This playbook is for trial users at PI firms configuring GavelGrow for the first time. By the end of the 90-day cycle below you'll have tracking numbers set up for your top campaigns (they switch on with a paid plan), an intake auto-reply going out on every form submit, and signed cases tied back to the Google Ads campaign that produced them. Time to your first attributed signed case depends on your case mix and ad-spend velocity. The goal here is to get the plumbing in place so every future signed case is attributable.
Marketing context: /solutions/personal-injuryPI is a high-stakes, high-spend, high-value game. Industry-average response time is 47 minutes — leads contacted under 5 minutes are 21× more likely to qualify (Lead Response Management Study). Your setup priority is turning on the instant form auto-reply and the missed-call text-back (texts start once US carriers approve your number), before anything else.
PI firms routinely run $25K+/month on Google Ads. Without attribution to signed cases, you can't tell which campaign paid for a $100K settlement and which paid for tire-kickers. Your setup must connect Google Ads sync, tracking numbers, and case records into one funnel from the start.
PI cases live for 2-3 years. The intake data you capture on day one — date of incident, injuries, insurance carrier, medical providers — needs to live with the case forever. Your intake form has to capture lien-ready detail without slowing the first reply.
Stand up tracking, intake automation, and Google Ads sync so every paid lead is attributed end-to-end.
Tune the intake funnel against speed-to-lead and conversion data, kill underperforming keywords, and start filling case-value tracking.
Use modelled practice-area benchmarks to calibrate spend, expand to underweight campaigns, and lock in repeatable attribution reporting.
Bracketed tokens like [city] are placeholders — replace with your firm’s service area before launching campaigns.
50-60% of paid budget — these convert at the highest rate and define your benchmark CPL
15-20% — lower volume but higher signed-case value; track each as its own campaign for attribution
10-15% — strong signal of severity; high case value justifies higher CPL ceiling
5-10% — cheap clicks, defends against competitors bidding on your name
10-15% — softer intent but cheap CPL; route to nurture sequence not immediate consult
Drives statute-of-limitations urgency and tells intake whether the matter is recent (under 7 days) or aged (over 60 days).
Auto accident, slip-and-fall, and premises cases need different questions. Ask the type first so intake knows which follow-up questions to ask on the callback, and the case type on the lead record tells intake which attorney should call back.
Soft-tissue vs catastrophic injury changes case priority and target retainer. Free-text plus a severity dropdown lets attorneys triage at a glance.
Captures the carrier and policy-limit indicator so attorneys can quote a realistic settlement range on the first call. Lien-ready.
Foundation of every PI case file. Capturing on intake means no follow-up exchange is needed before the consultation.
Y/N + report number if available. Determines how much pre-consult work the paralegal needs to do.
Y/N gate. If they are retained elsewhere, mark the lead 'Not a fit' with the reason 'Already has a lawyer' so it stays on record without cluttering the consult queue.
Required for compliant SMS automation. Append-only audit trail logs the consent event for defensible compliance.
All sequences are consent-first by default — STOP / HELP keywords honored automatically, consent events captured to an append-only audit log.
Confirm receipt, set expectation that an attorney will call within 5 minutes, and ask one clarifying question (severity / immediate medical needs). Captures the lead before they call your competitor.
Second text offering a same-day callback time through your booking link. Sequence steps send whether or not someone has already called, so word it to read naturally either way. Most leads who do not get a human touch by minute 5 will hire elsewhere; this is the recovery window.
Soft check-in: ‘Wanted to make sure you got our earlier message — still here when you’re ready.’ Re-engages leads who got distracted by the post-incident chaos.
Educational follow-up: short SMS pointing to a post-accident checklist or FAQ page. Maintains presence without feeling pushy.
Final outreach for non-responsive leads with one direct call-to-book question. A sequence step can be at most a week after the lead arrives, so run any longer nurture, such as weekly tips for 30 days, from your own email tool.
Targets are anchored to GavelGrow modelled practice-area benchmarks. If a metric is off-target, the notes column points at the most likely root cause.
$110 mid-market average; $55 top 10% (per our modelled practice-area benchmarks)
If off-targetIf your CPL is above $110 in month two, review your campaigns and pause any that have produced no signed cases after 60 days of spend.
Automatic reply right after the form (and a text after a missed call once US carriers approve your number); under 5 minutes for the first human call
If off-targetGavelGrow times this from when the lead arrives to when your team marks it contacted. If the first human call creeps past 5 minutes, the issue is almost always a sequence that is switched off or a staff call queue, not lead volume. Check the Automation page and where each tracking number forwards.
Aim for full coverage; signed cases without a tracking source make budget decisions guesswork
If off-targetUntracked signed cases usually mean a tracking number or UTM gap somewhere in the funnel. To remediate, open a recently signed lead that has no source and check how it came in (form, tracking number or manual entry) to find where the chain broke.
Track signed cases by channel on the Performance page and benchmark against your firm's own historical baseline
If off-targetIf your conversion is trending down over time, the issue is usually intake quality, not ad spend. Audit speed-to-lead and intake-form drop-off first.
Track and segment — no universal target
If off-targetA $300 CPL on a campaign producing $80K average cases is excellent. A $60 CPL on a campaign producing $4K cases is a problem. Always pair CPL with realized case value.
Track missed calls and the median time to call back on the Calls page; any caller you win back is incremental revenue from a lead that would otherwise have been lost
If off-targetIf your recovery rate is flatlining, your missed-call SMS template likely reads as automated. Personalize the first sentence and re-test.
GavelGrow does not switch sequences by language today. Add a preferred-language field to the intake form so it shows on every lead record, write your auto-reply in English and Spanish, and make sure at least one intake staffer is bilingual for the callback.
GavelGrow handles the marketing funnel, from click to consultation to signed case. Once a case is signed, export your leads and cases as CSV and import them into your case management tool. There is no direct connection to those tools today, so set a weekly export as part of your Days 31-60 milestone.
Yes, at minimum once you cross 100 leads a month. Tracking numbers come with your plan (Track includes 2, Optimize 10), so the cost of granularity is your plan tier, not a per-number bill. Start with your top campaigns on day one and add numbers as sub-practices get their own paid budget.
Build the hosted intake form with the 4-5 must-have fields (incident date, type, contact, consent, severity dropdown). GavelGrow does not send a second-step link or take file uploads, so collect the lien-ready detail (insurance, providers) on the first call and enter it in the lead's custom fields, and gather photos and documents the way your firm already does. This keeps the front-end form short for conversion while still putting everything attorneys need on the lead record.
Start a 7-day free trial (no credit card) and configure GavelGrow against this playbook step by step.
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