Whether you’re a life coach or a business coach, you need a steady flow of leads to stay profitable. It’s not enough to post on social media. No matter how popular you become, being well-liked and even loved doesn’t guarantee clients.
For coaching businesses, pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns can be a powerful way to attract high-intent leads – people actively looking for transformation, accountability, and clarity. But you can’t just throw some ads up on Google and expect results. You need a strategy that uses the right targeting, messaging, and structure to avoid expensive lessons in trial and error.
In this guide, we’ll break down the essentials of building cost-effective PPC campaigns designed specifically for coaches who want conversions, clients, and growth.
The first step to creating any high-performing PPC campaign is identifying what your potential clients are searching for online. PPC ads show up in search results (Google, Bing) and social media feeds (Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok) based on the phrases users type into the search bar when looking for content.
To get your ads seen by your ideal clients, you’ll need to tap into their innermost thoughts – like a burned out executive searching TikTok at 2:00 a.m. for “how to find my purpose” or “how to get a promotion.” You’ll want to target searches that indicate the user is unhappy and is looking for a solution that coaching can help them achieve.
Not all keywords are equal. You’ll get more leads that convert by targeting keywords that indicate a user is ready to take action. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, and Ubersuggest to find keywords with strong intent. High-intent searches might include phrases like:
· Business coach for entrepreneurs
· Life coaching to reduce stress
· Life coaching to find my purpose
· How to grow my small business fast
· Career transition coaching
These and similar phrases related to your coaching business will be the foundation for your paid ad campaign on any platform.
The customer journey consists of three stages that lead someone into the buying stage:
· Stage 1: Awareness. The prospect is aware they need help, but they don’t know exactly what they need or how to get it.
· Stage 2: Consideration. The prospect has named their problem and are actively looking for a solution.
· Stage 3: Decision. The prospect knows they want to work with a coach, and they’re in the process of deciding who to work with.
If you’re running a full marketing campaign with email marketing, you’ll want to run ads that address leads in all three stages. The people you capture in stages one and two will need to be nurtured over time through email. Leads you capture in stage 3 can be more easily turned into a paying client faster. If you aren’t capturing emails yet, only target leads in stages two and three for the best results.
No matter what type of coach you are, your ideal clients will have a variety of goals and pain points. Not everyone will share the same concerns or desires. For example, some business owners want to grow their business and open new locations, while others want to build a stronger team or increase their revenue. Some life coaching clients want better relationships while others want to find their life purpose. When you run ads, your target market needs to think, “this ad is for me.” Generic copy won’t cut it.
You’ll need to run a different ad campaign aimed at each client avatar. To get the most conversions, you’ll need to reach one avatar at a time. Speaking to one avatar in your ads and landing page copy allows you to go deep into their needs, fears, hopes, worries, and concerns. The more specifically you can connect with people, the more likely they are to convert.
To figure out what your ideal clients want, think about their struggles and the potential keywords they might be searching on various platforms. For example, a lot of people are unhappy at work. In this case, potential keywords they might be searching for include:
· How to find a job that doesn’t suck
· How to handle conflict at work
· How to win respect at work
Once you know the pain points you want to target, craft your messages so they speak to emotional triggers. People respond to a sense of urgency (“Burned out? Don’t wait”), personal growth promises (“Find your life purpose in 90 days”), and emotional relief (“Stop second-guessing yourself”). Speak to where your ideal client is right now and show them you can take them where they want to be.
Using this information, you’ll craft ads with headlines, copy, and corresponding landing page copy that speaks directly to your ideal clients. For example, your ads might look like this:
Problem/Keyword search: How to find a job that doesn’t suck
Ad headline: Hate Mondays? Let’s Fix That.
Ad copy:
You spend 90,000 hours of your life at work. Shouldn’t more of them feel fulfilling? Learn how to reconnect with purpose and enjoy what you do. Book your free clarity call now.
Problem/Keyword search: How to handle conflict at work
Ad headline: Tired of Office Drama? Here’s Your Way Out
Ad copy:
Learn strategies to set boundaries and manage work conflict like a pro. Click for a free strategy session.
Problem/Keyword search: How to win respect at work
Ad headline: Feel Invisible at Work? Let’s Change That
Ad copy:
You’ve got the skills. You put in the hours. But the recognition never follows. Sound familiar? Respect isn’t about being louder – it’s about confidence, clarity, and strategy. Book your free consultation and finally be recognized for your full value.
Just like each of your ads target a specific avatar, your landing pages need to do the same. Don’t send traffic to your homepage. Your landing page should reflect exactly what your ad promised.
If your ad says, “Executive Coaching for Burnout Recovery,” then the landing page should address burnout, speak directly to executive professionals, and offer a call-to-action (CTA) for a discovery call.
Effective landing pages consist of the following elements:
· A dedicated page made just for your ad
· A seamless transition from ad to landing page
· A clear headline that addresses the pain point directly
· Testimonials or results from real clients if possible
· A strong CTA, like “Book your free 30-minute breakthrough session”
· A clickable phone number or link to book a call immediately
Remember, you’re not selling coaching services. You’re selling a better version of your prospect’s life. Make sure your copy reflects that.
Coaches often underspend on ads, thinking they can game the system with just $5/day. That’s not an effective strategy. What you may not realize is that setting a low budget actually reduces the number of people who see your ad. Your ad visibility increases the more you spend.
Start with a modest, but meaningful budget of at least $1,500-$2,000 per month. The good news is your cost per click (CPC) will be significantly lower than other industries, like legal and insurance. However, if you’re not sure how to set a PPC budget or handle bidding strategies, hire a professional PPC agency to manage your ads. It’s the easiest way to avoid costly mistakes.
Your ads should target the right people at the right time.
First, think about your ideal client who is looking for your services.
Who hires coaches? Usually, it’s:
· Entrepreneurs who feel stuck or overwhelmed
· People who want to start a business, but don’t know where to begin
· Mid-level professionals seeking career growth
· High achievers facing burnout
· People at a personal crossroads (divorce, job loss, mid-life crisis, etc.)
Once you pinpoint who might be looking for your services, you’ll need to choose the right advertising platforms. Your main options are:
· TikTok Ads
· Instagram Ads
· Pinterest Ads
Advertising on each of these platforms comes with pros and cons – some are specific to coaching services. For example, while Pinterest is likely cheaper than Google, Pinterest leads might not be committed. However, TikTok and YouTube users frequently search for solutions to specific problems.
You might be surprised to learn that TikTok is a gold mine for coaching businesses. It’s not just an app for teens. Over 71% of TikTok’s users are between 18-34 years old, and 32% are 25-34 years old.
Unlike other platforms, TikTok doesn’t function like a typical social media platform where the purpose is to build a community. It’s more like an outreach platform and people are constantly discovering new content creators. The algorithm’s goal is to get as many people watching content for as long as possible. To achieve this, users are given content based on their interests, not just from people they follow. You don’t need followers or viral content to get seen. Each video stands alone in the algorithm and has an equal chance at getting attention.
People use TikTok to find insights and advice on just about everything you can imagine, including personal and business-related situations. While you can run ads on TikTok without a following, it helps to have an established account with solid content. You’ll build more momentum this way, and you can boost your native content to earn more trust across the platform.
Additionally, TikTok ads can target users based on hashtag interactions. People use hashtags on TikTok to find content more than any other platform. If you’re not advertising on TikTok, you’re missing out on clients.
Coaching clients aren’t impulse buyers, and they need to see your face and personality to know if they want to work with you. Wherever you run ads, you can expect people to click on your account to check you out. You’ll get more conversions by publishing short, engaging videos that show your authenticity and provide inspiration and support.
Whichever platform(s) you choose to advertise on, make use of custom audiences to target your potential leads as specifically as possible.
Everyone wants clarity, but not everyone wants to pay for it. That’s why you need to block certain searches using negative keywords. You don’t want your ads to show up for people who are just curious, looking for freebies, or looking for unrelated services. They’ll just click on your ads, waste your ad budget, and potentially waste your time if they sign up for a free call.
Suggested negative keywords for coaches include:
· Free coaching session
· Coach training program (these people want to be coaches, not hire one)
· Sample coaching questions
· Coaching worksheets pdf
Defining these and similar negative keywords will keep your clicks high-quality and your cost per lead low.
It can be exciting to see how many people are viewing and clicking on your ads, and there is a time and place to assess impressions and clicks. However, unless you’re focused on optimizing your ads, forget click-through rates (CTR) and look at how many calls you’re getting booked, how many contact forms are being submitted, and how many email addresses you’re collecting through your lead magnet downloads.
It’s crucial to know which campaigns are bringing you results so you can cut the ones that aren’t working.
People don’t usually buy high-ticket coaching packages the first time around. They need time to research, investigate, and consider their options. You might get some clicks and email signups from your ads that don’t turn into paying clients right away. That’s where remarketing comes in.
Set up ads on Google and Facebook to follow users who have already clicked on your ads and visited your website. Since these ads will be displayed only to people who have already interacted with your brand, you can use different value points to engage them, like testimonials, free guides, and limited-time offers.
Facebook retargeting options are pretty specific compared to other platforms. Since Facebook and Instagram are both owned by Meta, you can target people who have interacted with your Instagram page, too. You can even upload a list of your existing email subscribers from your segment that hasn’t yet converted and target them with relevant ads.
At PPC.co, we help life and business coaches run PPC campaigns that turn clicks into clients. Whether you’re scaling a coaching business or launching your first program, we’ll help you connect with the people actively searching for your services.
Contact us today for a free consultation and let’s start turning your ads into paying clients.
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The promise of AI market research and AI search marketing consulting isn’t simply that machines crunch numbers faster than we do. The real magic is that artificial intelligence can spot faint audience signals—preferences, frustrations, and hidden intent—long before those signals register on a brand’s traditional radar.
Done well, AI lets you meet prospects at the moment desire is forming, shaping their journey rather than merely reacting to it. Below is a practical guide, written for marketers and entrepreneurs, on harnessing AI so you can read consumer intent almost before it exists.
Consumers rarely wake up and decide, out of nowhere, to buy. Their path is gradual: a half-noticed social post, a TikTok video, a chat with a friend, a Google search for “best running shoes when it rains.” Each of these touchpoints creates a micro-signal.
Traditional research methods—focus groups, quarterly surveys—capture only a snapshot. AI, by contrast, stitches billions of micro-signals into a living, breathing portrait of demand. The benefit isn’t only speed; it’s relevance. When you anticipate rather than chase, you:
Start with what you already own: CRM records, email engagement logs, on-site behavior, and loyalty-program interactions. Feed this information into a customer data platform (CDP) that supports machine-learning models.
The model learns nuanced patterns: how churn risk spikes after the third unclicked newsletter, or how repeat purchases jump when a user watches two product demos in one week. Because first-party data is permission-based, it keeps you compliant while delivering an unfiltered view of actual customers.
Social media is less a stream than a torrent. AI-powered listening tools scrape brand mentions, competitor chatter, trending hashtags, emojis, and even image content at scale. They classify sentiment, spot rising product attributes (“sugar-free,” “plant-based”), and identify the micro-influencers driving early conversations. The upshot: you detect trending desires days or weeks before they break into mainstream headlines.
Predictive algorithms transform your raw data and social signals into a probability score: How likely is a prospect to buy running shoes in the next seven days? Which blog reader is about to graduate to an enterprise software subscription?
Techniques such as propensity scoring, look-alike modeling, and uplift modeling let you forecast outcomes with uncanny accuracy. With that forecast in hand, you can trigger an ad, a push notification, or a price incentive at precisely the right moment.
Classic segmentation—age, gender, zip code—is blunt in a hyper-personal world. AI clusters audiences around live behaviors: binge reading of sustainability articles or sudden spikes in late-night browsing sessions. Because the clusters update in real time, you move prospects between segments as their intent evolves, always serving the most relevant creative.
AI-generated copy and imagery often make headlines, but the true advantage is orchestration. Feed your brand voice guidelines into a natural-language generation engine, plug in your dynamic segments, and the system serves personalized headlines, product descriptions, and subject lines proven (in pre-testing) to lift engagement.
Meanwhile, vision APIs swap product photos based on user context—mobile vs. desktop, sunny climate vs. snowy. The result feels like a custom shopping experience for each visitor, all without manual labor.
Programmatic platforms already automate bidding, yet layering in predictive intent data elevates performance. If the model flags a cohort whose purchase probability is doubling this week, you can bid more aggressively in paid search or social, confident the ROI will follow. Conversely, if intent cools, throttle spend and redirect it to higher-value prospects.
Respect is non-negotiable. Maintain transparent consent prompts, clear cookie policies, and easy opt-outs. Use techniques like differential privacy or federated learning so personal identifiers never leave the user’s device when feasible.
AI is only as fair as its training data. Schedule periodic audits that check for demographic, cultural, or socioeconomic bias. If the system starts undeserving rural shoppers or overrepresenting one age group, retrain with balanced inputs.
Let customers know that personalization comes from behavior they’ve chosen to share. A simple note—“We recommended this because you’ve recently read articles on trail running”—demystifies the process and builds trust.
AI isn’t a crystal ball, but wielded carefully, it comes close. Marketers who learn to read the subtle hints bubbling beneath the noise can craft experiences that feel almost psychic: the right product, at the right time, in the tone a consumer didn’t realize they preferred.
By grounding your approach in solid data practices and ethical transparency, you’ll not only uncover demand early—you’ll shape it. In a landscape where attention is scarce and loyalty scarcer, that’s a competitive edge you can’t afford to overlook.
The conversation around AI has shifted from “someday” to “right now,” and nowhere is that more apparent than in AI market research and AI search marketing consulting. Brands hungry for faster, deeper insights are swapping lengthy surveys and sluggish focus groups for models that analyze millions of data points in minutes, anticipate consumer sentiment, and surface trends before they even hit the mainstream.
The result? A decisive edge over competitors still relying on yesterday’s playbook.
For decades, market research followed a familiar rhythm: draft a questionnaire, recruit panels, wait weeks for responses, then spend even more time crunching numbers. That cycle can still work—if your industry moves at the speed of molasses. But in categories where a TikTok trend can upend a product forecast overnight, those timelines feel prehistoric.
Compounding the problem, consumers are splintering across channels and devices, leaving mountains of unstructured data—tweets, reviews, voice searches—that slip right through the cracks of conventional research tools. Manual coding or basic spreadsheets can’t keep pace, and valuable context gets lost in translation.
By weaving together natural-language processing, machine learning, and predictive analytics, AI adds turbochargers to every stage of the research process:
The upshot? Teams move from data collection to decision in hours rather than weeks, freeing brainpower for higher-order strategy.
Speed means little if it’s not translating into market wins. The companies seeing the biggest lift don’t just plug in an AI tool and hope for magic. They weave AI insights directly into their go-to-market engine:
Because the insights arrive fast, departments can pivot fast—turning research into measurable revenue improvements instead of dusty PDFs.
Adopting AI isn’t just a software purchase; it’s a mindset shift. To squeeze maximum value from advanced analytics, smart organizations cultivate an environment where data curiosity thrives:
Despite the hype, AI isn’t a silver bullet that eliminates the need for human researchers; it’s the high-powered microscope that lets them see what was previously invisible. Machines excel at parsing colossal datasets, but humans remain unmatched at framing the right business problems, interpreting nuance, and spotting cultural context that algorithms haven’t been trained on.
The most forward-thinking teams strike a balance: they lean on AI to handle the grunt work of data collection and preliminary analysis, then apply human intuition to validate findings, craft stories, and guide strategic decisions. That symbiosis allows brands to move with both speed and confidence—a combination competitors will find hard to replicate.
Market research is evolving from a rear-view-mirror discipline into a real-time GPS system, and the route is paved with artificial intelligence. Organizations that embrace this shift are already reaping the rewards: sharper consumer understanding, nimbler marketing moves, and a stronger bottom line.
Those who delay may soon find themselves reacting to marketplace changes they never even saw coming. AI isn’t just the future of market research—it’s the present. The sooner you integrate advanced analytics into your decision-making fabric, the sooner you’ll leave slower competitors in the dust.
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