I looked at the searches somebody around Petts Wood, Orpington and Bromley is likely to make when they need help with wills, probate or an LPA. Southeast Legacies already performs strongly organically. The gap appears above those results, where larger firms and national providers can pay to meet the same client first.
Southeast Legacies has strong local organic visibility and a very strong review profile. The opportunity is not about fixing a broken presence. It is about protecting high-intent searches where paid competitors can appear before the organic results.
These businesses can buy visibility above otherwise strong local results when someone is actively comparing help with wills, probate or LPAs.
The local market is not empty either. Larger firms are competing for the same catchment and can add paid visibility on top of their existing brand presence.
Search results vary by user, device, auction and time. The point is not that Southeast Legacies is invisible. It is that paid competitors can insert themselves above strong organic visibility at the moment of active consideration.
I looked at the wider service mix rather than simply choosing a keyword to advertise. Based on the searches reviewed, the competitive landscape and the likely value of each service, probate looks like the strongest place to start.
Higher-value instructions give paid media more room to work. That makes probate the clearest place to test whether Southeast Legacies can profitably turn paid demand into new instructions.
Lead investment caseThese remain commercially useful, but the economics are likely to be tighter on lower-value work. They can support the account once we know what acquisition costs look like in practice.
Secondary opportunityMore specialist searches may be lower-volume, but can be valuable where intent and client value justify the CPC. The data should decide how far we scale them.
Scale if justified“Start with the service where the economics are strongest. Let the wider account earn budget from there.”
Google Search is the opening identified here because it captures existing intent. The broader job is deciding what each client type is worth and which channels can acquire that work profitably. If Search proves the case, paid media can expand into other services or channels where the numbers support it.
That is why the model below starts with probate: the strategy came first, then the maths.
This is an adjustable commercial model, not a revenue forecast. The CPC is a working input informed by the search environment reviewed. Enquiry rate, close rate and average instruction value are exposed because Southeast Legacies knows those figures better than I do.
The model defaults to the assumptions used in the initial review. Change any input to sense-check the economics against Southeast Legacies' real numbers.
Calculation: annual ad spend ÷ CPC = clicks → clicks × enquiry rate = enquiries → enquiries × close rate = instructions → instructions × average instruction value = revenue. Net then subtracts media spend, the base fee and per-instruction success fees.
| Measure | Annual value |
|---|---|
| Media spend | £7,200 |
| Clicks | 960 |
| Enquiries | 67.2 |
| Confirmed probate instructions | 20.2 |
| Modelled probate revenue | £36,288 |
| ThinkingMan base fee | £7,200 |
| Success fees | £7,056 |
| Net after media + fees | £14,832 |
Fractional instructions are shown because this is an expected-value model over 12 months. Actual outcomes arrive as whole instructions and will vary month to month.
The assumptions are visible so the strategy can change with the business, rather than forcing the business to fit the model.
We can tolerate a higher acquisition cost and potentially scale faster if the average instruction is worth more than the working assumption.
We protect efficiency first: tighten search terms, improve qualification and reduce spend before increasing budget.
Budget can shift toward them. Probate is the starting hypothesis, not a permanent rule.
The base fee covers strategy, campaign management, tracking, optimisation and reporting. A variable fee is tied to confirmed probate instructions, so part of what Southeast Legacies pays us rises only when the core acquisition strategy creates commercial value.
plus £350 per confirmed probate instruction.
Media spend is paid directly to the advertising platform. The model uses £600/month media spend as the starting case.
Agency capability. Direct specialist relationship.
I personally handle the marketing science, strategy and account rather than passing it through layers of an agency.
If the opportunity looks interesting, the useful conversation is not “should we run some ads?”. It is what a probate instruction is actually worth, how many enquiries become clients, which services have capacity and how much profitable demand the business wants to add.
