Solved: Need FB Ads Agency for Business Coaching Program

Hi Mike,

Thanks for reaching out! Happy to give you some initial thoughts on this. You're at a common point a lot of coaches get to, and it's smart to look at paid ads to grow. But just hiring someone to build a sales funnel and run FB ads isn't the magic bullet most people think it is. The truth is, most agencies will just burn your cash if the foundations aren't right. I've seen it happen more times than I can count.

The problem is that you're asking for a tactic (a funnel and ads) without first nailing the strategy. Getting appointments is the end goal, but it's the last step in a long chain. If any of the earlier links in that chain are weak, the whole thing collapses, and you're left with a lighter bank account and a calendar that's just as empty as before. Let's walk through what actually needs to happen first.

Your Offer Is The Problem, Not The Ads

This is the bit no one wants to hear. Before you spend a single pound on an ad, we have to be brutally honest about your offer. You have a "business coaching program." That's not an offer; it's a category. It's vague. It tells me nothing about who it's for, what agonising problem it solves, or why I should choose you over the thousand other coaches saying the exact same thing.

Campaigns don't fail because of bad ad creative or poor targetting, not usually. They fail because of a weak offer. They fail because of a lack of genuine demand for what's being sold. I've seen founders spend years developping what they think is the perfect product or service, only for it to fall completely flat because nobody felt an urgent need for it.

A successful offer that we can actually sell with ads has three parts, and they are non-negotiable:

1. A Specific Audience: Who, exactly, do you help? "Business owners" is not an audience. Is it owners of brick-and-mortar retail shops with 5-10 employees? Is it founders of SaaS startups who have just raised their seed round? Is it freelance creatives who are great at their craft but terrible at sales? The more specific you are, the more powerful your message becomes because it feels like you're speaking directly to them.

2. An Urgent, Expensive Problem: What specific nightmare are you solving for that audience? They aren't buying "coaching." They're buying a solution to a deep-seated frustration. They're buying their way out of a crisis. Are they constantly worried about making payroll next month? Are they working 80-hour weeks and on the verge of total burnout, about to lose their family? Are they terrified because their one big client makes up 90% of their revenue? This is the emotional driver that forces action.

3. A Clear, Tangible Solution: How do you solve that exact problem? Turn your vague "coaching" into something that feels real and concrete. Give it a name, clear deliverables, and a defined process. Instead of "business coaching," it could be the "90-Day Cash Flow Rescue Plan" or the "Client Acquisition System for Freelancers." This takes it from a nice-to-have to a must-have investment because it feels like a real system, not just a series of chats.

Without this clarity, you're just shouting into the void. And no amount of ad spend can fix a message that nobody cares about.

We'll Need To Look At Your ICP: It's a Nightmare, Not a Demographic

Let's build on that last point. You need to forget the idea of a customer profile that says "Male, 35-55, owns a small business." That tells you absolutely nothing useful for writing ads that actually convert. It leads to the kind of generic, corporate-speak copy that everyone's trained themselves to ignore.

To stop burning cash, you have to define your customer by their pain. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a person; it's a problem state. You need to become an absolute expert in their specific, urgent, and expensive nightmare.

Let's imagine your ideal client is a Head of an agency. She isn't just a job title. She's a leader who lies awake at 3 AM terrified that her best talent is about to quit because their workflow is a complete mess and they're drowning in unprofitable client work. She's not looking for a "coach"; she's desperately searching for a way to stop the bleeding, fix her operations, and make the business profitable and scalable so she can finally get her life back.

Your job isn't to sell coaching. It's to find that person and show her you understand her specific nightmare better than anyone else. Once you've isolated that problem, your entire advertising strategy becomes clear. You stop guessing and start targeting with precision.

Where does this person hang out online when she's trying to solve this problem?

• -> What podcasts does she listen to on her commute? (e.g., The Diary of a CEO, Masters of Scale)
• -> What industry newsletters does she actually read? (e.g., The Hustle, Stratechery)
• -> What software does she already pay for? (e.g., HubSpot, Asana, Slack)
• -> What Facebook groups is she a member of? (e.g., "SaaS Growth Hacks," "Digital Agency Owners")
• -> Who does she follow on LinkedIn or Twitter for advice? (e.g., people like Steven Bartlett or Simon Sinek)

This isn't just data. This is the blueprint for your ad targeting. This is how you find the people who are already feeling the pain you're built to solve. If you don't do this work first, you have absolutely no business spending a single pound on ads. You'll just be guessing, and guessing is expensive.

I'd Say You Need A Message They Can't Ignore

Once you know the nightmare, you can write an ad that speaks directly to it. Most business coaching ads are awful. They're full of platitudes like "Unlock your potential" or "Scale your business to 7 figures." It's meaningless noise.

We need to use a simple but powerful framework: Problem - Agitate - Solve.

Let's write an ad for that agency owner we just talked about:

Headline: Stop Trading Hours for Pounds. Fix Your Agency's Profit Leaks.

Ad Copy:

(Problem) Is your agency growing, but you're somehow making less money? Are you constantly putting out fires, dealing with scope creep, and feeling like you're running on a treadmill just to keep the lights on?

(Agitate) You started this business for freedom, but now you're working longer hours than ever for shrinking margins. Your best people are getting burnt out, and you know deep down that another chaotic year like this isn't sustainable. You're one bad client away from a serious cash flow crisis.

(Solve) My 'Agency Ops Accelerator' programme is a 12-week system designed specifically for agency owners to plug profit leaks, streamline delivery, and build a business that runs without them. Stop being the bottleneck. Let's build a profitable, scalable machine so you can get your life back.

See the difference? We didn't mention "coaching" once. We talked about her specific, painful problems and presented a clear, named solution. This kind of message cuts through the noise because it's relevant and empathetic. It shows you 'get it'. This is what makes someone stop scrolling and actually click.

You Probably Should Delete The "Book an Appointment" Idea

Now we get to the funnel itself, and the most common mistake in all of B2B advertising. The "Book a Call" or "Book an Appointment" button is probably the most arrogant Call to Action ever invented. It assumes a busy, skeptical business owner has nothing better to do than schedule a meeting to be sold to by a stranger. It's high-friction, it offers zero upfront value, and it instantly positions you as a commodity.

Think about it from their perspective. They see an ad. They're maybe slightly interested. But are they interested enough to commit 30-60 minutes of their valuable time to a sales call? Almost certainly not. So they click away, and you've just paid for a click that went nowhere.

Your offer's only job is to deliver an "aha!" moment. It needs to provide a piece of undeniable value for free, right now, that makes them sell themselves on your expertise. You have to solve a small, real problem for free to earn the right to solve their whole problem for a fee.

Instead of "Book a Call," your ad should lead to a high-value, low-friction offer. Something they can get instantly in exchange for their email address. For a business coach, this could be:

• -> A Free, Automated 'Business Bottleneck Audit': A simple quiz or calculator that asks them 10 questions about their business and spits out a personalised report identifying their #1 biggest challenge (e.g., "Your biggest bottleneck is lead generation").
• -> A 'Profitability Predictor' Spreadsheet: A pre-built Google Sheet where they can plug in their own numbers and see how small changes to pricing or efficiency could impact their bottom line.
• -> A Free 15-Minute Video Training: "The 3 Unprofitable Clients You Must Fire This Month (And How To Do It)". This gives them an immediate, actionable win.

This is your lead magnet. This is the top of your funnel. They get instant value, and you get a qualified lead who has already engaged with your expertise. Now, on the 'thank you' page after they download the tool, and in the follow-up emails, THAT'S where you offer the appointment. But now the conversation has changed. It's not a cold sales call; it's a "Strategy Session to discuss your audit results." It's a natural next step, not a jarring sales pitch.

You'll Need To Understand Your Numbers: LTV > CPL

This is where we get into the maths that separates the businesses that scale from those that stagnate. Everyone gets obsessed with Cost Per Lead (CPL) or Cost Per Appointment. They want it to be as low as possible. But that's the wrong question. The real question is, "How much can I afford to spend to acquire a great client?"

The answer is your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). This is the total profit you can expect to make from an average client over the entire time they work with you. If you don't know this number, you're flying blind.

Here's how you can roughly calculate it:

1. Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What's the average amount a client pays you per month? Let's say it's £1,000.

2. Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on that? For a coach, it's probably quite high. Let's say 80% after any direct costs.

3. Monthly Churn Rate: What percentage of your clients do you lose each month? If you lose 1 out of 20 clients per month, your churn is 5% (1/20).

The calculation is simple:

LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

Let's see that with our example numbers:

In this example, each client you sign is worth £16,000 in gross profit. Suddenly, paying £100 or even £200 for a qualified appointment doesn't seem so expensive, does it? A healthy LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio is at least 3:1. This means you can afford to spend up to £5,333 (£16,000 / 3) to acquire a single new client.

This maths frees you from the tyranny of "cheap leads." It allows you to advertise on more expensive, higher-quality platforms and outspend your competitors who are still obsessed with getting a £5 lead that never converts.

You Need To Choose The Right Ad Platform

You came here asking for a "FB ads agency." This is another common trap. You've picked the tool before diagnosing the problem. Facebook is a brilliant platform, but it might not be the best place for you to start.

You need to think about user intent. Are your ideal clients actively searching for a solution to their problem right now, or are they passively scrolling through their social feeds when your ad interrupts them?

Google Ads (Search): For Active Searchers

This is where you find people who have their credit card out, metaphorically speaking. They are typing their problem into a search bar. They have high intent. For a business coach, you could target keywords like:

• -> "business coach for agency owners"
• -> "how to improve agency profitability"
• -> "operations consultant for small business"

The cost per click will be higher, but the lead quality is often much better because they are already problem-aware and solution-seeking. For most B2B services, this is where I'd put my first pound of ad spend.

LinkedIn Ads: For B2B Social

If you're going to use social media, LinkedIn is often a much better bet for B2B than Facebook. The targeting options are built for business. You can target people by their exact job title, company size, industry, and skills. You could run an ad that is only shown to "Founders" and "CEOs" of "Marketing & Advertising" companies with "11-50 employees" in the UK. This is incredibly powerful. The cost per lead is often higher than Facebook (I've run campaigns that saw a CPL of around $22 for B2B decision makers), but again, the quality can be worth it.

Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram): For Passive Interruption

Facebook can still work, but you have to be clever. The B2B targeting is weaker than LinkedIn. You can target "Small business owners" or "Facebook page admins," but it's broad. The real power of Facebook comes later, from two things:

1. Lookalike Audiences: Once you have a list of your current clients, you can upload it to Facebook and tell it to "go find more people who look just like these people." This can be incredibly effective.
2. Retargeting: Showing ads to people who have already visited your website, downloaded your lead magnet, or watched your videos. This is crucial for nurturing leads over time.

I would not start with cold traffic on Facebook. I'd start with Google or LinkedIn to generate the initial traffic and leads, and then use Facebook to retarget those people and build lookalike audiences from the ones who convert.

How To Choose An Agency Without Getting Ripped Off

Okay, so let's say you've got all of the above sorted. You know your ICP's nightmare, you have a killer message, and a high-value lead magnet. Now you can think about hiring someone.

1. Look at their Case Studies: And I mean really look. Don't be dazzled by big numbers. Do they have experiance with B2B services, coaching, or consulting? Have they generated leads that turned into actual revenue, not just vanity metrics like clicks or impressions? For instance, I've seen campaigns generate course sales revenue of $115k, and another where we got a $22 cost per lead for B2B decision-makers. That's the kind of specific, relevant result you should be looking for.

2. Book a Consultation and Grill Them: Any decent agency should offer a free initial chat or strategy review. Use this time to test their expertise. Don't listen for promises; listen for smart questions about your business. If they jump straight to talking about ad creatives and budgets without first digging into your offer, your LTV, and your ICP, they are a tactic-focused agency, and you should run away. They should be challenging you and giving you ideas you hadn't thought of. I often offer a free strategy session where I audit failing ad campaigns for potential clients, which gives them a taste of the expertise they'll see.

3. Trust is Everything: Tbh, if you've seen their case studies, read their reviews, and had an in-depth strategy call where they've demonstrated their expertise, and you still feel the need to ask for references to call their other clients, it's probably not a good fit. I've found this often signals a deep lack of trust from the start, and no good work can be done without a foundation of trust. If you've done your homework, you should have a good gut feeling about whether they are the real deal.

This is the main advice I have for you:

I've put my main recommendations for you into a table below. This is the roadmap you should follow before you hire anyone.

Look, this is a lot to take in, I know. And implementing it properly takes a ton of work and expertise. This is exactly where most businesses go wrong - they know what they should do, but the execution falls flat. Getting the offer right, nailing the messaging, and managing campaigns across platforms isn't something you can just learn overnight.

If you'd like to go over this in more detail and see how we'd specifically apply this to your coaching programme, we offer a free, no-obligation strategy session. We can look at what you're doing now and build out a proper plan. There's no hard sell; it's a genuine working session to see if we can help.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh