When every expert is trying to sell you something, how do you really know what your firm needs - or what you're wasting money on? In this episode of Personal Injury Mastermind, John Schroeder, owner of DeFacto Digital Consulting, reveals what he's learned from auditing PI firms spending anywhere from $5K to $100K monthly on marketing. From intake gaps to SEO failures, John shares the brutal truth about where most firms are hemorrhaging money without even knowing it.

Dominate your market today. Grab a copy of Chris’ latest book, Personal Injury Lawyer Marketing: From Good to GOAT. 

As founder of DeFacto Digital Consulting, John built his business on a radical premise: providing unvarnished, data-driven analysis of law firms' marketing performance.. In this candid conversation, he reveals the common blind spots he finds when analyzing firms across the country - and why most firms don't discover these issues until they're "$50K in the hole." If you're investing in marketing but unsure about the real ROI, this episode gives you the framework to evaluate what's actually working.

We discuss:

• Why 90% of intake processes are substandard (and bleeding cases)
• The real reason most SEO campaigns fail (it's not what agencies tell you)
• How Google Ads managers are losing control (and your money)
• The exact metrics John uses to audit marketing performance
• How to know if your marketing agency is actually delivering results
• Why most firms discover problems $50K too late

Guest Details

John Schroeder is the owner of DeFacto Digital Consulting, specializing in unbiased audits of law firms' digital marketing performance. After years in legal lead generation and agency work, John founded DeFacto to help firms get honest, objective analysis of their marketing effectiveness without trying to sell additional services.

• John Schroeder:  LinkedIn, Instagram
• DeFacto Digital Consulting: Website, Instagram 

Chris Dreyer and Rankings Details

Chris Dreyer is the CEO and founder of Rankings.io, the elite legal digital marketing agency. 

• Rankings: Website, Instagram, Twitter
• Chris Dreyer: Website, Instagram
• Newsletters: The Dreyer Sheet 
• Books: Personal Injury Lawyer Marketing: From Good to GOAT; Niching Up: The Narrower the Market, the Bigger the Prize
• Work with Rankings: Connect

Time Stamps

00:00 Intro 

00:51 The Truth About Legal Marketing Audits 

02:07 What Actually Drives PI Cases Today 

03:17 Evaluating Intake Performance 

04:58 Common SEO Mistakes and Solutions 

08:10 Google Ads: Manual Control vs Automation 

10:11 In-House vs Third-Party Intake Teams 

12:21 Origins of DeFacto Digital 

13:45 The Audit Process Explained

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