Facebook ads for coaches who sell on sales calls

How do Facebook ads work for coaches?

The system is simple: an ad, a VSL page, and your own calendar. The ad stops the right person, the page pre-qualifies them, and they book a call with you. The page sells the call, not the coaching.

Many coaches we speak to say their leads come in fits and starts. One month the calendar is full, and the next month it is empty, because the work depends on referrals and organic posts that they cannot control. Ads give you a flow of calls that you can turn up or down.

1. The ad speaks to one ideal client about the one big outcome they want.
2. The VSL page (a page with a video sales letter) shows that you have a different path to that outcome, and it pushes poor fits away.
3. Your calendar sits on the page, so the right people book a time with you while they feel the need.
4. The call is your part. You do what you already do well, and you can offer whatever fits that person.

The structure is not the hard part. Anyone can run an ad and build a page. What makes it work is what we say, how we say it and when we say it, from the first line of the ad to the moment someone books.

Why have Facebook ads not worked for many coaches?

Usually it is not that the coach did something wrong. The market is saturated, so ads that make the same promises as everyone else get ignored. A weak offer, a funnel that lets anyone book, or an agency that sends cold leads makes it worse.

People see ad after ad with the same promises, so they stop seeing them, the same way people learned to ignore banner ads on websites. You can do everything right and still get lost, because everyone else is doing the same thing.

Owners tell us about three common problems from before:

• The offer: it sounds like every other coach, so the right people scroll past.
• The funnel: it lets anyone book, so the calendar fills with cold leads who do not know why they are on the call.
• The agency: it chased cheap leads or got stuck while costs went up, and the coach felt the promises were empty.

Ads also cannot create demand. They can only reach demand that is already there. That is why we check, before anything else, that people already want the outcome you sell and already pay you for it.

Why should coaches use a VSL page instead of a lead magnet?

A VSL page has no opt-in step, so every person who clicks sees the offer. The video explains your thinking and filters out poor fits, so the people who book arrive warm and know why they are on the call.

A free guide or an opt-in page puts a step between the ad and the offer, and most people drop off at that step. A VSL page shows the offer to everyone who clicks. Their only choices are to book a call or to leave.

The page sells the conversation, not the coaching. It shows no price and no list of what is included. It shows that you have a different path to the outcome, and the next step is a chat. On the call, you can offer any level of your programme, from a smaller option to your top tier.

The page also pushes people away on purpose. When the wording speaks to one kind of person, everyone else finds it irrelevant and leaves. That works better than a long form, because anyone can give the answers they think you want on a form.

One coach on what changed when they moved to this setup:

What should a coach say in Facebook ads?

Speak to one ideal client about one big outcome they want, not about what you do. If you try to speak to everybody, you speak to nobody. The words in the ad do the targeting.

Think of a road lined with trees. You drive past them every day and stop seeing them, but you would notice a pink tree. Your offer needs to be the pink tree. You do not change what you deliver. You change how you position it, so it is impossible for the right person to ignore.

• One ideal client: pick the person you most want to work with, and speak only to them at first.
• One big outcome: talk about the result they want, not the features of your programme or the hours of calls.
• The words do the targeting: the platform finds people based on what the ad says and how it says it, more than on the interests you pick.
• Start narrow, then add markets: the upside is that the people who book are the ones you want to work with. The downside is that you only reach them at first, so we add a new market later with its own copy of the system.

Talking-head video from the coach works well, because people want to know who they would work with. Raw takes are fine. The power is in the message, not in a polished edit.

What does the coach do, and what does BlackSky do?

BlackSky does the work, done for you: the positioning, the scripts, the VSL page, the video edits and the ads. You fill in one framework document, record short videos from our scripts, and take the calls.

Nothing goes live until you are happy with it. The system sits apart from the rest of your business, so your website, your back end and your other campaigns stay as they are. Calls land on your own calendar, and your own process takes over from there.

You own everything. BlackSky works inside your own ad account. The ad account, the pixel, the data, the scripts and the videos are yours, and you keep all of it if we stop working together.

How much does a coach need to spend on Facebook ads?

You can start from $25 a day. First booked calls usually come in within 1-2 days, depending on spend. Start small, check that the right people are booking, then turn the tap up.

More spend does not make more sales by magic. It lets you reach more people. So we start low, even for large businesses, and make sure the calls are with the right people first. Once you are happy with them, many clients put part of the profit back into ads to reach more of the market.

What does it cost a coach to get a new client from Facebook ads?

Your cost per client equals your cost per booked call, divided by your show-up rate, divided by your close rate. Once you know those numbers, it is just math, and you are buying clients at a known cost.

When we model your numbers, we use a close rate of 1 in 4, even if you close more today, so the maths stays safe. Then you work backwards: the clients you want, the calls that need to show up, the calls you need to book, and the spend that books them. The lowest cost per call we have seen is $4, but that is an outlier and not a promise. For a deeper look, read how much a booked sales call costs.

Here is what coaches and other clients say about it, in their own words.

Real client outcomes, in their own words. Individual results vary.

How do coaches stop leads from not showing up to calls?

Get a personal reply from each person who books. The industry show-up rate for ad leads is 40-60%, and a good no-show system can lift it to 80%.

In our experience, people who have replied to a real message before the call are more likely to turn up than people who only got an automatic email. So a good no-show system starts a conversation. One option we add is a WhatsApp message that asks the booked lead to reply and confirm.

A missed call is ad spend you paid for and lost. When more booked people turn up, your cost per client falls without any change to the ads.

Which Facebook ad numbers should a coach watch?

Watch your cost per acquisition (CPA): what it costs to win one paying client. That is the number that matters. Cost per booked call is the main number higher up the funnel.

CPM, click-through rate and cost per lead do not tell you much on their own. A $1,000 CPM (the cost to show your ad 1,000 times) is fine if your CPA is profitable. A cheap lead that never books is not. Our guide on a good CPA for a high-ticket offer shows how to set that limit.