In 2024, an estimated $2.5 billion was spent on legal services ads in the United States, according to the American Tort Reform Association’s 2025 report. Spending on out-of-home and outdoor ads, such as billboards, increased more than 260% when compared with 2017. In 2024, advertisers spent an estimated $541.6 million on out-of-home ads. Legal services were the fastest growing out of home advertising category in 2024, with a 16% increase from 2023. Out-of-home advertising, which includes billboards, is the third most popular (after television and digital) advertising medium for the legal sector.
This raises the question of why personal injury attorneys love roadside billboards so much? PI attorneys use billboards to advertise at a much higher rate compared with other attorneys. One reason may be billboards are relatively cheap advertising (Google Ads for PI attorneys can cost from $140 to over $600 per lead or click). Another reason may just be tradition; we are all familiar with the concept by now, so new attorneys just continue. Likely it has something to do with repeated exposure by constant drivers, who are more likely to get into car accidents. I suppose another reason may be the contingency fee basis of PI attorneys compared with attorneys that charge hourly or a flat rate, advertising to one-off clients instead of repeat clients.
One personal injury firm, Morgan & Morgan, spent $218 million on advertising in 2024. That seems high. As one legal marketing website says, “One could argue that if it weren’t for this particular industry, the entire billboard sector might collapse.”
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