FOR LIFE COACHES
What should a life coach say in a welcome video?
A simple structure for a homepage welcome film that feels like the first minutes of a discovery call, with UK notes on captions, embeds and claims.
The UK ASA and CAP Code rules for life coaches across websites, social posts, paid ads and testimonials, with recent coaching rulings explained.
The advertising rules for life coaches in the UK come from the CAP Code, enforced by the ASA, and they apply to your website, social posts and paid ads alike. In short: don’t promise outcomes you can’t prove, don’t present one client’s best result as typical, don’t claim to treat conditions such as depression or addiction, hold permission and evidence for every testimonial, make it clear what is free and what isn’t, and only mention credentials you genuinely hold.
Imagine writing your next programme announcement without that small knot of doubt. You describe what the six weeks involve, how it feels to be in the room and who it is for, and you press publish knowing every line is something you could stand behind in front of anyone. The people who book do so because they trust you, and nothing they read on the way will feel like a promise you didn’t keep.
The rules are not there to stop coaches marketing. They are there to stop marketing that misleads, and most of them line up with how good coaches already work, and with the kind of honest marketing for life coaches that lets people feel they know you before the first call. This guide sets them out channel by channel, with the ASA’s own guidance and recent rulings against coaching businesses.
Yes. The CAP Code applies to advertisers of every size, and the ASA’s October 2025 rulings on coaching ads included an individual business coach and a small coaching company. You don’t need to be spending money on ads for the rules to apply, either. What matters is whether the content is marketing your services.
The rules are separate from the platforms’ own ad policies. Meta and Google have their own standards on top, which we cover in our guide to Facebook ads for life coaches. Following one set of rules doesn’t mean you have followed the other.
Almost everywhere you sell. The ASA says the CAP Code covers advertising on your own website and in other non-paid space online under your control, including a brand’s Facebook page, Instagram profile and YouTube channel, when the material is directly connected with selling your services. Content can count as selling even without a price or a buy button, and claims about how effective something is are very likely to be covered, according to its guidance on remit and own websites.
| Where | Usually covered when it | Watch especially for |
|---|---|---|
| Your website | Describes your programmes, sessions or packages | Outcome claims on sales pages and testimonials pages |
| Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube | Promotes your services or invites people to book | Captions, reels and carousels about results |
| Paid ads and boosted posts | Always, as paid advertising | Headlines, video claims and the landing page they link to |
Being covered doesn’t mean you have broken a rule. A thoughtful post about how you approach confidence work is fine. A post saying clients “double their income in 90 days” is a claim you would need to prove.
Very few. Rule 3.11 says marketing must not mislead by exaggerating what a product or service can do. The ASA allows obvious puffery that nobody would take literally, but claims that sound measurable or factual need evidence. Its guidance on exaggeration also says implied typical results need substantiating, and that a small “not typical” qualifier can’t rescue an earnings claim.
The rulings bear this out. In one, a business coach’s Instagram and Facebook ads featured a client said to have earned £33,000 in 30 days and another earning over $100,000 a month. The ASA found the ads implied anyone could achieve the same, whatever their experience or circumstances, and concluded they were misleading, as set out in the Charlie Johnson ruling.
For life coaches, safer ground is to describe what the work involves and how it feels: the sessions, the questions you explore, the support between calls, who it suits. “Six evenings exploring what steady confidence looks like for you” promises nothing it can’t deliver. It is the standard we hold every campaign to in our advertising for life coaches work.
Carefully. CAP guidance lists conditions including depression, addictions, eating disorders, chronic insomnia, obsessive compulsive disorder and suicidal thoughts, and says claims to treat, diagnose or advise on them can only be made where the treatment is supervised by a suitably qualified medical professional. The list in the guidance on mental health treatment claims is described as non-exhaustive.
Unless you are also a qualified clinician working under that kind of supervision, frame your coaching around goals, decisions, confidence and change, not conditions. Avoid words like “cure”, “heal” or “treat”, and don’t imply coaching replaces medical or psychological support. Many coaches add a short, kind line saying coaching isn’t therapy and pointing people to their GP if they need more, which is good practice as well as good sense.
Testimonials are powerful for coaches, and the rules are clear. The ASA’s guidance on testimonials and endorsements says you need:
Two points catch coaches out. First, a screenshot of a kind message in your DMs is still a testimonial, so the same rules apply. Second, the ASA says testimonials alone don’t substantiate claims: if a client says your programme “got rid of my anxiety”, you need evidence for that claim as if you had made it yourself, according to its guidance on claims in testimonials. Choose quotes about the experience of working with you rather than dramatic outcomes.
Yes, if it is genuinely free. A free discovery call, workbook or taster session is fine, as long as people know what they have to do to get it. The ASA’s guidance on the use of “free” says ads must make clear the extent of any commitment, and that if people must sign up to a newsletter to receive something free, the ad must say so.
Keep the line between free and paid crystal clear. The ASA upheld a complaint against a coaching ad that offered a free guide alongside “the exact course I took”, because viewers were likely to think both were free when the course cost £390, as set out in the Self Made Girl Boss ruling.
Only claim what is true. The testimonials guidance also covers rules 3.52 and 3.53: you mustn’t claim approval, endorsement or membership of a body unless it is true and you meet its terms, and you mustn’t falsely claim to have signed up to a code of conduct. If you hold an ICF, EMCC Global or Association for Coaching credential, say so plainly and explain what it means. If you trained on a course that isn’t accredited, describe the training rather than borrowing a badge.
Only if it is true. In the same Charlie Johnson ruling, an offer promoted as free “for the next 48 hours” breached the rules because the landing page stayed live long after the 48 hours ended. If your group programme has twelve places, keep it to twelve. If early booking closes on Friday, close it on Friday.
Most problems are resolved by amending or removing the claim. For persistent problems on websites and social media, the ASA’s sanctions include naming the advertiser on its website, asking search engines to remove paid search ads, running its own ads highlighting the non-compliance, working with platforms to remove content and, rarely, referring the advertiser to Trading Standards. For a coach, being named is the real cost.
We want you to press publish with nothing nagging at you, knowing every word sounds like you and stands up to scrutiny. Our team began behind co-founder Jack Cartwright, a bestselling author, running his ads alongside his videos and website. Through our advertising for life coaches service, we write and manage campaigns with the CAP Code in mind, and check the pages and posts they lead to. A clear brief, scope and fee are agreed before any creative work begins.
Context decides. The ASA allows obvious puffery that people won’t take literally, but a claim that sounds measurable needs evidence. “Life-changing” attached to a specific promise, such as a new job in eight weeks, is likely to be read as a factual claim. Describing the experience is safer than describing a guaranteed result.
You need permission and documentary evidence that the testimonial is genuine, plus contact details for the person. A short email from the client agreeing to the exact wording you will use, saved alongside their details, is a practical way to keep both. Keep it for as long as the testimonial is live.
Not usually. The ASA has found that a qualifier at the bottom of a caption contradicted, rather than clarified, a headline earnings claim. If a result isn’t typical, the safest course is not to make it the focus of your marketing in the first place.
The workbook itself is mostly guidance, but the pages that promote it, and any pages inside that sell your programme, are marketing. Keep claims modest there too, and if downloading it signs people up to your emails, say so clearly where you offer it.
Yes, when they are directly connected with selling your coaching. The ASA lists a brand’s Instagram profile, Facebook page and YouTube channel as space you control, so a reel inviting people to book a call is held to the same standard as a paid ad. Everyday posts about your thinking are far less likely to be an issue.
A simple structure for a homepage welcome film that feels like the first minutes of a discovery call, with UK notes on captions, embeds and claims.
Prompts, framing, sound and simple ways through camera nerves, so UK life coaches can film short videos that sound like a real conversation.
Where stock images are fine on a UK coaching website, where they quietly cost you trust, and the licence and advertising rules worth knowing.
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