonable for catastrophic injury cases that settle for $250,000. Always evaluate cost per case in the context of what those cases are worth to your firm.

4. Are you comparing apples to apples?

A vendor that produces high-severity cases with long settlement timelines will look expensive on a cost per case basis compared to a vendor that produces high-volume, low-severity cases. Make sure you're segmenting by case type before drawing conclusions.

The Cost Per Lead Trap

Many firms still evaluate vendor performance primarily on cost per lead. This can lead to bad budget decisions because it ignores what happens after the lead arrives.

A vendor with a $50 cost per lead and a 5% conversion rate produces cases at $1,000 each. A vendor with a $100 cost per lead and a 10% conversion rate also produces cases at $1,000 each. But a vendor with a $50 cost per lead and a 1% conversion rate produces cases at $5,000 each — five times more expensive despite having the cheapest leads.

Cost per lead is useful as an input metric. Cost per case is what actually determines whether a channel is profitable.

What “Good” Really Means

A good cost per case isn't a fixed number — it's a number that makes economic sense for your firm given your case mix, your fee structure, your operating costs, and your growth goals.

Here's a simple framework for evaluating whether a cost per case number is working for you:

• Calculate your average fee per caseby case type. If your firm's average contingency fee on a motor vehicle case is $12,000, then a $3,000 cost per case gives you a 4:1 return on marketing spend before overhead.
• Set a maximum cost per case thresholdper case type. Many firms target a cost per case that's no more than 20-25% of the average fee — but your threshold should be based on your own economics, not a rule of thumb.
• Review monthly and trend quarterly. Monthly numbers fluctuate. Quarterly trends tell you whether a source is getting better or worse.

When Cost Per Case Is Hard to Calculate

If you're reading this and thinking “I don't actually know my cost per case by vendor” — you're in the majority. Most PI firms track cost per lead because that data is easy to get (the vendor gives it to you). Cost per case requires connecting lead data to case management data — and most firms don't have those systems connected.

The manual version works at small scale: export your lead log, match it against your signed case list, and divide spend by signings. At scale — with hundreds of leads per month across multiple vendors — this becomes a significant time investment. That's the problem a cost per case tracking platformwas built to solve, but even a monthly manual calculation is better than relying on cost per lead alone.

The Bottom Line

There is no universal “good” cost per case. What matters is whether your cost per case — by vendor, by case type, over time — produces a return that supports your firm's growth. The firms that grow predictably are the ones that track this number consistently, compare across sources, and make budget decisions based on what produces signed cases — not just what produces leads.