A paid media opportunity review · Bexley

You already win in Bexley. The gap starts just outside it.

Graham Dawson & Co is already one of the strongest organic answers for legal searches in Bexley. The opportunity is not to replace that — it is to use paid search selectively where national firms sit above you, and where your visibility drops across the surrounding catchment.

See what we found ↓Jump to the maths
01 · What the search results say

The strongest signal is not that Graham Dawson is invisible. It is that you are already trusted locally.

That changes how we would use paid media.

BEXLEY · CORE TERMS

Strong organic position

For searches such as “solicitors Bexley” and “conveyancing solicitors Bexley”, Graham Dawson appears at or around the top of local and organic results.

Protect, don’t overpay
ABOVE THE ORGANIC RESULTS

National firms buy the first click

Co-op and other larger providers use paid search to appear ahead of the organic listings — even where Graham Dawson already has the stronger local footprint.

Selective defence
2–3 MILES OUT

The coverage drops

Move into Bexleyheath, Sidcup and Welling and that organic advantage weakens quickly. That is where paid media has a clearer growth job to do.

Expansion opportunity
02 · The practical search gap

Use paid search where it adds something — not simply because the ad slot exists.

SEARCH · solicitors Bexley
SponsoredLarge national legal providersPaid placements above the local results
Graham Dawson & Co · strong local visibilityAlready one of the leading organic/local answers in Bexley
SEARCH · probate Bexleyheath / Sidcup
SponsoredCo-op · Octopus · Affinion and othersNational and price-led providers competing for the click
Graham Dawson visibility falls awayThe nearby catchment is where paid media can extend the firm’s reach
Current strengthBexleyDefend selectively
ExpansionBexleyheathHigher priority
ExpansionSidcupHigher priority
ExpansionWellingTest deliberately
03 · Where we would start
“The strategy is not more advertising everywhere. It is extending an existing local advantage where the economics can support it.”
PRIORITY 01

Probate first

Our checks point to probate as the strongest initial commercial case. Published fees create enough headroom for a controlled test; conveyancing is much tougher against national, price-led competitors.

PRIORITY 02

Expand the catchment

Bias spend toward Bexleyheath, Sidcup and Welling rather than paying aggressively for searches Graham Dawson already dominates organically in Bexley.

PRIORITY 03

Sell the local service, not price

Grant-only providers advertise aggressively on price. Graham Dawson’s stronger angle is local, in-person advice and fuller estate administration — not trying to become the cheapest option on Google.

04 · We did the maths

A model that includes the downside, not just the attractive case.

The figures below use Graham Dawson’s published probate fee ranges, a £600 monthly ad budget and a CPC proxy from the same local probate auction. Change the business inputs to see how the economics move.

Scenario
Paid directly into Google Ads
Editable business input · ex VAT
Editable business input · ex VAT
Estimated mix of instructions
Working CPC proxy£9.50
Enquiry rate7%
Enquiry → instruction30%
Working management fee£600/mo
Success fee in model£350 / instruction
These are working assumptions, not a forecast or guarantee. The purpose of the model is to show what would need to be true for paid media to make commercial sense before scaling it.
Modelled annual fee income£29,760
Instructions / year16.0
Blended fee / instruction£1,860
Total year-one cost£20,000
Net after modelled costs£9,760
Grant-only
60%
Full administration
40%

Underlying media assumptions remain hidden from the editable fields because Graham Dawson would not need to know or estimate CPCs and conversion rates. They are shown only for transparency. The commercial inputs above are the ones the firm is best placed to challenge.

05 · What this would look like in practice

Start narrow. Prove the economics. Then decide what deserves more budget.

Probate-first Google Search build
Bexleyheath, Sidcup & Welling expansion focus
Selective protection of high-value Bexley searches
Search-term, enquiry and instruction-level review
Wills / estate administration tested around the core
Conveyancing held back until the economics justify it
Working structure used in the model
£600/mo
management + £350 per confirmed probate instruction

Media budget is separate and paid directly to the platform. No setup fee is assumed in the model.

See ThinkingMan Creative