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.
How Facebook and Instagram ads work for UK life coaches: what to offer strangers, how to write ads Meta approves, and the ASA rules on results and testimonials.
Facebook ads for life coaches work best once you have a clear niche, a page that already turns visitors into booked calls and an offer that suits a stranger, such as a free workshop or guide. The ads run on Facebook and Instagram through Meta. In the UK, your wording must follow both Meta’s rules, which ban implying you know someone’s personal attributes such as their mental health, and the ASA’s rules on results, testimonials and health claims.
Imagine opening your laptop on the Monday after a campaign starts and seeing three new workbook downloads from people in your town, and a discovery call booked for Thursday by someone who watched your video twice. The ad didn’t feel like an ad to them. It felt like meeting you, and it said nothing you couldn’t stand behind.
Paid social looks like the quickest way to fill a coaching diary. You set a budget, choose an audience and your ad appears in the feeds of exactly the people you want to help. Sometimes it works beautifully. Often it costs more than it brings in, or the ad is rejected before it runs.
The difference usually comes down to three things: whether the rest of your marketing is ready, what you are asking strangers to do, and whether your wording stays within the rules. This guide covers all three.
They can, but they amplify what is already there rather than fixing what isn’t. If people who meet you through referrals or social media regularly book calls and become clients, ads can bring more of those people to you. If they don’t, ads will mostly buy clicks from people who aren’t convinced.
A good test before spending: could you send a stranger to your website today and expect them to understand who you help, trust you and know how to book? If not, start with your website and the message, as part of a wider plan for marketing for life coaches.
Asking a stranger to buy a coaching package from one ad is a big leap. Most coaches do better with a smaller first step.
| Offer | Strengths | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Free guide or workbook | Easy yes, grows your email list | Needs good follow-up emails to turn readers into clients |
| Free online workshop | People experience how you coach | Takes preparation; attendance is usually lower than sign-ups |
| Introductory call | Closest to a paying client | Strangers may hesitate; can fill your diary with poor-fit calls |
| Low-cost first session or short course | Filters for people willing to pay | Price and terms must be crystal clear |
A free workbook is often the gentlest first step; our guide to creating a lead magnet workbook covers how to make one people actually fill in. Whatever you offer, make it obvious in the ad what is free and what isn’t. The ASA upheld a complaint against a coaching ad that implied a course was free when it cost £390, because the distinction between the free guide and the paid course was not clear.
Meta’s advertising standards say ads must not assert or imply personal attributes, including physical or mental health, age and vulnerable financial status. In practice this rules out copy that sounds as though you know something private about the person reading it. Meta’s own examples allow “Depression counselling” but reject “Depression getting you down? Get help now.”
For coaches, that means:
Show your face. An ad featuring you, ideally a short video of you speaking, tells people who they would be working with in a way stock imagery can’t. Our guide to talking-to-camera videos for coaches covers how to film one that feels natural.
This matters most for career, confidence and money coaches. On 15 October 2025 the ASA published rulings against several coaching ads on Facebook and Instagram that implied dramatic results were typical. Two examples:
The lesson for life coaches: don’t lead with a single client’s best result, and don’t rely on small print to undo the impression your headline gives. Talk about what you do and how you work, and keep any results claims modest and provable. Our guide to advertising rules for life coaches covers the CAP Code across your website and social posts as well as ads.
Yes, with care. ASA guidance says you need documentary evidence that a testimonial is genuine, the person’s permission, and no edits that change its meaning. Any claim made in a testimonial must not mislead, either. A filmed client testimonial video can be very persuasive in an ad, as long as the client is comfortable and the claims are realistic.
Be very cautious. CAP guidance lists conditions including depression, eating disorders, addictions and chronic insomnia, and says claims to treat, cure, diagnose or advise on them can only be made if the treatment is supervised by a suitably qualified medical professional. The list is described as non-exhaustive.
Unless you are also a qualified clinician working under that kind of supervision, position your coaching around goals, confidence, decisions and change, and avoid implying it treats a health condition. Combined with Meta’s personal attributes policy, that keeps most coaching ads safely on the right side of both.
If your ad collects email addresses, through a Meta lead form or your own landing page, you need consent before sending marketing emails. The ICO says you generally need specific consent, such as an opt-in box, and that the soft opt-in doesn’t cover prospective customers. Ask clearly, say what you will send, and include an unsubscribe link in every email.
There is no right figure. Start with a test budget you can afford to lose, run one offer to one audience with two or three versions of the creative, and give it long enough to gather real data. Then judge it on the numbers that matter: cost per sign-up, cost per booked call and, eventually, cost per client. Likes and clicks are not the goal.
Keep an eye on frequency too. A small coaching audience can see the same ad many times, which tires them quickly. Fresh creative, especially new video of you, usually helps.
Plenty of coaches learn Ads Manager and do well. Help makes sense when you are spending real money without clear results, when ads keep being rejected, or when you would rather spend the hours coaching. A good partner will explain exactly where the money goes and what it brings back. That plain-English reporting is built into our advertising for life coaches service.
Picture ads that feel like a warm introduction, seen by the people you help most. Our work began as the in-house team for co-founder Jack Cartwright, a USA Today bestselling author, where running his ads went hand in hand with his videos and website. Through advertising for life coaches, we plan and manage Facebook and Instagram campaigns worded within Meta’s and the ASA’s rules, using video that lets people meet you. A clear brief, scope and fee are agreed before any creative work begins.
A common reason is wording that implies you know something personal about the viewer, such as their mental health or finances. “Are you anxious?” or “Struggling with money?” often fall foul of Meta’s personal attributes policy. Rewrite the ad around your service and its benefits, then ask Meta to review it if you think the decision was wrong.
You usually don’t have to choose: one Meta campaign can run across both. Placement matters less than the message, the creative and the page people land on. Look at results by placement after a few weeks and shift budget towards where your sign-ups and booked calls actually come from.
It is unlikely to protect you. The ASA has ruled that a disclaimer at the bottom of a caption contradicted, rather than clarified, the ad’s main message. If a result isn’t typical, it is safer not to make it the headline of your ad at all.
Boosting is quick and fine for simple aims, such as putting a strong post in front of more people. Ads Manager gives you more control over objectives, audiences, placements and testing, which matters once you are spending regularly and want to measure sign-ups or bookings properly.
Yes. The CAP Code applies to advertisers of every size, and the October 2025 rulings involved coaching businesses as well as household names. Meta’s ad standards also apply to every advertiser. Writing honest, benefit-led ads from the start saves rejected ads and awkward rewrites later.
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.
Four quick questions, and we’ll show you where we’d start. Your answers come straight to us with your message, so you won’t have to explain it twice.
A 30-minute introduction call on Microsoft Teams, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Your answers come with the booking, so we’ll be ready for you.
Prefer to talk it through? Make an appointment for a 30-minute call on Microsoft Teams, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
A closer look at the work behind each part of your plan.
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