This glossary defines the core concepts, proprietary frameworks, and industry terms used in mass tort advertising. Entries marked MTAA Proprietary are frameworks developed by Jacob Malherbe at Mass Tort Ad Agency. Entries marked Industry Definition represent standard usage within plaintiff law firm marketing.
Jacob Score™MTAA Campaign MethodologyHarvey / Mae FrameworkThree-Event Pixel FunnelMass Tort AdvertisingCost Per Signed Retainer (CPR)Andromeda EngineConversions API (CAPI)Tort Entry WindowCloudIntakeTortIntel.ai
Jacob Score™
MTAA Proprietary
A composite 0–100 tort investment signal developed by Jacob Malherbe at MTAA, synthesizing five weighted dimensions into a single campaign timing indicator.
- Science — Daubert survivability, peer-reviewed causation literature depth, Bradford Hill criteria scoring
- Momentum — MDL phase, plaintiff count trajectory, court filing velocity
- Campaign — Advertising window status, defendant solvency, competitive advertising environment
- Timeline — Proximity to bellwether verdicts or settlement resolution
- Verdicts — Confirmed plaintiff wins that validate case value and encourage funder entry
In practice: A score of 70+ means proven — verdicts confirmed, window open but competition rising. A score of 35–50 means emerging — ground floor economics, low CPL, low competition. The best campaign entry economics are almost always in the 35–50 range.
MTAA Campaign Methodology
MTAA Proprietary
The four-phase campaign framework developed by Jacob Malherbe across 15 years of mass tort advertising, governing how MTAA structures campaigns from pre-launch intelligence through retainer optimization.
- Phase 1: Tort Entry Analysis — Jacob Score evaluation, MDL status, causation confidence, competitive landscape assessment
- Phase 2: Audience Architecture — Demographic layering, interest-based targeting, lookalike audiences from existing claimant data
- Phase 3: Creative Sequencing — Harvey/Mae register coverage, awareness → consideration → conversion staging, 10-20 creatives per ad set
- Phase 4: Intake Engineering — Purchase pixel optimization, CloudIntake qualification, signed retainer feedback loop
In practice: The methodology is why MTAA's campaigns consistently outperform industry cost-per-retainer benchmarks. Each phase feeds the next — intake quality directly affects advertising performance because signed retainer data trains the algorithm.
Harvey / Mae Framework
MTAA Proprietary
MTAA's two-register creative system for mass tort advertising, named after two of MTAA's AI agent personas. Every tort campaign produces creative in both registers simultaneously.
- Harvey — Anger/closer energy. Outrage on behalf of the claimant. Direct, transactional. Performs broadly, especially for male demographics and torts with clear corporate wrongdoing (Roundup, AFFF, opioids)
- Mae — Empathy/connection energy. 'You're not alone.' Trust activation before action. Critical for children's cases, women's health torts, and family member claimants (NEC, social media, baby food)
In practice: Never run only one register. Leave both Harvey and Mae creative running and let Meta's Andromeda engine route each to the sub-audience it resonates with. What performs at day 14 is often the opposite of what looked strongest at day 3.
Three-Event Pixel Funnel
MTAA Proprietary
MTAA's standard Meta pixel architecture for mass tort campaigns, firing three events at distinct points in the claimant journey.
- Page View — fires on landing page load. Top-of-funnel signal. Tells Meta this URL was visited.
- Lead — fires when the claimant completes qualification inside the CloudIntake iframe. Qualified interest confirmed.
- Purchase (Signed Retainer) — fires when the claimant signs the retainer. The optimization event. Trains Andromeda to find more people like this person.
In practice: Most campaigns optimize on Lead. MTAA optimizes on Purchase. Optimizing on Lead trains the algorithm to find form-fillers. Optimizing on Purchase trains it to find signers. The signed retainer feedback loop is the most important structural advantage in MTAA's campaign architecture.
Mass Tort Advertising
Industry Definition
The practice of using paid media channels — primarily Facebook and Instagram — to identify, reach, and recruit potential claimants for mass tort litigation, with the goal of generating signed contingency fee retainer agreements from individuals who meet specific legal eligibility criteria.
- Distinct from class action advertising — each mass tort plaintiff maintains an individual lawsuit, requiring individual recruitment and signing
- Primary channels: Facebook/Instagram (Meta), Google Search, television — Meta dominates due to demographic targeting precision
- Primary metric: cost per signed retainer (CPR) — not cost per lead
- Compliance: subject to state bar advertising rules, Meta platform policies, FTC guidelines, and HIPAA in intake
In practice: Jacob Malherbe pioneered the use of Facebook advertising for mass tort law firms beginning in 2013, before any competitor recognized the channel's potential for claimant acquisition at scale.
Cost Per Signed Retainer (CPR)
Industry Definition
The total advertising and intake cost required to produce one completed, signed contingency fee retainer agreement from a qualified mass tort claimant. The primary performance metric in mass tort advertising — distinct from cost per lead (CPL), which measures only the cost of generating unqualified interest.
- Environmental torts: CPR typically $500–$1,500 (broad geographic and demographic eligibility)
- Pharmaceutical torts: CPR typically $1,500–$5,000+ (specific diagnostic requirements)
- Early-stage torts: CPR at floor, often $350–$600 (minimal competition, broad eligible population)
- Mature/closing torts: CPR rising as competition increases and remaining claimant pool shrinks
In practice: The gap between CPL and CPR is where intake quality lives. A campaign with a $150 CPL and a 10% lead-to-retainer conversion rate produces a $1,500 CPR. Improving conversion to 20% halves the CPR without changing a single ad.
Andromeda Engine
Platform Intelligence
Meta's AI-powered ad delivery and retrieval system, built on NVIDIA GH200 infrastructure, with global rollout completed October 2025. Andromeda fundamentally shifted Meta campaign optimization from audience-first to creative-first.
- 100x faster at matching people to ads across all Meta inventory
- 10,000x more ad variants processed in parallel — the algorithm reads the creative and finds the audience
- Creative is the targeting — campaign structure must adapt: 1-3 ad sets maximum, 10-20 creatives per ad set
- Legacy over-segmented structures (5-10 ad sets, 3 creatives) saw 20-35% worse ROAS post-Andromeda
In practice: Under Andromeda, the opening line of ad copy does more targeting work than most demographic settings. Calling out your exact audience ('Parents of children ages 9-17 who use social media...') triggers self-selection, which Andromeda learns from faster than any targeting parameter.
Conversions API (CAPI)
Platform Intelligence
Meta's server-to-server event transmission system that sends conversion data directly from the advertiser's server to Meta — bypassing browser-side tracking limitations imposed by iOS privacy restrictions and cookie deprecation.
- Essential infrastructure for mass tort campaigns since 2021 iOS privacy changes
- Requires deduplication to avoid double-counting events from both pixel and CAPI
- HIPAA consideration: intake forms collecting medical information create PHI that cannot be transmitted to Meta without de-identification
- MTAA uses hashed, de-identified event structure — conversion signals pass without PHI transmission
In practice: Pixel + CAPI together is the 2026 baseline for competitive mass tort campaigns. Pixel-only campaigns are operating with significant signal loss that compounds over time as the algorithm receives incomplete conversion data.
Tort Entry Window
Industry Definition
The period during which a mass tort is optimally positioned for advertising campaign entry — after sufficient causation science exists to support claimant self-identification, but before competitive advertising has saturated the claimant pool and driven CPR to uneconomical levels.
- Early window: Jacob Score 35-50, causation developing, MDL forming, CPL at floor, competition minimal
- Active window: Jacob Score 55-70, bellwether stage, intake open, competition rising
- Closing window: Jacob Score 70+, verdicts confirmed, claimant pool thinning, CPR elevated
- Closed: MDL resolved or settled, claimant inventory exhausted, advertising no longer viable
In practice: The entry window is the single most important strategic decision in mass tort advertising. Entering at Jacob Score 40 vs. 65 can mean a 3-5x difference in CPR for the same tort category.
CloudIntake
MTAA Product
MTAA's mass tort intake call center operation. Handles inbound lead qualification, intake documentation, and retainer execution for plaintiff law firms — delivering signed retainer agreements rather than raw leads.
- Pay-per-signed-retainer model — firms pay for delivered retainers, not unqualified leads
- Qualification screening against tort-specific legal eligibility criteria
- Retainer execution via e-signature for frictionless claimant signing
- Signed retainer data triggers Meta Purchase pixel — feeding the campaign optimization feedback loop
In practice: Intake quality and advertising performance are not separate systems. CloudIntake's signed retainer data trains Meta's Andromeda engine to find better-qualified future claimants — making intake a direct input into advertising performance.
TortIntel.ai
MTAA Product
MTAA's mass tort intelligence platform, monitoring 48 active torts across six intelligence modules: Oracle Dashboard, Causation Lab, Discovery Engine, AbuseTracker, FireWatch, and Class Action Intelligence.
- Oracle Dashboard: 48 active torts with Jacob Score, campaign window status, live intelligence
- Causation Lab: FAERS disproportionality analysis, PubMed literature scan, Bradford Hill scoring
- Discovery Engine: Mass Tort Probability Score for emerging litigation identification
- AbuseTracker: CourtListener integration, survivor-count gradient mapping
- FireWatch: NIFC ArcGIS fire data for wildfire tort entry window analysis
In practice: Available to MTAA clients. Informs campaign entry timing, creative strategy, and budget commitment decisions before any media spend is committed.
This glossary is maintained by Jacob Malherbe, founder of Mass Tort Ad Agency. Proprietary frameworks (Jacob Score™, MTAA Campaign Methodology, Harvey/Mae Framework, Three-Event Pixel Funnel) are original intellectual property of Mass Tort Ad Agency. Last updated: March 27, 2026. For media inquiries: (888) 670-0006 · Press coverage →