1122 Marketing

1122 Marketing

1122 Marketing is the only agency built exclusively for law firm Local Service Ads (LSAs).

Founder Thomas Glasgow spent years on the client side as an in-house marketing director at a law firm, watching agencies hide behind vanity metrics and lock-in contracts. In 2023, he built the antidote: an agency that defines success the way a law firm does: signed cases and cost per acquisition.

In three years the agency has grown to 50+ active law firm clients, primarily personal injury, and building up a strong momentum and trajectory.

The brief

1122 came to Search For Hire through a direct industry referral. Thomas had heard about SFH on a podcast featuring Chris Dreyer of Rankings.io (a fellow leader in legal SEO) and asked Chris for his view. Chris recommended Search For Hire without hesitation.

The Mandate:

A senior LSA Account Manager to own a portfolio of 15–20 law firm accounts and $500k to $2M+ in combined monthly ad spend.

At 1122, that title undersells the job. There is no strategist behind the curtain and no project manager playing telephone. The account manager is the strategist, the project manager, and the client’s direct line: a three-in-one strategic lead, accountable for the account end-to-end.

Every day the seat sat open, high-value law firm accounts were carrying that load without a dedicated owner.

Run your own number on the Cost of Vacancy Calculator.

The challenge

LSAs are one of the narrowest specialisms in paid media.

Most paid media operators touch LSAs for a fraction of their week inside a broader PPC remit. 1122 needed the opposite: someone whose working life was overwhelmingly weighted towards LSAs. An absolute expert — ideally one who had already worked with law firms.

And expertise alone would not carry the role. The right candidate had to:

• Ideally, bring prior law firm or legal marketing experience
• Bring deep, specialist LSA experience, not broad PPC exposure with LSAs on the side
• Own strategy and hands-on implementation across a portfolio of high-value accounts
• Hold weekly and monthly conversations with direct, demanding attorneys, and hold their ground
• Talk performance in the client’s language: revenue and attribution, not vanity metrics
  

“The challenge was the sole focus on Local Service Ads.

A lot of people have broader PPC or paid media experience and touch LSAs maybe 20% of the time. We needed an absolute expert — someone who could organise the strategy, handle the implementation, and hold weekly and monthly client conversations that link performance back to revenue and attribution.“

— Daris Benallal, Head of Recruitment at Search For Hire

The Process

Search For Hire ran a targeted headhunting search focused exclusively on operators with heavily LSA-weighted backgrounds. The generalist paid media market was ruled out from day one.

Candidate criteria

We sought a senior LSA operator whose day-to-day work was dominated by Local Service Ads, with proven ownership of both strategy and implementation, and the client-facing confidence to sit opposite attorneys who expect measurable results every 30 days. Legal vertical experience was a strong plus. The non-negotiables were specialist depth, revenue-led communication, and the temperament to own a portfolio without escalation.

Evaluation process

Eight pre-qualified candidates were presented as a shortlist, each assessed for specialist depth, client-facing capability, and fit with 1122’s culture of extreme accountability.

The search moved from launch to successful placement in 23 days, inside Search For Hire’s brand promise of filling 95% of roles within 25 days, and comfortably ahead of typical timelines for specialist paid media searches.

“Working with Search For Hire, and specifically Daris, was a pleasure.

Daris kept our team updated, reduced our speed to hire significantly with his administrative and sourcing support, and was extremely easy to work with. We are grateful for his quick and good work in helping us identify the best candidate for our team.”

— Brie Wilson, Search for Hire’s Placed Candidate

The results

Search For Hire placed a senior LSA specialist, whose background read like the brief itself: “approximately six to seven years focused almost exclusively on Local Service Ads, in client-facing roles throughout, progressing from operations support through LSA lead analyst to client success operations lead, and building and growing a team along the way.“

• Specialist depth.
• Genuine client-facing strength.
• Leadership pedigree.

“Fast and Reliable… Their (Search for Hire’s) process was thorough.

They delivered great candidates for us to interview which ultimately led to us making an offer to one of them. We have high hopes and think this candidate will be a great fit.

— Thomas Glassgow, Founder of 1122 Marketing

The exact combination 1122 could not find in the open market.

The placement is backed by the Search For Hire 1-Year Guarantee, the industry’s most comprehensive commitment to placement quality.

“Working with Daris was great. He was quick, easy to speak with, clear and supportive throughout the process. I would work with him again for sure although I am hoping that I do not have to after his help securing a new role. Anyone would be lucky to have this guy in their corner during a job search. Thank you for your help Daris.“

– Dustin, Search for Hire’s Placed Candidate

Why this matters

Agencies built on month-to-month trust do not get to hide a mediocre hire behind a contract.

At 1122, every account manager is the difference between retention and churn — the person a law firm decides to keep paying, or not, every single month. A mis-hire at this level does not just slow things down. It costs accounts.

Niche disciplines punish generalist hiring. When a role demands genuine specialisation and the confidence to sit across the table from attorneys, a broad PPC background is not enough.

That is why Search For Hire exists.

1122 Marketing filled a rare, niche-specialist, client-facing role in approximately 23 days. If your role has been open longer than it should, book a call, or run our Cost of Vacancy Calculator to see what it’s costing you.