Facebook Ads for Therapists: The £10/Day Setup That Actually Works

Most therapists who say "I tried Facebook ads and they didn't work" actually did one of three things: boosted a post, sent traffic to their homepage, or targeted "everyone in London." None of those are a Facebook ad strategy. They are the digital equivalent of handing out leaflets in the rain and wondering why nobody called.

Here is what actually works — on a budget of £10 per day. No agency required. No marketing degree needed. Just a clear setup, the right targeting, and a landing page that does the heavy lifting for you.

Why Most Therapist Ads Fail (The 3 Mistakes)

Before we build anything, let's be honest about why the last attempt didn't work. Nearly every therapist I talk to who "tried Facebook ads" made one — or all three — of these mistakes.

Mistake 1: No Landing Page

Sending traffic to your homepage is like giving someone a map of your whole building when they just want Room 3. Your homepage has 15 different things competing for attention: your about section, your blog, your qualifications, your contact form, your testimonials, links to articles you wrote in 2019. That is not a conversion environment.

A landing page has one job: get the visitor to book a call. One page. One service. One action. When someone clicks your ad, they should arrive at a page that speaks directly to the problem they have and shows them exactly one next step. That is the difference between a £40 cost per enquiry and a £400 cost per enquiry.

Mistake 2: Wrong Targeting

"Women aged 25–65 in London" is not targeting. That is roughly 2 million people. You are paying to show your ad to university students, retired teachers, and people who have never once considered therapy. Real targeting looks like this: women aged 30–50, within 5 miles of your practice, interested in "therapy," "self-improvement," and "mental health awareness." That narrows your audience to the thousands of people who are genuinely more likely to need what you offer.

Mistake 3: No Tracking

If you do not have Meta Pixel installed on your landing page, you are flying blind. You do not know who visited, who filled in the form, or what your cost per enquiry is. You are watching money leave your account with no way to tell whether it is working. The Pixel is a small piece of code that takes five minutes to install and gives you the data you need to make decisions instead of guesses.

The Setup (Step by Step)

Here is the complete process, from zero to your first live campaign. None of this requires technical skill beyond what it takes to set up a Facebook profile. If you can fill in a form and follow instructions, you can do this.

Step 1: Create a Landing Page

This is the single highest-ROI thing you can do. Not your website — a dedicated landing page for one specific service.

Your landing page needs five elements:

1. A headline that speaks to their problem. Not "Welcome to my practice." Something like: "Struggling with anxiety that won't switch off? There's a way through it."
2. Two to three sentences about who you help and how. Keep it about them, not about you. "I work with professionals in their 30s and 40s who feel overwhelmed by anxiety. Using CBT, we build practical tools you can use immediately."
3. Three bullet points of what they get. A free 15-minute discovery call. A safe, confidential space. A clear plan from session one.
4. A testimonial. Even one sentence from a past client (with permission) transforms credibility.
5. A booking form or calendar link. Make the next step effortless. A "Book Your Free Call" button that goes to your Calendly, Acuity, or a simple contact form.

That is it. No navigation menu. No blog links. No distractions. One page, one purpose.

Step 2: Install Meta Pixel

Meta Pixel is a small snippet of code you paste into the header of your landing page. It tracks who visits, who clicks your booking button, and who fills in your form. Without it, Meta cannot optimise your ads — and you cannot measure your return.

You will find your Pixel code inside Meta Business Manager under Events Manager. Copy the base code, paste it into the <head> section of your landing page. Most website builders (Wix, Squarespace, WordPress) have a dedicated field for this — you do not need to touch code directly.

Step 3: Set Up Meta Business Manager

Go to business.facebook.com and create an account if you do not have one. Connect your Facebook page and add a payment method. This is different from your personal Facebook account — Business Manager is where you run and manage ads professionally.

Step 4: Create Your Campaign

Inside Ads Manager, click "Create" and choose your objective. For therapists, Leads is usually the best choice — it tells Meta to show your ad to people most likely to fill in a form. If you want to start simpler, Traffic works too, but switch to Leads once your Pixel has gathered some data.

Set your budget to £10 per day. Set the duration to at least 7 days. Do not judge results before 7 days — Meta needs time to learn who responds to your ad.

Step 5: Set Your Targeting

This is where most therapists go wrong, so pay attention:

• Location: 5–15 miles from your practice (or your city if you offer online sessions)
• Age: 28–55 (adjust based on your typical client — if you specialise in postnatal, go younger; if you work with executives, go 35–55)
• Interests: mental health, therapy, self-improvement, wellness, mindfulness, psychology
• Exclusions: exclude people interested in "counselling degree," "psychology degree," or "social work" — these are other therapists, not potential clients

Keep your audience between 50,000 and 300,000 people. Smaller than that and Meta cannot optimise. Larger and you are paying to reach people who will never convert.

The goal of your first campaign is not clients. It is data. Once you have data, you can make every pound work harder.

The Ad Creative That Works

You do not need a graphic designer. You do not need a video production team. You need a clear image and honest copy.

The Image

A calm, professional photo works best. Ideally of you in your practice space, or a warm, inviting image of your consultation room. The person clicking needs to feel "I could go there." Avoid stock photos that look obviously staged. Avoid clipart. Avoid sad or distressed imagery — people do not want to see their pain reflected back at them; they want to see the possibility of feeling better.

The Headline Formula

Use this structure: "Struggling with [problem]? Here is how to start feeling [desired outcome]."

Keep the body text to 3–4 sentences. Acknowledge the problem briefly. Mention your approach in one line. End with a clear call to action.

Examples by Specialty

CBT therapist: "Anxiety doesn't have to run your day. CBT gives you practical tools to manage it — and the first step is a conversation. Book a free 15-minute discovery call."

Couples counsellor: "If you are arguing about the same things over and over, that is not a communication problem. It is a pattern. We can break it. Book a free initial call to find out how."

Life coach: "You know what you want. You just can't seem to get there. Let's figure out what is actually in the way. Free 15-minute call — no obligation."

Trauma therapist: "You do not have to keep managing it alone. EMDR and trauma-focused therapy can help you process what happened — at your pace. Let's talk about whether it is right for you."

Reading Your Numbers (What to Expect)

Once your ad is running, you will see a dashboard full of abbreviations. Here is what actually matters and what realistic numbers look like for a therapist running £10/day ads in the UK:

At £10 per day with these benchmarks, you can realistically expect 2–5 enquiries per week once the learning phase is complete. Not every enquiry converts to a paying client, but even a 30–40% conversion rate from enquiry to first session means 1–2 new clients per week from a £70 weekly spend.

For a therapist charging £60–90 per session, one client doing weekly sessions for three months pays for an entire month of ad spend many times over. The maths works. You just need to give it time.

The Learning Phase

Week 1 is the "learning phase." Meta is testing which people in your audience respond to your ad. During this time, results will be inconsistent. You might get three enquiries on Tuesday and none until Friday. This is normal.

Do not change anything during the first 7 days. Do not pause the ad because you got no leads on Day 2. Do not change the image because you are nervous. Let Meta learn. Judge results after 7–14 days of uninterrupted running.

Scaling Up (When It Works)

You have been running your ad for two weeks. Your cost per lead is under £30. Enquiries are coming in. Clients are booking. Now what?

Increase Budget Gradually

If your CPL is under £30 and you are getting consistent enquiries, increase your daily budget to £15–20. Do not double your budget overnight — this resets the learning phase. The Rule of 5: increase by no more than 20% every 5 days. So £10 becomes £12, then £14.40, then £17.30. Gradual and steady.

Test New Audiences

Only test a new audience when your current one is stable and performing. Create a separate ad set (not a new campaign) with slightly different targeting — perhaps a broader age range, or a different set of interests. Run both simultaneously and compare CPL after 7 days.

A/B Test Your Creative

Create a second ad within the same ad set. Use a different image or rewrite the body text. Keep the landing page the same so you know the variable that changed. After 7–10 days, pause the underperformer and keep the winner running.

When to Get Help

When your ad spend reaches £30–50 per day and you are juggling multiple audiences, creatives, and follow-up sequences — the complexity starts to outpace the time you have. That is the natural point where working with someone who does this full-time makes sense. Not before. You need to understand the basics first, because even with help, you need to know whether the numbers make sense.

Putting It All Together

Here is your checklist. Print it, pin it to your wall, and work through it in order:

1. Build a landing page for one specific service (not your homepage)
2. Install Meta Pixel on that page
3. Set up Meta Business Manager and connect your Facebook page
4. Create a Leads campaign at £10/day
5. Target: 5–15 miles, age 28–55, mental health and self-improvement interests
6. Write ad copy that acknowledges their problem and offers a clear next step
7. Run for 7 days without touching anything
8. After 14 days, review your CPL — under £30 means scale up; over £50 means tweak creative or landing page

That is it. No complicated funnels, no retargeting sequences, no lookalike audiences. Those come later. Right now, the goal is simple: get your first enquiries from a predictable, repeatable source — so your income does not depend entirely on word-of-mouth and waiting for the phone to ring.

The therapists who build sustainable practices are not the ones with the biggest budgets. They are the ones who set up one thing properly, measured whether it worked, and adjusted. You can do this. Start with £10 and a landing page. The data will tell you what to do next.