Why Law Firms Are Getting Meta Ads Wrong (And What Culture Kings Can Teach You)

Most law firms struggle with Meta ads that drain budgets and deliver poor-quality leads. What if the problem isn’t the platform but how you’re using it? Simon Beard, founder of Culture Kings (worth $600M+), has cracked the code on Meta advertising—and his approach turns conventional wisdom on its head.

Key Takeaways

• Creative content drives 100% of Meta ad performance—not audience targeting
• The Meta algorithm works best without manual targeting restrictions
• High-performing law firm ads pre-qualify prospects through specific messaging
• Your ads need to help ideal clients self-identify (“Hey, that’s me!”)
• Consistent results come from testing 30-60 new creatives weekly, not monthly
• A split pathway funnel ensures only qualified leads trigger conversion events

The $600M Strategy Law Firms Are Ignoring

Simon Beard built Culture Kings into a retail empire worth hundreds of millions. Yet when it comes to Meta advertising, he spends just $200 daily. How? By understanding what truly matters in today’s algorithm-driven advertising landscape.

While law firms obsess over audience targeting and complex campaign structures, Beard focuses on one thing: creative content that speaks directly to his ideal customer.

“Is your business over a million dollars?” he asks in his ads. This simple question helps qualified prospects raise their hands and say, “Hey, that’s me!”

@simonbeard_official

Meta AI is so good now. Creative does the targeting.

♬ original sound – Simon Beard

For law firms, the lesson is clear: your job isn’t to outsmart the Meta algorithm with clever targeting. It’s to create content that makes your ideal client stop scrolling and think, “This law firm understands my exact situation.”

Why Media Buying No Longer Exists

There’s one thing most law firms haven’t caught onto yet: traditional media buying is dead. Here’s why that matters:

“Creatives drive 100% of your ad performance since media buying does not exist.”

This statement might seem radical, but it reflects how fundamentally Meta’s platform has evolved. The algorithm has become so sophisticated that it can:

• Analyze every word in your ad
• Diagnose entire scripts for relevance and intent
• Find the perfect audience without your manual targeting

For law firms, this means the old approach of detailed audience targeting (by job title, interests, or behaviours) is not only unnecessary—it’s actively harmful to your results.

The Zero-Targeting Approach

Perhaps the most counterintuitive finding is that the best targeting is often no targeting at all:

The best way to get your ideal customers to purchase through your ads is to not target them.

When you restrict your audience through detailed targeting, several problems emerge:

• Initial performance looks good as Meta finds the most obvious matches
• Results quickly deteriorate as this small pool becomes exhausted
• Campaigns “die out” after 7-10 days
• The algorithm never learns who your true ideal clients are beyond your limited criteria

Instead, the new approach that’s working for top advertisers is remarkably simple:

1. Target only by country/location
2. Create a massive potential audience (140M+ people)
3. Let Meta’s algorithm find your ideal prospects based on how they interact with your content

For law firms, this means you could target everyone in your service area—and trust the algorithm to find the right prospects for your specific practice because you’re using creative that allows prospects to self identify.

The Creative Volume Reality Check

Most law firms test a handful of new ad variations monthly. The transcript reveals why this approach fails:

Most people severely underestimate the volume of new creatives needed to sustain profitable ad results. For context, top advertisers spend between 30 and 60 new creatives per week whereas most people test 5 new creatives per month and they wonder why their ads aren’t getting results.

Obviously this is dependant on your ad budget but the point is that the more creative you have the better.

This volume doesn’t mean creating entirely new concepts weekly. Instead, it means testing variations of:

• Different hooks and opening statements
• Various visual styles and formats
• Alternate ways of presenting your value proposition
• Multiple call-to-action approaches

For a law firm specializing in divorce, this might mean testing different ways to address specific pain points: property division, child custody concerns, business ownership complications, retirement asset protection, and so on.

The Qualification Flywheel

The third critical component is ensuring only qualified prospects can trigger your conversion events:

At some point in the funnel before the event you’re optimizing for gets triggered, you need to have a split pathway that redirects all unqualified prospects away from being able to trigger that pixel event.

For law firms, this means implementing qualification steps that prevent non-ideal clients from booking consultations or submitting inquiries that would trigger your conversion pixel.

For example:

• A family law firm might ask about asset value before allowing booking
• A business law practice might qualify by company revenue or employee count
• A personal injury firm might screen by accident type and severity

By only allowing qualified prospects to complete conversion actions, you create what the transcript calls a “quality flywheel”:

1. Only qualified prospects convert
2. Meta learns exactly who your ideal client is
3. The algorithm finds more similar prospects
4. Your results improve over time rather than deteriorate

Building Law Firm Ads That Actually Work

So how do you apply these insights to your law firm’s Meta advertising? Here’s the framework:

1. Craft Problem-Specific Creative

Your ad creative should speak directly to a specific legal challenge your ideal client faces. Make them feel understood by:

• Opening with a direct question about their situation
• Describing their problem better than they could themselves
• Positioning your solution as uniquely suited to their specific circumstance

For example, instead of “Experienced Divorce Attorneys,” try: “Do you own a business and worry your spouse will get half in your divorce?”

2. Eliminate Targeting Restrictions

Set up your campaign structure to give Meta’s algorithm maximum flexibility:

• Target only by geographic location (where you’re licensed to practice)
• Use a combination of Advantage Campaign Budget and specific interests to manage initial ad spends
• Test detailed targeting completely open and specific interest for your first month.
• Group similar creative concepts in the same campaign

3. Implement Qualification Funnels

Create pathways that ensure only qualified prospects can trigger conversion events:

• Add pre-qualification questions to your contact forms
• Use conditional logic to route low-value inquiries away from booking
• Create specific landing pages for different legal situations
• Only optimize for conversion events that represent qualified prospects

4. Test Continually and at Volume

Commit to ongoing creative testing:

• Create multiple variations of successful concepts
• Test different aspects of client pain points
• Iterate on messaging that resonates with qualified prospects
• Don’t shut down campaigns prematurely—let them run until creative fatigue sets in (4-12 weeks)

Real-World Law Firm Example

A personal injury law firm implemented this approach with dramatic results:

Before:

• Targeted detailed interest categories like “legal issues” and “insurance”
• Created 3-5 new ad variations monthly
• Allowed all leads to book consultations
• Saw inconsistent results and high cost per qualified lead

After:

• Removed all targeting except geographic location
• Tested 10+ creative variations weekly
• Added case value pre-qualification questions
• Only allowed potentially high-value cases to book directly

The result? Their cost per qualified consultation dropped by 62%, while the quality of prospects increased dramatically. Most importantly, their campaigns delivered consistent results for months rather than weeks.

Why Most Law Firm Marketing Agencies Get This Wrong

Traditional marketing agencies struggle with this approach because:

1. It contradicts conventional targeting wisdom they’ve relied on for years
2. It requires significantly more creative production than they’re staffed for
3. It shifts the focus from complex campaign structures to creative quality
4. It demands constant testing and iteration rather than “set it and forget it” campaigns

This explains why many law firms see poor results despite working with agencies that claim Meta advertising expertise.

Conclusion: The New Meta Advertising Playbook for Law Firms

The Meta advertising landscape has fundamentally changed. The winners are no longer those with the most sophisticated targeting but those who:

1. Understand their ideal clients deeply enough to create resonant, specific creative
2. Trust the algorithm to find the right audience rather than restricting it
3. Ensure only qualified prospects can trigger conversion events
4. Test new creative concepts at volume and consistently

For law firms willing to embrace this new approach, Meta offers an unprecedented opportunity to connect with ideal clients at scale, without the feast-or-famine results of traditional campaigns.

Want to implement this approach for your firm? Contact PixelRush for a free consultation on how we can transform your Meta advertising results.