Most of the firms that come to me have already run Meta ads, and they didn't work. When I ask why, the answer is almost always one of six things. They didn't get any leads. The leads they got were below their minimum. The leads were fake. People didn't show up. The people who did show up had no intent to hire them. Or nobody became a client.
Each of these problems has a cause, and each one can be fixed. Here's how I explain them to firms, and how our process fixes every part of it.
Usually because you didn't spend enough, your ads weren't good enough to compete, or you didn't have enough of them.
Zero leads is rare. But there are a couple of reasons it happens.
You didn't spend enough. Many people think they'll spend $20 and end up with a booked appointment with someone who has half a million dollars, or a million, or two million. Unlikely. If you're spending 20 bucks and expecting miracles, don't. The same goes for the monthly budget. If you're trying to make Facebook ads work off a small budget and you're selling to wealthy folks, it's probably going to be a waste of time and money. If you can't afford a real budget for the ads themselves, do something else.
What you're asking Meta to do is a very hard goal. You're asking for a machine where you put in a dollar and get back three, four, five or ten. That's a money-making machine. If everybody could build one for a thousand bucks, everybody would.
You're also asking to set up your own marketing system instead of renting someone else's. When you buy leads, you're paying someone who spent decades building a brand and now charges you for each introduction. When you run your own ads, you're trying to become that brand. It won't take you 20 or 30 years. Ideally it takes a lot less. But it costs more, and it's worth more. So you need to be able to invest comfortably over the long haul, and you need reasonable expectations of what it takes to get a booked appointment on your calendar. I'm talking about a booked appointment, not a shown one. Show rates come later.
Your ads weren't good. One of our clients had used a firm that made him build his own ads. He spent $100,000 and never got a single qualified appointment. That's the worst I've ever seen. Most people spend less than that and still get no appointments, and it's just the ads. They weren't good enough to compete.
If you're 65 and on Facebook or Instagram, you see dozens of ads every day from financial services firms. They want to sell you annuities. They want to help you with Medicare, wealth management and tax planning. So why would someone click on your ad instead of someone else's? You need a better ad.
An ad might say: is the stock market making you worried about retirement? Call us today for a review. Over stock footage. That ad tells people nothing new, and nothing educational. It's a competition, and it's an auction. You want the best ads you can produce, so you win. And the best ads are you teaching, which I cover in how to script a Meta video ad for an RIA.
You didn't run enough ads. Most firms run a handful. We run hundreds for every client. We didn't always. But with Andromeda, Meta's update to how it decides which ads to show, and the special ad category for financial services, you want as many ads as you can get.
That doesn't mean hundreds of hours of recording. Our clients spend two or three hours in front of a teleprompter. We write every script, get it approved through compliance, and produce several ten-minute educational videos with dozens of ads for each. Half a day of their time, and we take care of the rest.
Why Were the Leads Below My Minimum?
Because the ad, the video page and the booking page didn't state the minimum clearly.
If your minimum is $500,000 and you're getting $100,000 leads, that's not ideal. The fix is very easy. Put your minimum in the ad, on the video page and on the booking page. Make it very clear.
Your minimum is whatever your firm's minimum is. Some firms only work with prospects who have more than $500,000. Others want $1.5 million. Some have a $250,000 minimum, some $750,000, some $2 million. We adjust it to the firm. You just need to be very clear about it.
And your minimum is not your average. When you state a minimum, the people who book tend to have well above it.
Why Were So Many Leads Fake?
Because the funnel had too little friction, and nothing in it asked for real attention.
Fake leads, spam and bots have a very simple fix. You have to run video, and you have to teach first and book second.
Bots won't sit through a ten-minute video and answer questions. With little friction in your funnel, you get more of them. With a little more friction, you get fewer. Friction is a video ad instead of an image. A landing page instead of an instant form. A page with a video on it, instead of sending people straight to a calendar. Then another click to a booking page with qualifying questions. Each of those steps makes bots less likely. I explain how that page is put together in Meta ads landing pages for financial advisors.
Why Didn't People Show Up?
Because nothing between the booking and the meeting gave them a reason to keep the appointment.
If you have a video ad, a ten-minute video and a booking page, you'll already see fewer no-shows than with an ad that goes straight to a form. People are more likely to show up if your face is in a video that teaches.
Then we add a confirmation page. Most people send prospects to a random default confirmation page. We use a page with a video from the firm, usually two to three minutes, that sets expectations about what happens next. It thanks them for booking and explains that the first conversation is an introductory call to learn about their situation and see if the firm can help. If it can, the team connects them with the right advisor. If it can't, they point them in a better direction.
In the rest of the video, they hear about the firm, its services, why people choose to work with it and the kind of people it works with. With that video, more people show up. We also send automated texts and emails 48 hours, 24 hours and one hour before the appointment. And if you have a real person who calls before the appointment, even more people show up. More on how the ad, the video and the booking fit together is in why your ad can't ask for the booking.
Why Did Prospects Have No Intent to Hire?
Some of them never will, and that's normal, but if it's more than a minority, the ads set the wrong expectations.
Let me set some reasonable expectations here. Most of the people you meet should be a real fit. They want help, they have the minimum assets and they're open to hiring an advisor. Some won't be. They'll have no intent, they'll be DIYers, or they'll be shopping around. That's normal. You're running ads on Facebook. These are not referrals.
If too few of them are a fit, it's usually one of these issues. You didn't use video. It wasn't you or your brand. There was nothing educational, authoritative, new or thoughtful in it. Your ad never said your minimum. The ad set the wrong expectations: if you're promising people a magic bullet to fix their taxes with no downside, and you're trying to sell them wealth management, it's likely not going to work. Or the topic didn't match what you actually do. There are ads out there promising $8,000 to $12,000 a month of income from $500,000 in investable assets. The people show up wanting a secret, not an advisor.
The other fix is a 15-minute intro call. The prospect watches the 90-second ad and the ten-minute video, then books a 15-minute fit call. It's usually by phone, and it's typically not the advisor taking it. It can be a business development rep, a receptionist, a client relations manager, anybody who isn't an advisor.
Advisor time is too expensive to spend on intro calls. On that call, the person asks what the prospect is looking for. If it's something the firm doesn't offer, it doesn't make sense to waste their time or yours. Only the qualified ones go on to meet the advisor. Every time we don't have a 15-minute fit call, advisors complain. Every time we do, advisors love the process.
Why Did Nobody Become a Client?
Usually because the prospects wanted someone local, or because the ad they saw didn't cover what you actually do.
The prospects want someone local. Your ads are nationwide, and they want someone nearby. If your office is in one state and your ads are running in another, it's hard for people to picture working with you. A certain percentage will, but most won't.
Nationwide can work for a lot of firms. But if you can meet people face to face, and you have a nice office and people know you in the area, run some local ads for people who can actually drive to you. Facebook lets you geo-fence your ads. Start near your office. As it works, widen the area.
The ad didn't cover what you actually do. Maybe someone saw a tax ad, assumed you were a tax planner and wanted a quick fix, not an advisor. The fix: in your videos, say exactly what you do for all your clients, who it's for and who it's not for.
Most of our clients cover five pillars for their retirees and pre-retirees: tax, income, investments, healthcare and legacy planning. An ad might focus on one of those, because you want to be specific enough to get someone interested.
But before the call to action, we tell people about all the areas the firm coordinates for its clients, so they know what they're walking into. We explain what happens when each area is done right, and what happens when it isn't done at all or is done improperly. And we talk about the benefit of having all of it coordinated under one roof, because otherwise the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing.
One way we frame it is a multi-family-office-style service for the mass affluent. Finally, people with less than $10 million can get that kind of service.
One Funnel, All Six Problems
Every part of the process fixes one of the six problems.
If you got zero leads, you want 90-second video ads, a hundred or more good ones, and enough spend to learn what works. If the leads were below your minimum, every step says your minimum: the ad, the video, the booking page, everywhere. If you got fake leads, you need video in the process and a little more friction, because bots won't sit through a ten-minute video and answer questions. If people didn't show up, the confirmation page should have a video from you, plus texts, emails and maybe a phone call. If they had no intent to hire, you want videos that say what you do and an intro call with someone who isn't an advisor. And if nobody became a client, the whole funnel fixes that, along with local ads and covering every service you offer.
On the booking page, we ask something like this: our retirement strategies work best for people with more than a certain amount. If you don't meet that threshold, you may be unable to book a consultation. How much do you currently have in investable assets? We give them ranges, and a plain note that below the minimum, we can't help at that level.
Good ads, a ten-minute educational video, a booking page with a minimum and a confirmation page. One funnel, all six problems solved. For the whole process on Meta from the start, see the complete guide to Meta ads for RIAs.
