Tim Burd is known as the Godfather of Facebook Advertising, has spent well over $100 million on ads, and co-founded AdLeaks. In this Tim Burd lead generation interview, he explains how he scaled a mass tort business to 120 employees, why selling cases instead of leads changes the economics, and which untapped offers he would run today.
What does a man who has spent well over $100 million on ads do after disappearing from the conference circuit for three years? He builds quietly, and then tells you exactly where the money is.
In the latest episode of Inside A Hustler’s Brain, I sat down with Tim Burd, widely known as the Godfather of Facebook Advertising. This conversation goes deep into Tim Burd lead generation strategy, his mass tort business, and the personal lessons he’s never shared on a podcast before. Tim runs the world’s largest Facebook ad buyers group, co-founded AdLeaks and owns Agency Y.
We first did a podcast together in Bangkok around 2017–2018 (you can still read my earlier Tim Burd interview here). This one is far more personal.
Quick Facts: Tim Burd
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Guest | Tim Burd |
| Known as | The Godfather of Facebook Advertising |
| Ad spend | Well over $100 million |
| Companies | Runs the world’s largest Facebook ad buyers group, co-founded AdLeaks, owns Agency Y |
| Legal lead gen experience | About 12 years |
| Mass tort business | Started late 2021 with about 3 people, 120 employees by end of 2023 |
| Business model | Sells signed cases, not raw leads (illustrative: $200 a lead vs $5,000 a case) |
| Exits | Sold three companies: one for eight figures, two for seven |
| Worst year | Around age 25, income fell from $300,000+ a month to under $10,000 |
| Untapped offers | Exotic car leads and plastic surgery leads |
| Best month / week | About $1 million net / about $200,000 net |
| Investments | Mostly crypto (mainly Bitcoin), 10–20% in stocks |
| Newest venture | A telehealth company launched weeks before recording |
| Earlier interview | Bangkok, around 2017–2018 |
| Host | Jitendra Vaswani |
| Podcast | Inside A Hustler’s Brain (YouTube) |
Watch the full episode with Tim Burd
In this episode, we unpacked:
- How he scaled a mass tort business to 120 employees
- Why selling cases instead of leads changes the economics
- The month he went from $300K/month to under $10K
- Where he invests: mostly Bitcoin, some stocks, and soon buying businesses
- Untapped lead gen ideas: exotic cars and plastic surgery
- How his company uses AI, and his warning about jobs
- His biggest financial mistake: about $5 million wasted in his 20s
- His fast-start playbook for new affiliates
Why Did Tim Burd Vanish From Events for Three Years?
Tim’s last events were the Affiliate World summit and his mastermind in Prague, roughly three years ago. The reason? His mass tort business.
They started in late 2021 with about three people, grew to 12, then to 50 in a bigger office in 2023. At that point Tim was speaking at around four conferences and several masterminds a year, plus consulting. About 25% of his time went to speaking and travel, and each trip broke his routine for days.
So he stepped back, and the business scaled to 120 employees by the end of 2023.
How Does Tim Burd Lead Generation Work? From SSDI Leads to Mass Tort Cases
Most people associate Tim with Facebook ads, but he’s been in legal lead gen for about 12 years. It started when his business partner sat in on a law firm’s marketing meeting and pointed out everything they were doing wrong.
- SSDI leads: they started with social security disability leads, eventually selling to 40–50 law firms, with state-specific buyers paying around 50% more than nationwide buyers
- First exit: they sold that company to one of their law-firm buyers
- Mass tort: a firm asked for mesothelioma leads. Tim had to look it up, then learned a single case can be worth around $60,000 to a firm, and a lead can be worth $1,000–2,000
- Second exit: after about five years of selling leads, he sold to a publicly traded company and had a three-year non-compete
- AdLeaks: during the non-compete he ran AdLeaks (2017–2021) and sold it too
When he came back to mass tort, he changed the model. Instead of only selling leads, his team now calls and qualifies people and completes the law firm’s 30-page legal paperwork, then sells a signed case.
“Let’s say $200 a lead or $5,000 for a case. If you’re good at doing the whole thing, it’s a big difference.” -Tim Burd (illustrative numbers)
What Happened When Tim Burd Lost Almost Everything in One Month?
Tim’s worst year came when he was about 25. He had two very successful businesses: dating-site traffic online, netting him roughly $200,000–300,000 a month, and a medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles. He’d just moved into a Malibu mansion with an ocean view.
Then, in the same month:
- 🇪🇺 An EU regulation change on third-party cross-sells cut his revenue from about $40 to $20 a sale, while he was paying affiliates $20–30. That business died overnight
- Los Angeles changed zoning rules and he had to shut the dispensary
He went from $300,000+ a month to $10,000 a month or less, and from a mansion to a two-bedroom apartment with a roommate. And he rebuilt everything from there.
For another comeback from rock bottom, read how Kulwant Nagi rebuilt his life.
Which Untapped Lead Generation Offers Would Tim Burd Run Today?
This was gold. Tim said most affiliates run existing offers, but the most money he ever made came from new offers nobody else was running. His examples:
- 🏎️ Exotic car leads: people who want to buy, lease or rent Ferraris, Lambos or Paganis. Run ads in Miami, LA and New York and find one dealership per city to buy the leads
- 💉 Plastic surgery leads: find buyers in major cities. He says the leads are very valuable and almost nobody is running them
His proof: when they launched SSDI leads on Facebook, they were the first. Leads sold for $25 and cost about $3 to generate, close to 600% ROI. Compare that to auto insurance, where 10–20% ROI is lucky.
“No competition is where it’s at.” – I, Jitendra Vaswani, summing up Tim’s point
His best month netted him about $1 million, and his best week about $200,000, both in lead gen. He once spent around $500,000 a day on ads for a month, across Facebook, Google, Taboola and Outbrain, running all the campaigns himself.
If paid traffic is your thing, also read Rohit Ajmani on scaling Facebook ads to seven-figure profits.
How Does Tim Burd Use AI, and What Is His Warning About Jobs?
Tim’s developers use AI heavily, and so do his creative team, internal dashboards and call centre, where AI listens to calls, creates transcripts and checks for fraud. 🎧 Media buying is next on his list.
His honest prediction: AI will eat a lot of jobs, from media buyers to developers and call reps. But humans will still need to monitor and steer it, and those jobs will pay even more.
“Make sure that you are getting good with AI, because if you’re not, you will have a very big problem three to five years from now.” -Tim Burd
He also mentioned that his newest venture is a telehealth company he and his partner launched just weeks before we recorded, with at least $100,000 of his own money in it.
Tim has sold three companies, one for eight figures and two for seven. Where does he put his money now?
- Mostly crypto, mainly Bitcoin, plus a little Solana and a couple of bigger coins. No meme coins
- 10–20% in stocks, a handful of big names
- Next: buying businesses and scaling them
His biggest regret is spending in his early 20s, on cars, nightclubs, travel and luxury hotels. He estimates he wasted $5 million or more in a few years.
“The $2,000-a-night hotel room is fine. You don’t need the $10,000-a-night hotel room.” -Tim Burd
His bigger warning: people who spend everything on Lambos and watches and invest nothing in new businesses are stuck when their main business fails. Always fund your next thing.
His advice to his 18-year-old self? “Buy Bitcoin, Tim.” His number: he’d love to be a billionaire, but would settle for $100 million liquid and spend his time investing in startups.
What Are Tim Burd’s Sacrifices, Heroes and Views on Love vs Money?
Tim just turned 40. In his 20s he said no to a lot of parties and nights out, and plenty of girlfriends complained he worked too much. Surprisingly, he chose love over money: “Money without love is almost kind of meaningless.”
His proudest achievement isn’t an exit. It’s his 20-year-old son, whom he keeps off social media. His heroes are his business partner Sean Brown, his dad, and Elon Musk as his business hero.
The worst advice he got at 19 was from friends and family telling him internet ads were stupid and to get a regular job. The best came from a guy on a forum who told him to move to Panama to grow his internet business. He went, and it worked.
How Can New Affiliates Get Started Fast? Tim Burd’s Playbook
For someone brand new who wants to get going quickly, Tim suggested an approach he “wouldn’t normally recommend”:
- Use spy tools to find long-running, high-engagement ads in proven verticals like auto insurance, final expense, Medicare or life insurance
- Don’t copy them directly. Give them to a video editor to create similar ads
- Launch with 5–10 ads and test
He thinks there’s a good chance you’ll be profitable quickly this way. Just remember his bigger lesson: the biggest wins come from offers nobody else is running.
For more on affiliate scaling with paid traffic, read Niels Zee on building a 7-figure affiliate business with Google Ads.
Key Takeaways From the Tim Burd Interview
- Selling qualified cases instead of raw leads can multiply revenue
- The best ROI comes from untapped offers with no competition
- Regulations can kill a business overnight. Diversify
- Invest in your next business, not just watches and cars
- Get good with AI now. Humans who steer AI will earn more
- Money without love is meaningless
Frequently Asked Questions About Tim Burd
Tim Burd is known as the Godfather of Facebook Advertising. He has spent well over $100 million on ads, runs the largest Facebook ad buyers group, co-founded AdLeaks and owns Agency Y.
His main focus has been a mass tort lead gen business that grew to about 120 employees, which qualifies claimants and completes legal paperwork to sell cases to law firms. He also recently launched a telehealth company.
He suggested untapped verticals like exotic car leads and plastic surgery leads, sold to one buyer per major city.
Mostly in crypto, mainly Bitcoin, with around 10–20% in stocks. He plans to start buying and scaling businesses.
Around age 25, regulation changes killed his dating-traffic business and forced him to close his LA dispensary in the same month, dropping his income from about $300,000 a month to under $10,000.
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- $0 to $9M ARR: Co-Founder of Trackier Udit Verma Opens Up: Success, Sacrifices & Regrets
- Alex Fedotoff Interview How He Generated $100+ Million in Sales For Clients
- This Guy Makes $1000+ Per Month From Social Media Marketing
If this conversation with Tim Burd gave you even one idea, share it with a friend who needs it today. One conversation can change someone’s life.
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Jitendra Vaswani is a well-known figure in the SEO and affiliate marketing communities. He is regarded as a legitimate authority due to his deep knowledge and game-changing contributions to the field. He is the founder of Digiexe.com, a digital marketing agency, and VenueLabs.com, a full-service PR marketing agency. His strategic acquisition of AffiliateBooster.com has further solidified his status as a leader, bringing forth groundbreaking solutions that are revolutionizing affiliate marketing. Follow Jitendra on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn