The two-month, one-seminar cycle explained
Why we run paid ads for two months and then a seminar, and what happened when advisors tried running seminars cold.
Advisors often ask us to pick: run ads, or promote a seminar? Our answer is to do both, in a specific order, and repeat. Two months of paid advertising, then a seminar or webinar in month three. Then the cycle starts again.
Why not just run ads?
Paid ads on Meta and LinkedIn are the fastest way to put your practice in front of the right people. They work. But very few people book a meeting with a financial advisor from a single ad. They download the guide, they see your name a few times, they think about it. Without a second step, many of those warm leads simply cool off.
Why not just run seminars?
We’ve promoted seminars cold, to audiences who had never heard of the advisor. They fill, but they fill with a lower proportion of qualified people, and attendees are slower to book meetings afterward because the seminar is their first contact. The room is full; the pipeline is thin.
What changes when you combine them
Months one and two: ads run to your target audience with a useful offer. Leads enter a nurture sequence. The ones who are ready book meetings. The ones who aren’t are now familiar with you.
Month three: the seminar is promoted to those nurtured leads first, and to a fresh local audience second. The people in the room already know your name. They came because they have a question they want you to answer in person. Meetings booked after the session go up sharply.
Two touchpoints instead of one. The seminar catches everyone the ads warmed up.
What a cycle looks like month by month
Month one. Campaigns launch on Meta and, where the audience fits, LinkedIn. The offer is a useful guide or a short consultation aimed at one client type. Leads land in a nurture sequence: a welcome email, the guide, and two or three follow-ups that answer common questions. The advisor follows up personally with anyone who books.
Month two. The same campaigns keep running with creative refreshed based on what worked in month one. The nurture sequence introduces the upcoming seminar to everyone who hasn’t yet booked a meeting. Registration opens for leads first.
Month three. Seminar promotion runs to the wider local audience while the nurtured leads fill the first seats. Reminders go out before the event. After it, every attendee receives a follow-up with an easy way to book. Meetings from the seminar typically land in the two weeks after the session.
Then it begins again, with a new offer or a new seminar topic, and everything learned from the last round. This is an ongoing rhythm, not a three-month engagement: practices that keep it running are the ones with a consistently full pipeline.
Why two months of ads before each seminar
Two months of ads is long enough to move past the learning phase every ad platform goes through, gather enough leads to make a seminar worth holding, and give people a few exposures to your name before the invitation arrives. Six months of ads without a seminar leaves too many warm leads without a reason to act. A seminar every month exhausts a local audience and the advisor. Quarterly is the rhythm most practices can sustain, and it lines up neatly with seasonal planning topics: RRSP season, tax time, fall estate planning.
What we track, and what we report
Each month you see cost per lead, how many leads booked meetings, and where the rest are in the nurture sequence. In seminar months you see registrations, attendance, and meetings booked afterward. Over two or three cycles a pattern emerges: which offers draw the right people, which seminar topics fill fastest, and roughly what a new client costs to acquire through this channel. That last number is the one that matters, and it’s the one most advisors have never had.
We also tell you what didn’t work. A creative that underperformed, an audience that was too broad, a seminar topic that drew the wrong crowd. Every cycle gets better because the last one was honest.
Common questions
Can I run more than one seminar per cycle? Yes, though we rarely recommend it in the first year. A second topic splits your nurtured list and dilutes the room. Run one well, learn from it, and add a second date if it overfills, as one Peterborough advisor did.
What if I serve two very different client types? Run one cycle for each, staggered, so that the ads for business owners are in month two while the pre-retiree seminar is in month three. The management fee stays the same per channel; only the budget and the creative change.
Does this replace SEO? No. Ads create conversations now while search compounds in the background. Most of our clients run both, and the two reinforce each other: people who see your ads search your name, and people who find you in search recognize your ads.
Getting started
Kickoff is a single conversation: who you want more of, what you’re comfortable presenting, your market and your compliance requirements. From there, campaigns are usually live within two to three weeks, allowing time for the offer, the creative, the landing page and compliance review. The first seminar is scheduled for roughly ten weeks out, so that by the time registration opens there’s already a warm list to invite.
Who this is for
Advisors who present well and want a pipeline they can predict. If you’re uncomfortable presenting, we can run the paid advertising on its own, or pair ads with a webinar format that’s easier to deliver. If you already have a strong pipeline and simply want a full room, seminar promotion on its own works. The cycle is for practices that want both the steady flow of ads and the conversion power of a room.
What it costs
Our management fee is $1,200 a month for paid advertising and $2,000 per seminar, which averages $1,467 a month. The rhythm repeats for as long as you want a full pipeline; it is not a three-month engagement. Ad budgets are paid directly to the platforms and set with you based on your market and goals. Each channel is also available on its own; most advisors choose the cycle.
Related: Paid advertising & seminar pricing · Real people, not bots: what a good seminar campaign looks like
Frequently asked questions
Why two months of ads before a seminar?+
Ads warm people up. By the time the seminar is promoted, many registrants already know your name, so the room converts better.
Can I run seminars on their own?+
Yes, at $2,000 per event plus ad budget. It works well if you already have a pipeline to invite.
What does the combined program cost?+
$1,200 a month for paid advertising and $2,000 per seminar, which averages $1,467 a month. It repeats for as long as you want a full pipeline. Ad budget is set with you based on your market and goals.