The pandemic hit Legal Services’ local advertising spend hard in 2020 dropping from $7B in 2019 to only $5B in 2020. 2022 shows a healthy rebound with 2022 local ad spend forecast to surpass its pre-pandemic 2019 levels. Legal Services in 2022 will increase ad spend to $8.4 billion, up 11.1% from 2021 and up 18.4% (5.8% CAGR) from $7.1 billion in 2019. Digital media is getting the majority of the increased ad spend even as traditional media accounts for two of every three dollars spent by Legal Services.

In pre-pandemic 2019, Traditional Media accounted for two of every three local ad dollars spent by Legal Services businesses. During the pandemic, however, Legal Services began shifting their ad dollars to digital channels.

Digital Media channels’ share of wallet is forecast to grow from 33.8% in 2019 to 47.8% in 2023, with search and display on Mobile and desktop getting the biggest increases in ad dollars. Mobile will continue to increase its share of the Legal Services wallet, growing from 14.5% in 2019 to 20.8% in 2022. PC/Laptop will grow from 6.4% share of wallet in 2019 to 9.3% in 2022.

Accessing the Report

BIA’s newly released Legal Services Vertical – Insights into the U.S. Local Ad Marketplace 2022 report is available to BIA ADVantage subscribers as part of their subscription by logging in to their accounts. The Legal Services Vertical report is available for purchase in BIA’s online shop here, along with reports on other verticals.