Most of the people who tell me their Meta ads didn't work ran an ad inviting people to book a call, schedule a consultation or hire them. Some added a price: we're a financial planning firm. We serve high-net-worth clients. A plan will cost X. Buy it now.
Such an ad might stir up some interest. But it won't draw the best prospects. And it puts the ask in the one place where few people are ready to say yes. In my process, I never ask for a call in the ad. That comes later, once a prospect has spent real time with you.
Here's why, in the language I use when explaining my process to firms.
Because nobody goes on Facebook to hire a financial advisor, and the few seconds an ad gets are not enough to earn a meeting.
Why do people go to Facebook or Instagram? To kill time, to get entertained. Nobody goes on Facebook to buy a product, let alone a financial plan. Ask yourself what percentage of people go to Facebook to find a financial planner. Very, very low.
So when you ask for a call in your ad, you're asking someone who isn't looking to buy to make a buying decision in the middle of their feed. You have to meet them where they are. They might well be looking for something new, something they haven't heard before. But they aren't looking for you.
When I talk about Meta, I mean Facebook and Instagram. If your prospects are 55 and older, they're likely to see you more on Facebook than on Instagram. If they're younger, it's likely more Instagram. But in both places, nobody is in the feed waiting to book a call with an advisor.
The Feed Gives You Three Seconds
The attention you get from a prospect depends on the medium you have them on. In the feed, you've got three seconds to make your case. If you're good, you could keep a viewer for 30 seconds, 45 seconds, a minute, maybe a minute and a half. But you don't get ten minutes.
On a landing page, you get a few minutes of someone's attention. That's a completely different conversation. So the role of the ad isn't to close anything. Its role is to pull the right person off the platform and onto your page, where you actually have time to teach.
That's why I structure the ads the way I do. In the first few seconds, I try to stop the right person. In the rest of the ad, I try to move that person over to the page.
What Should the Ad Offer Instead?
A longer educational video, offered at no cost to the people it's meant for.
Here's what the ad offers. I'm not selling them anything. I'm not saying hire me. I'm not saying book a call. I'm saying I have a longer educational video, for the people it's meant for, and it's free.
The ad has one line of text followed by the video. It's about 90 seconds long, and here's its structure.
First, the hook. I try to pique the viewer's interest with the opening sentence. That sentence is the most important part of the ad. It needs to make them think, what do you mean? Asking a question is a great way to start any marketing message for the same reason.
Second, the problem. I want the viewer to realize that the problem gets worse the longer they wait. That's where the urgency comes in.
Third, who it's for. Early in the video, I name their age and assets.
Fourth, the offer. I invite them to watch a free educational video on the topic.
Finally, credibility. The rest of the ad is about the firm and its advisor. Without that, you might wonder if this was some random person or an actor. This is one of the firm's own advisors, and that makes the message more credible.
The best ads have you, or one of your firm's advisors, teaching. They're on brand, on message, scripted for you, and based on your own materials.
Most of the firms I work with have marketed before, through seminars, webinars, radio, TV, podcasts and books. I ask them for their most recent, most successful campaigns, and pull the message for the ad from there. That way it sounds like them. One campaign was built straight from a firm's book. You can see how I approach that in how to script a Meta video ad for an RIA.
Saying Who It's For Does Two Jobs
When an ad says who it's for, it's speaking to both the viewer and the algorithm.
If I'm 28 and see a video for people 55 and over, I won't watch it. If I'm 56, I probably will. And if I don't meet the minimum in the ad, I'll think, okay, this is for rich people, not me. If I do meet the minimum, I'll pay attention.
The algorithm is measuring every little detail of this: how long people stay and who watches. It shows your campaigns to more of the people who engage with your videos.
If you put your minimum at the beginning of the video, more of the people who finish watching it will be qualified, and the algorithm learns from them. It also learns from the actual appointments that come through the funnel. That's why the booking tool needs to redirect to a confirmation page, where the pixel can tell Meta, this video got us an appointment, get us more of these.
Most people won't meet your minimum, so a lot of them will drop off the video. That's fine. Drop-off isn't a problem.
Put your minimum in the ad, on the video page and on the booking page. Make it very clear.
What Happens When the Ad Sells a Product?
You'll get some interest, but a video of you selling is only the second-best ad you can run.
I lay out the ads firms run as a spectrum, from the worst prospects to the best.
Worst is an image ad with a bait-and-switch message. It's an ad on something that isn't really what you do, designed to get a reaction rather than to find a client.
Second worst is an image ad that isn't you. Maybe it's stock footage, maybe it's an AI-generated person, or something else that isn't relevant. Even if you pay less per lead or per appointment, those prospects end up wasting your time.
In the middle is a video with an actor or an AI person. A little better, but it's still not you.
Second best is a video of you selling a product. Here's our firm, here are our clients, here's what a plan costs, buy now. Most people aren't on Facebook looking to buy a plan at any price.
Best of all is a video of you teaching. It resonates with more people on Facebook than any other kind of ad, because they're there either to learn something they haven't heard before or to kill time. If you get the attention of the qualified ones and keep it, more of them go through your funnel.
Look at the difference between the best and the second best. It's the same person in the same feed. But in one ad, you ask for something. In the other, you give something.
What About a Video Ad That Goes Straight to the Calendar?
It will get you some bookings, but the people who book don't know you yet, so the advisor ends up educating them on the call.
There are different ways to set up the funnel, and each one brings a different quality of prospect.
An image ad to a form is the easiest place to start. It also brings the lowest quality possible.
A video ad that goes straight to the calendar will get you some bookings. It's a video, and they book themselves, so you don't need to call them. But they don't know you yet. They show up on the call and ask, what's this about? Who are you? I think I remember this. And you spend much of that call educating them.
A video ad with a ten-minute video in the middle, before they can book, brings a higher share of people who show up to the call, know what you do and are aware of your firm.
A video ad, a ten-minute video, a booking page and a confirmation page, all you and all your videos, and they show up. Fewer of those meetings are a waste of your time. More of them are a good use of it.
Why Does the Ten-Minute Video Come Before the Booking?
Because the video does the persuading, and no copy on the page can do that job in its place.
When someone clicks Learn More, they land on a simple page, and the video is front and center. It's the biggest and most visually interesting element on the page, because if they don't watch the video, they're not going to book. There's no amount of copy or text I can put under it that will convince them.
The right people watch the whole video. The wrong people skip out. Most people watch only part of it, and that's fine. The ones who stay are the people you want to talk to. For more on how I build that page, see Meta ads landing pages for financial advisors.
The video also filters out what you don't want at all. Bots are not going to watch a ten-minute video and answer questions. If your funnel has low friction, you get more bots. A little more friction helps: a video ad instead of an image, a landing page instead of an instant form, a video on that page, and a booking page with qualifying questions on a separate step. Each of those makes fake leads less likely.
Before the call to action in the video, I tell people the areas the firm covers for its clients, so they know what they're walking into. An ad might pick one of those topics to get someone interested. The video makes sure prospects understand the full service before they book, so nobody shows up thinking you're something you're not.
Isn't a Cheaper Lead Better?
Not when the real cost lands on the advisor's time, which is the most expensive part of any advisory firm's marketing.
Every hour an advisor spends in front of a qualified prospect is valuable to the firm. If someone doesn't show up for an appointment, isn't qualified or isn't a fit, you've just burnt an hour of the most valuable time in the business. I don't want to waste your time with anybody who won't show up, isn't qualified or has no intent to hire you.
At the workshop, an attendee told me their best Meta results had come from image ads, and that short video ads hadn't performed for them at all. I don't disbelieve that. It depends on how you measure results.
If I wanted to flood your pipeline with the lowest cost per lead, I'd run image ads. If I wanted to get you wealth management clients who are serious and want to work with you, I'd use video.
The same applies to ads that over-promise. When someone else writes your message and gets paid for every appointment, they want to spend as little as possible on each one. That pushes them toward the most aggressive marketing they can run, which might not reflect what you actually offer.
Firms come to me after campaigns like that with prospects asking, what's going to get me $8,000 to $12,000 a month of income from $500,000 in savings? The people show up wanting a secret, not an advisor. You don't want to have to reset expectations off an unreasonable promise. The comparison is laid out further in Meta ads vs lead vendors for financial advisors.
Where the Ask Actually Belongs
That doesn't mean you never ask. It means you ask after you teach, and the ask is smaller than most firms expect.
After the video, the prospect goes to the booking page. It repeats your minimum and asks a few qualifying questions, including how much they currently have in investable assets. If they're below your minimum, they're told plainly that you can't help at that level.
What they book is a 15-minute fit call, usually by phone and usually with someone other than the advisor. Phone is easier to commit to than Zoom. On that call, your team member learns about the prospect's situation and decides whether they're a fit. If they are, the prospect is invited to meet with the advisor.
Firms that want to meet prospects in person locally use the same process. The prospect books the fit call, and if they qualify, they're invited to come to the office.
Next is the confirmation page. Most people send prospects to a default confirmation page. I use one with a short video from the firm that sets expectations: your first conversation with us is an introductory call to learn about your situation and see if we can help. If we can, we'll connect you with the right advisor. If we can't, we'll point you in a better direction. The rest of the video explains the firm and why they made a good call. Then come automated text and email reminders, and ideally a call from a real person at the firm before the appointment.
So here's the process. A short video ad, then a ten-minute educational video, then a booking page with a minimum, then a confirmation page. The ad starts the teaching. The video finishes it.
The booking only happens once the prospect has a sense of who you are and what you do. To see how the whole funnel fits together on Meta, start with the complete guide to Meta ads for RIAs.
Teach first, then book. That's the order that works.
