PI Market Mastery · July 6, 2026

Go-To-Market by Firm Stage

Rankings.io internal strategy briefing

Slide 1

Slide 2

“Performance” and “brand” are budget labels. The real distinction is what the dollar does to demand.
PERFORMANCE = DEMAND CAPTURE
Harvests intent that already exists — someone was just injured and is searching now
LSA, PPC, SEO, Maps, AI answers
Measured in cost per signed case
Scales linearly, stops when spend stops. You rent it.
BRAND = DEMAND CREATION
Plants the name before the accident — so you get called first, not compared
TV, radio, OOH, CTV, YouTube, sponsorships
Measured in branded search volume + share of voice
Compounds over years. You own it.
Brand demand still gets captured through performance channels. They are one system, not rivals.

Slide 3

Why startups can't act like brands: the fee arrives long after the media dollar leaves.
Month 0
Media dollar out,
case signed
Months 6–12
Pre-lit soft tissue
settles → first fees
Months 18–36
Litigated cases
pay out
Month 24+
Fees fund media:
flywheel turns
Refinement to the claim
“24 months minimum” is a case-mix output, not a law. Weight early intake toward fast-settling pre-lit cases and first fees land in 6–12 months. Load up on litigated cases and it stretches past 30.
18–24
months of funded runway a startup should plan before fees carry media spend

Slide 4

Years 0–3 · roughly under $5M revenue · survival = signed cases this month
LSA first
Pay-per-lead, fastest to signed case, lowest waste
PPC second
Expensive ($100–500+ CPCs in PI) but immediate intent
SEO + AI + Maps from day one
6–18 month lag — plant it now so it pays in Stage 2
The 20% brand slice
Name defense + one geographic anchor. Not TV yet.
Cheapest channel at this stage isn't media at all — it's referrals. Work the attorney network relentlessly.

Slide 5

Roughly $5–20M revenue · the mix doesn't flip overnight — it walks: 80/20 → 60/40 → 40/60
Shift brand up only when ALL three triggers fire:
1. Performance CPA is climbing
Auctions in your market are saturated — the next capture dollar buys less than the last
2. Cash can survive the lag
12+ months of brand spend committed without needing it back — brand quits are the most expensive media mistake in PI
3. Intake can hold the volume
Answer rate, speed-to-lead, and signing rate proven. Brand pours water into whatever bucket you have

Slide 6

Market leaders · $20M+ · the game is mindshare before the accident happens
Brand lowers every CPA
A known name lifts CTR, conversion, LSA ranking, and referral flow — the whole funnel gets cheaper
Frequency compounds
Years of jingles, billboards, and spots make the firm the default — injured people call, they don't compare
The 20% is non-negotiable
Branded LSA/PPC + AI/Maps presence. Zero it out and competitors conquest your name — your brand spend fills their intake

Slide 7

Midpoints of published 2025–26 ranges: OOH $2–9 · audio ~$8 · local TV $5–15 · YouTube $3–30 · CTV $20–40 · nat'l broadcast $20–50
Correction
Broadcast CPMs aren't under $2 — nothing mainstream is. The cheapest CPM in media is actually billboards. Well-bought local TV/radio lands $5–15.
Why TV + radio still anchor PI brand
Not raw CPM — frequency at scale, sight-sound-emotion, and negotiated local/remnant/annual rates that crush rate card. OOH is cheaper per impression but carries a name, not a story.

Slide 8

Capture channels in order of speed-to-signed-case
1
LSA
Pay per lead, Google-vetted trust badge. Fastest ROI in legal. Rank driven by reviews + responsiveness.
Days to payback
2
PPC
Highest-cost clicks in all of advertising — PI terms run $100–500+. Works only with tight intake + tracking.
Weeks to payback
3
SEO + Maps
Compounds like equity. 6–18 month lag, then the cheapest signed cases in the book. Map pack = local trust.
6–18 mo to payback
4
AI Visibility
AI answers now intercept searches before the SERP. Being the cited firm in AI results is the new page one.
The next land grab
One budget, four channels, one metric: cost per signed case — never cost per click or lead.

Slide 9

Each channel has one job. Mix by job, not by CPM alone.
Broadcast TV — the emotional engine
Sight, sound, story at mass scale. Buy annual local commitments and remnant to push effective CPMs toward single digits.
Radio — the frequency machine
~$8 CPMs, drive-time repetition, jingle-friendly. Cheapest way to hit 3+ frequency, which is where recall actually starts.
OOH — the geographic anchor
Cheapest impression in media ($2–9). Carries name + number, not a story. Dominates corridors; owns the daily commute.
CTV / YouTube — the precision layer
2–4x the CPM of linear, but targets the exact demo and geography linear leaks. Also reaches cord-cutters TV misses.
Brand rule: 12-month minimum commitment. Frequency builds recall in months 4–12 — quitting early buys awareness for your competitors' category.

Slide 10

1
Stage sets the mix. Startup 80/20 performance → challenger ~50/50 → legacy 80/20 brand. The walk takes years, not quarters.
2
Shift on triggers, not ambition: rising capture CPA + growing branded search + intake that can hold volume.
3
Never zero out performance. The last 20% captures everything the brand creates — or a competitor does.
4
Case mix controls the cash cycle. Fast-settling pre-lit inventory shortens the 24-month runway problem.
5
Intake is the multiplier on all of it. The best media mix in the market dies at a 60% answer rate.
One system. Two engines. The ratio is the strategy.

Rebuilt from the source doc for the Oracle. Internal — not for external distribution.