Headway helps therapists take insurance and run a private practice without the admin — credentialing, claims, billing and payments. Its LinkedIn account is one of the largest, most disciplined message-ad testing operations in healthcare: 2,000+ live ads, but only a handful of master creatives, run as personalized conversation ads from named ‘senders’ — a founder-style MD (Anik Saha, MD), a second doctor (Joshua Cohen, MD, PhD), a sales lead (Jake Butler) and a peer clinician (Kylie Roel, LMSW). Headway A/B-tests the sender, the copy angle, and even the reply-button microcopy — and rounds the account out with a dynamic job ad and an illustrated brand/careers post for its own hiring.
How Headway advertises: Headway advertises like a growth team that has industrialized one channel. The format is the LinkedIn message (conversation) ad, and the core variable is the ‘sender.’ The same recruiting pitch — Headway handles the admin (benefits verification, claims, payments) so therapists can focus on clients — is sent from four distinct personas: Anik Saha, MD (‘I’m Anik from Headway’), Joshua Cohen, MD, PhD, Jake Butler (‘I lead the sales team at Headway’) and Kylie Roel, LMSW (‘I’m Kylie, an LMSW in Michigan… I’ve been there’). Headway runs clean sender-swaps — the identical ‘Prioritizing care’ script under both Joshua and Anik, and the identical ‘I help bring new therapists onto Headway’s platform’ script under both Anik and Jake — isolating who the message comes from as a test variable. It tests the copy angle too: a feature-list (‘credentialing in as few as 30 days… 70+ insurance plans… no fee to join’), a sales-lead follow-up with an incentive (‘Book a call for $200… want to see what you’d actually earn?’), and a peer testimonial (‘I’ve been there’). It even tests reply-button microcopy — the same Jake message offering ‘Book a call / Maybe, tell me more’ in one version and ‘Book a call / Tell me more’ in another. Around this therapist-recruiting engine, Headway also recruits its own team: a dynamic job ad (‘explore jobs at Headway that match your skills’) and an illustrated employee post (‘Yes, Headway is still hiring… we believe in human talent more than ever’) carrying the consumer line ‘We’ll find you a therapist — and save you money.’
A message-ad-dominant account (2,000+ live ads, ~10 master creatives) that tests the sender, the copy angle and the reply-button microcopy, plus a dynamic job ad and an illustrated brand/careers post.
| Format | What Headway uses it for |
|---|---|
| Message / conversation ad (InMail-style) | The core format — a personal note from a named ‘sender,’ with reply buttons, split-tested at enormous volume |
| Sender A/B testing | The identical script run from different people (an MD, a second doctor, a sales lead, a peer LMSW) to test who it comes from |
| Dynamic job ad | A personalized ‘explore jobs at Headway that match your skills’ ad recruiting for Headway’s own team |
| Single image (employee/brand) | An illustrated employee-advocacy post promoting Headway careers and the consumer brand |
Live Headway creatives with their full ad copy (verbatim), format, theme and CTA.
"A message from ‘Anik Saha, MD.’ ‘Private practice is meaningful work, but the admin can crowd out the part that matters most.’ Then the proof list: ‘Credentialing in any state in as few as 30 days; Insurance handled with compliance support; Free EHR with scheduling, notes, and secure telehealth; Better in-network rates deposited biweekly; Greater client reach across 70+ insurance plans; There’s no fee to join, no subscription fees…’ CTA: ‘Would a quick walkthrough be useful?’"
"A shorter, empathy-led script from ‘Joshua Cohen, MD, PhD’: ‘Prioritizing care while running a mental health practice can be challenging. We’re here to change that. With Headway, you can save time and earn more from your practice, all being there for those who need you.’ CTAs: ‘Let’s chat / Tell me more.’"
"Word-for-word the same ‘Prioritizing care…’ message as the previous card, but sent by ‘Anik Saha, MD’ instead of Joshua Cohen. Holding the copy constant and swapping the sender is a clean test of whether the messenger changes response — the defining move of Headway’s account."
"‘I’m Anik, and I help bring new therapists onto Headway’s platform. We handle the admin (benefits verification, claims, payments) so you can focus on clients. Worth a quick look? Book a call to review your personalized rates.’ CTAs: ‘Book a call / Maybe, tell me more.’"
"The identical ‘I help bring new therapists onto Headway’s platform…’ message as the Anik card, but sent by ‘Jake Butler.’ A second, independent sender-swap A/B test on a different core script."
"The same Jake ‘bring new therapists’ message again, but the reply buttons change from ‘Book a call / Maybe, tell me more’ to ‘Book a call / Tell me more.’ Headway tests even the button microcopy — a reminder that in message ads, the CTA options are a variable worth optimizing."
"A follow-up framing from ‘Jake Butler’: ‘I lead the sales team at Headway. One of my provider growth associates reached out to you over email recently, so I wanted to follow up with you myself. Most therapists… aren’t avoiding getting credentialed because of the rates. They’re avoiding the paperwork and chasing claims… That’s the part Headway takes off your plate. Want to see what you’d actually earn?’ CTAs: ‘Book a call for $200 / What would I earn? / Already on insurance.’ Note the paid-call incentive."
"Another Jake sales-lead variant, leading with the economics: ‘At Headway, we help negotiate your rates with insurers, get you paneled, and take the billing off your plate. You get paid every two weeks, with no chasing claims.’ CTAs: ‘Show me my rates / Book a call for $200.’"
"A peer-to-peer angle from ‘Kylie Roel,’ an actual clinician: ‘I’m Kylie, an LMSW in Michigan. Any chance you’re just starting out in private practice but feel blocked by insurance? I’ve been there. Here’s what finally worked for me when I found Headway.’ CTAs: ‘Book a call with Headway / Hear about the process / See what I found.’ A different persona entirely — the early-career peer, not the doctor or the sales lead."
"A LinkedIn dynamic ad recruiting for Headway’s own team: ‘%FIRSTNAME%, explore jobs at Headway that match your skills,’ personalized with the viewer’s profile photo and a ‘See More Jobs’ button. The same account that recruits therapists also recruits its internal staff."
"An employee-advocacy post from ‘Arnaud Ferreri’ (‘building things’), promoted by Headway: ‘Yes, Headway is still hiring. Despite the headlines saying that AI is leading to less jobs, we believe in human talent more than ever.’ It carries Headway’s illustrated consumer brand and the line ‘We’ll find you a therapist — and save you money,’ plus a ‘Careers | Headway’ card with a phishing/recruitment-fraud safety notice."
Ad copy and creatives shown verbatim for commentary and analysis; they belong to Headway (headway.co) and are ‘Paid for by Therapymatch, Inc,’ Headway’s legal entity. Message ads are signed by Headway ‘senders’ (Anik Saha, MD; Joshua Cohen, MD, PhD; Jake Butler; Kylie Roel, LMSW) and the employee post by Arnaud Ferreri; the personalized greeting renders the literal token ‘%FIRSTNAME%.’ Note on namesake: the LinkedIn search for ‘Headway’ also surfaces an unrelated finance/CFO advertiser (‘Hampton Headway Solutions’), which is excluded here. Captured from the public LinkedIn Ad Library.
Headway’s defining move is running the identical script from different people — the same ‘Prioritizing care’ message under both Joshua Cohen, MD, PhD and Anik Saha, MD; the same ‘bring new therapists’ message under both Anik and Jake Butler. Holding copy constant and swapping the messenger isolates a variable most advertisers never test: who the message appears to come from.
Headway doesn’t use one voice — it uses four: a founder-style MD for the feature pitch, a sales lead for the follow-up-with-incentive, and a peer LMSW (‘I’ve been there’) for the early-career therapist. Different buyers trust different senders, so the persona is chosen to fit the message.
The same Jake message runs with ‘Maybe, tell me more’ in one version and ‘Tell me more’ in another. In conversation ads the CTA options are their own optimization surface — Headway treats the button microcopy as a variable, not an afterthought.
The winning sales-lead variant reframes the objection (‘therapists aren’t avoiding credentialing because of rates — they’re avoiding the paperwork and chasing claims’) and pays for the call (‘Book a call for $200’). Naming the real friction and de-risking the next step beats another feature list.
Alongside 2,000+ therapist-recruiting message ads, Headway runs a dynamic job ad and an illustrated employee post to hire its own team — using the same brand system to acquire both provider supply and internal talent.
We build LinkedIn and paid programs for high-consideration B2B and healthcare buyers — measured on pipeline, not impressions.
Book a free ad auditHeadway runs a message-ad-dominant account — 2,000+ live ads built from about ten master creatives — personalized conversation ads sent from named ‘senders’ (Anik Saha, MD; Joshua Cohen, MD, PhD; sales lead Jake Butler; peer clinician Kylie Roel, LMSW). It A/B-tests the sender, the copy angle and even the reply-button microcopy, and adds a dynamic job ad and an illustrated employee/careers post for its own hiring.
Licensed mental-health therapists in or considering private practice — the ads recruit provider supply by pitching Headway’s admin platform: credentialing (as few as 30 days), insurance/claims/billing handled, biweekly payments, 70+ insurance plans, and no fee to join. A separate set of ads recruits Headway’s own employees.
That Headway takes the business burden of insurance off a therapist’s plate — credentialing, claims, billing and payments — so clinicians can ‘save time and earn more’ while focusing on clients. The pitch is delivered as a personal note from a doctor, a sales lead or a peer clinician depending on the test.
Treat the sender as a test variable (swap the messenger, hold the copy); match the persona to the angle; test reply-button microcopy, not just body copy; put the offer where the real friction is and de-risk the next step (a paid call); and run provider-supply and internal-talent acquisition from one disciplined account.