in probate fees on one $500,000 Sacramento house, and 36 months in court at the worst
We surveyed a simulated crowd of 1,000 Sacramento-area adults about callegacylaw.com, tested nine ad angles on them, then built and tested six ads from the two winners. Everything leads to one offer: a free 15-minute Probate Risk Check.
The market is the "maybe" group. It is concentrated in parents, grandparents and households earning $100k or more, where about half said maybe.
| Reason | Share | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Price not shown | 29% | Publish flat fees |
| Small firm they don't know | 19% | Google reviews and testimonials |
| Not urgent yet | 15% | A reason to act now: the free check |
| Need reviews or credentials | 5% | Same as above |
What moved the maybes: protecting their kids and family (16%) and fear of probate (9%).
| Channel | Share | Said maybe |
|---|---|---|
| Referral from a CPA, financial advisor or realtor | 20% | 55% |
| Referral from friends or family | 20% | 35% |
| Google search | 15% | 16% |
| Nextdoor or local groups | 13% | 11% |
| Facebook or Instagram ads | 10% | 18% |
| Free seminar or workshop | 4% | 85% |
Each person picked the one message out of nine that would most move them to book. Ranked by the warm group, the 335 who said maybe or yes. Half the crowd saw the options in reverse order to cancel out position bias, and the top four held either way.
| Rank | Angle | Warm picks | Strongest with | Sample line |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Probate math | 30% | Ages 55+ (38%) | A $500,000 Sacramento house can cost $20,000+ and up to 3 years in probate. |
| 2 | Family peace | 22% | Parents and grandparents (24%) | Make sure your family still loves each other after you're gone. |
| 3 | Pass the home without a tax hit | 18% | Ages 55+ (20%) | Pass the family home to your kids without a surprise property tax bill. |
| 4 | Free Probate Risk Check | 10% | People not yet sold | Find out what probate would cost your family. No obligation. |
| 5 | Kids, not court | 6% | Parents of kids under 18 (9%) | If something happens to you, a judge decides who raises your kids. |
Weak as headlines: evening and Saturday hours (6%), business and family in one plan (5%), local founder with reviews (under 1%). Reviews still matter, but they belong on the landing page. The flat fee also ranked low as a headline, yet price was the top reason people said no, so add it to every ad as a supporting line.
The warm group saw all six and picked the one they would most likely click. Run the three marked Top pick first.
Free 15-minute Probate Risk Check. We'll show you what probate would cost your family and how to skip it. No obligation. Evening and Saturday appointments in Midtown Sacramento.
Top angle in every segment, strongest with ages 55+. Leads with a hard number: what probate costs a family.
Second place overall and strongest with parents and grandparents. Leads with the relationship, then the court.
All 1,000 simulated Sacramento adults scrolled a Facebook feed with one of the six ads in it, about 167 people per ad. Each decided step by step: stop scrolling, tap Book Now, then book the free check. Pick an ad and a budget to see what that means in real numbers.
| Ad | Stopped | Clicked | Booked | Click index |
|---|
Click index compares each ad with the average of the six (100 = average). Simulated people stop and click far more than real ones, so the calculator starts from conservative real-world rates (about 1.2% of viewers click, about 3% of clickers book) and adjusts them by each ad's index. Every slider can be changed.
In the funnel test, about half of the people who clicked still didn't book. Their reasons wrote this page: every block answers one of them. It keeps the ads' navy and gold, so the page feels like the ad people just tapped.
| What the crowd told us | Where it showed up | What the page does |
|---|---|---|
| "I don't want to give my phone number" | Top named reason clickers didn't book | Email or phone. Phone is marked optional. |
| Worried what a lawyer costs | #1 reason for no in the survey (29%) | A "What it costs" block: Risk Check $0, trust is one flat fee in writing. |
| Don't trust a firm they haven't heard of | #2 reason for no (19%) | Founder facts, Midtown address, State Bar license check, space for reviews. |
| "I need to talk to my spouse first" | Clickers who didn't book | "Me and my spouse" is the default, plus a "Send this page to my spouse" button. |
| The free check felt low-risk | Top reason people booked (38%) | "Free · 15 minutes · No obligation" in the hero, on the button and in the FAQ. |
| Kids, family and the dollar amount | Next two reasons people booked | A photo hero with the form above the fold, then a probate calculator: slide your home value, see your family's number. |
Every person who clicked an ad in the funnel test visited this page in character: where they looked, what they clicked and typed, how far they scrolled and when they left. Press Replay to watch it like a video, and switch between click, attention and scroll-depth maps.
The survey's warmest channels were referrals from CPAs, advisors and realtors (55% maybe) and free workshops (85% maybe). These 16 ideas, 8 with business partners and 8 in the community, put the firm in front of people through someone they already trust.
Realtors hand every buyer a card at closing: "You just bought the house. Make sure your kids get it." It's good for a free Probate Risk Check. A new deed is the moment people think about who gets the house.
First step: pitch 5 Midtown and East Sac agents as a free closing gift they can give.
A 30-minute lunch talk at a CPA or advisory office on the probate math and Prop 19. Leave behind a one-page checklist their clients can use. Tax season is when CPAs see which clients have no plan.
First step: book 2 firm lunches before January.
A simple insert in closing packets: "What happens to this house if something happens to you?", with a QR code to the free check. Reaches every buyer at no ad cost.
First step: ask 2 local escrow officers if they'll include it.
A breakfast with the Metro Chamber or Midtown Association for owners: succession, buy-sell agreements, and protecting the family if the owner dies. This uses the founder's business and M&A background, which no estate-only firm can match.
First step: offer it as a free member event.
An evening workshop with a daycare, preschool or parent group. Parents leave with a free guardian nomination form. This is the "kids, not court" angle turned into an event for the group most likely to say maybe.
First step: partner with one preschool or parent group for a pilot night.
Mortgage lenders add one line to their closing checklist: "Is your home in your trust?" Refinancing is another deed moment, and a home left out of a trust goes to probate anyway.
First step: ask 2 Sacramento loan officers to include a card at closing.
Co-host an evening with a home-care agency or assisted-living community on powers of attorney and health care directives. Families meet the firm right when an aging parent's needs change.
First step: offer a free family night to one home-care agency.
Life insurance agents already review beneficiaries every year. Pair that review with a quick trust check, so policies and the plan point to the same people.
First step: trade a one-page "beneficiary and trust" checklist with 3 agents.
Congress marks the third week of October as National Estate Planning Awareness Week. Run a "Probate Risk Check week" with extended evening hours. It's a ready-made news hook, and it's a few weeks away.
First step: announce it on Google Business, Nextdoor and the site now.
Pull public Sacramento County probate filings and publish what probate cost local families this year, along with how long cases took. Real local numbers are a story the Bee, ABC10 or CapRadio will want, and they back up every ad.
First step: sample a month of filings from the Superior Court's public index.
A short, no-sales talk at churches and at 55+ communities like Sun City Roseville and Lincoln Hills. The 55+ group chose probate math and Prop 19 most often, and trust carries over from the host.
First step: offer one free talk to a church and one to a senior center.
About 4 in 10 Sacramento adults are Hispanic or Asian, and few estate firms reach them in their own language. Hold Spanish and Hmong or Vietnamese workshops with a trusted community group and an interpreter.
First step: partner with one cultural association for a pilot session.
One day a year, offer free basic wills to local teachers, nurses and first responders. It earns goodwill and press, and it gets families talking to the firm. It also fits the founder's nonprofit background.
First step: pick a date and contact one union or school district.
Teach a short class series through Sac State's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and at county library branches. Their audience is 50+ and there to learn, which is the core buyer.
First step: pitch a 3-week course for the next OLLI term.
A monthly Q&A post and a quarterly talk for neighborhood groups in Land Park, East Sac and Curtis Park, where many older homes have stayed in families for decades.
First step: post a first Q&A on Nextdoor and offer one association talk.
A Saturday booth a few blocks from the office with a tablet probate calculator: "What would probate cost on your house?" Quick, visual, and it starts conversations.
First step: reserve a booth for a Saturday in October.
California State Bar rules bar paying partners for referrals. Keep these as free value swaps (talks, checklists, events), with no fees or kickbacks.
Everything above, in the order to do it. Spend nothing until week 0 is done: the funnel test showed the page, not the ad, is where most people drop off.
Add the flat-fee starting price, Daniel's photo and at least 5 Google reviews (ask 10 past clients). Connect the form to email and a CRM. Install the Meta pixel with a Lead event on submit, and Microsoft Clarity for real heatmaps.
Done when: a test lead reaches the firm's inbox and shows in Meta Events Manager.
Probate math (ads 1 and 3) to ages 55+. Family peace (ad 4) to parents and grandparents 35–64. Sacramento plus 25 miles, $25 a day each, optimized for leads. Drop ad 5: it was last in every test.
Rule: don't change anything for 7 days. Meta needs the data.
Apply the rules below. Move budget to the best cost per booked check. Retarget page visitors who didn't book with ad 4 plus a pricing message, because price and trust were why clickers left. Run Estate Planning Awareness Week (third week of October).
Check: Clarity recordings for where real visitors stop.
Raise winning budgets 20% every 3 days while cost per booked check stays on target. In parallel, book 2 CPA or advisor lunches a month, pitch the Sac State OLLI class and reserve a farmers market Saturday.
Goal: referrals carry part of the load by month 3.
| Measure | Plan | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Daily budget | $50 | 2 ad sets × $25 |
| 30-day spend | $1,500 | — |
| Cost per click | $1.50–2.00 | Under $2.50 |
| Booked checks | about 27 | Cost per check under $75 |
| New clients | about 5 | Cost per client under $400 |
Conservative real-world rates: $20 per 1,000 views, 1.2% click, 3% of clickers book, 20% of checks become clients. Change any of them in the funnel calculator above.
| If this happens | Do this |
|---|---|
| Click rate under 0.6% after 2,000 views | Swap the image, keep the angle |
| Cost per click over $3 after 7 days | Pause that ad |
| Page converts under 2% of clicks | Fix the page first: watch Clarity, then test the headline or form |
| Cost per booked check over $120 at day 14 | Pause the ad set, move budget to the winner |
| Cost per booked check under $60 | Raise budget 20% every 3 days |
| Within 5 min | Call or email back during office hours; first thing next morning otherwise |
| On booking | Calendar invite with "bring your spouse" and a video link |
| 24 h and 2 h before | Text or email reminder to cut no-shows |
| Within 24 h after | The flat-fee quote in writing |
| Day 3 and day 10 | Friendly follow-up. Most couples decide within two weeks |
| Track weekly | Click rate, cost per click, page conversion, checks booked, show-up rate, clients, fees |
| Before launch | The firm's lawyer approves every dollar and timeline claim (Cal. Rules of Professional Conduct 7.1–7.3) |
| Every ad and page | Label as attorney advertising |
| Referral partners | Free value swaps only, never payment for referrals (Rule 7.2) |
| Reviews | Real clients only, with permission |
Method: 1,000 simulated respondents built to match Sacramento County's age, income, education and ethnicity mix, each answering in character on a local AI model. These are AI stand-ins, not real people. Use the results to choose what to test first, then let real click and booking data decide.