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Immigration law firm marketing · Benchmark

Cost per signed case.
What firms actually pay in 2026.

The one number that tells you whether your marketing actually works, the honest reason nobody can hand you an industry average, and how to calculate your own.

Read the definition → What firms actually pay ↓
The approved public reading is that signed-case economics improved; the exact indexed reduction is not repeated here.

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Cost per signed case, answered straight.

Cost per signed case is your total marketing spend for a period divided by the number of clients who signed a retainer in that period. It counts executed engagements, not leads, calls, or consultations. It is the only marketing metric that lines up directly with revenue.
There is no honest industry average. The real number is firm-specific and almost always far higher than figures published online, because most of those count leads, not signed retainers. It depends on your case types, intake conversion, market costs, and tracking. The number that matters is your own, measured against your own baseline.
The public proof we can stand behind is our immigration law client: an approved 760% marketing revenue increase after paid media, intake, HubSpot, and signed-retainer tracking were connected.
Because it is almost always a cost per lead relabeled as a cost per signed case. Most leads never retain. Illustratively, a $40 lead at 40 leads to one signed case is a real cost per signed case of $1,600, not $40. Anyone quoting that low-cost figure is counting inquiries, not clients.
Cost per lead measures how cheaply you can buy an inquiry and lives on the ad dashboard. Cost per signed case measures what it costs to acquire a paying client and lives in your CRM, tied to closed revenue. A low cost per lead can hide a high cost per signed case. Only cost per signed case lines up with revenue.
Significantly. High-value, lower-volume matters such as EB-5 and NIW can justify a far higher cost per signed case than high-volume family green card or removal work, because one signed case is worth more. Track it by case type rather than blending everything into one average, which describes none of the lines accurately.
Our immigration law client approved the public relative result: a 760% marketing revenue increase after paid media, intake, HubSpot, and signed-retainer tracking were connected.