"Personal injury" is not one market. A TPD claim, a workers compensation claim and a motor accident claim reach different people, cost different amounts to find, sign at different rates and pay very different fees. A campaign that treats them as one thing will be steered by whichever is cheapest, and the cheapest is rarely where the money is.
This article sets out the economics of each main claim type for Australian personal injury firms, using nine Meta ad accounts and the signed-client records our clients keep in PixelRush HQ, for the 12 months to September 2026. Firms are anonymised and all figures are ad spend only.
Key Takeaways
- Claim type sets the price of an enquiry more than the firm, the agency or the ad does. Inside one Sydney account, motor accident enquiries cost 2.3 times what TPD enquiries cost.
- TPD and workers compensation are the cheapest to generate, at about $23 and $27 an enquiry. They also need the most sorting.
- Motor accident enquiries cost $56 at most firms and about $220 when the form screens hard. The matters behind them can be worth $60,000 and more.
- Cost per signed client ran from about $560 to $4,200 across claim types. The return was strong at both ends.
- Pick claim types on the fee, the time to resolve and your capacity to sort enquiries, not on cost per lead.
Why does the claim type change the price so much?
The cost of showing an ad is much the same whatever the claim. What changes is how many of the people who click have a claim that fits.
Share of clicks that became an enquiry, by claim type
Meta instant-form campaigns across nine Australian law firm accounts, 12 months to September 2026.
Almost anyone who has stopped work through illness or injury might wonder about a TPD claim, so a lot of people respond. A motor accident claim needs a recent accident, someone else at fault and an injury above the scheme's threshold. Far fewer people qualify, so far fewer respond, and each response costs more.
That is not a fault in the campaign. It's the shape of the market.
What does each claim type cost per enquiry?
Cost per enquiry on Meta, by claim type
Pooled across firms. TPD, workers compensation and motor accident are each drawn from five firms. Public liability is effectively one firm, so treat it as indicative.
The range inside each claim type is wide. TPD ran from $11 at a firm advertising nationally to $42 at a firm limited to one region. Workers compensation ran from $20 to $31 at four firms, with one outlier near $100 on a very small sample. Where you advertise and how tightly you screen move the number as much as who runs the ads.
For the wider practice area picture, including Google, see what a law firm lead should cost in Australia.
What does each claim type cost per signed client?
This is where the claim types separate properly. The table uses firms with complete tracking, so each row is one real firm.
| Claim type | Cost per enquiry | Enquiries per signed client | Cost per signed client | Typical fee per client |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workers compensation and TPD, NSW | $54 (Meta and Google combined) | 10 | $562 | about $4,600 |
| Workers compensation, South Australia | $73 | 24 | $1,765 | about $28,000 |
| TAC, Victoria (first 90 days) | $18 | 52 | $915 | about $22,800, estimated |
| Motor accident, NSW | $254 | 17 | $4,219 | $60,000 and above, estimated |
A few things are worth drawing out.
The cheapest enquiries needed the most sorting. The Victorian TAC firm paid $18 an enquiry and needed 52 of them to sign one client. That's a healthy campaign, but it puts real load on intake.
The dearest enquiries produced the best return. The NSW motor accident firm pays more per enquiry than anyone in our data. At one point we were preparing to "fix" that, until the firm's feedback showed what those enquiries became.
The same claim type can carry very different fees. The two workers compensation firms differ sixfold on fee per client. Same label, very different mix of matters. Your own fee data matters more than any benchmark.
Fees marked "estimated" are the firm's own estimates recorded at signing, because most injury matters take 18 months to three years to resolve.
Key Point
Work out your ceiling for each claim type separately: average fee for that claim type, multiplied by the share you're prepared to pay to win it. A $4,000 client is expensive for one claim type and cheap for another.
How should you choose which claim types to advertise?
What does the ad need to say for each claim type?
The message changes with the claim, because the person's situation does.
TPD. Many people don't know the cover exists inside their super. The ad has to explain the idea in plain words before it can ask for anything. Expect many enquiries that don't qualify, and plan the form questions around that.
Workers compensation. People worry about their job and whether claiming will cause trouble. Reassurance and a clear first step do more than urgency.
Motor accident and CTP. Time limits and fault matter, and schemes differ by state. Say who you can help, and let the form screen the rest.
TAC in Victoria. Volume is high and cheap. The work is in sorting, so intake speed decides the result.
In every case, video of the principal speaking plainly has outperformed anything polished for us. Our guide to Facebook ads for personal injury firms covers the structure, and the rules differ by state, so check them first. Queensland firms should start with what PIPA allows. This is general information, not legal advice.
Expert Tip
Don't let the platform choose your claim mix for you. If one campaign covers every claim type, the budget flows to whichever is cheapest to generate, which is usually the one you wanted least.
Does this apply to Google Ads too?
Partly. On Google you can see the claim type in the search itself, so screening is easier, but the clicks are far dearer. Our one personal injury search account averaged $33 a click and about $400 an enquiry, with Western Sydney campaigns at $50 to $65 a click. The comparison by channel is in Meta Ads vs Google Ads for law firms.
Know your numbers by claim type
Most firms know their overall cost per lead. Few know their cost per signed client for each claim type, and that's the number that tells you where the next dollar should go. It takes a few months of recording what happens to each enquiry, which is what our growth system is built to do.
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