Sales Funnel Meaning: What Is a Sales Funnel?

Originally published August 15, 2019 on the original SPEN10 blog. Lightly refreshed in October 2026: cleaned up formatting, replaced the original images with new diagrams, and removed offers that are no longer available.

So, you may be asking, "What does sales funnel mean?" A sales funnel is a series of web pages arranged in a specific order. The goal is to attract potential customers and guide them through a controlled sales or information-collection process.

On each page, the visitor has one option other than leaving. In some funnels, they can decline an offer and still continue to the next step.

There are several types of sales funnels, and many variations of each. Here are the most common ones we'll go over:

• Lead magnet funnel
• Video sales letter (VSL) funnel
• Sales letter funnel
• Webinar funnel
• Auto webinar funnel
• Bridge funnel
• Two-step tripwire funnel

The lead magnet funnel

A lead magnet funnel attracts visitors with a free gift — the "magnet" — such as a PDF ebook or checklist. Your lead magnet should attract the ideal customers for your niche.

Visitors land on the first page from a link you've advertised or posted on social media, and they enter their email address in exchange for the free gift.

I recommend delivering the gift only by email. That way, people who opt in have to check their inbox (and their spam folder, if they can't find it), which confirms the address is real.

You can collect more information, like a name, phone number or address, but only the email should be required. The less you ask for, the more people will sign up — just keep in mind that the more information people are willing to give, the higher quality the leads tend to be.

The point of collecting emails is to build a list you can send value and offers to. Done right, this can be extremely profitable without spending money on other marketing, like Facebook ads.

The video sales letter (VSL) funnel

A video sales letter is a video you record that sells your product. A traditional VSL introduces you, explains what you do and why, and then walks through the benefits your viewer will get. You record it once, upload it, and send traffic to it.

VSLs are great because they're essentially a salesperson who works 24/7 — and who you don't have to pay. Once it's set up, it runs automatically; you just send traffic to the funnel.

I recommend putting an opt-in page before the sales video, so visitors enter their email to watch. It's not required, but again, it builds a list you can send value and offers to for free.

On the video page, you can hide the "Buy now" button until the video is almost over. You can also hide the video's controls and timeline, which keeps viewers watching because they don't know how much is left.

When the button appears and the viewer clicks it, they go to an order page (or an order form can appear below the video). On the order form, you can offer an order bump: a one-time, discounted add-on the customer can include with a single checkbox, without filling in anything else.

Upsells, downsells and one-time offers

After the order, there are a few ways to go. The next page can be a thank-you page that ends the funnel, or you can present a one-time offer (OTO). Like the order bump, the customer only has to click "Yes, add this to my order" (or similar) — it uses the payment details they've already entered.

This should be a limited offer they can only get in this funnel. It has its own page, so you can add a bit more detail than the order bump, but keep it short.

Next, you can add an upsell or a downsell. Neither is required, but they increase your funnel's average order value (more on that below). In most cases I recommend both: an upsell to offer a more expensive product to people who bought the one-time offer, and a downsell — a cheaper product or a payment plan — for people who declined it.

You can keep adding offers after this, but I don't recommend it. Past this point, you start annoying people, and most won't see the later offers anyway.

A VSL funnel has every one of these characteristics — it's the very meaning of a sales funnel.

The sales letter funnel

This funnel uses a long-form written sales letter on the main page, followed by an order form. It gets its name from the length of the script: I use the "Star, Story, Solution" script from DotCom Secrets by Russell Brunson, and I recommend learning it if you plan to build a sales letter funnel.

Again, you can put an opt-in page before the sales letter to build your list. (Yes, I'll keep mentioning this, because it's that important!) If visitors don't buy, you still have their email and can send them value and offers later.

The order form can include an order bump, just like the VSL funnel, followed by an upsell or downsell. For sales letters, a downsell that always follows the one-time offer usually works best — but feel free to experiment.

The final thank-you page can simply say thanks, or it can include an offer wall: several items related to what they ordered, a bit like an online store.

Sales letters generally aren't as effective as VSLs, and they take a lot more work to write. But they're great if you're not comfortable on camera.

The webinar funnel

A webinar gives you more time to win over potential customers at a higher price point. Most webinars run over an hour, which gives you lots of time to connect with your audience.

The webinar funnel has two phases. In phase one, visitors register for a seat, and you build anticipation with success stories and curiosity leading up to the webinar.

In phase two, registrants attend the live webinar. Afterward, people who didn't buy get a sequence of emails reminding them how much time they have left, and people who registered but didn't attend get the replay.

When the offer window closes — usually a few days after the webinar — actually close it. That creates real urgency and scarcity. Don't worry: you can run another webinar and do it all again.

The auto webinar funnel

Only use an auto webinar after you've run the live webinar several times and proven your offer. Take your best-converting live webinar and upload it as a recording that plays on a schedule — even every hour, on the hour.

Someone registers on the auto webinar page, then lands on a confirmation page showing the time of the next session.

The webinar can start for them at the next scheduled time (send a reminder email first). If it's further out, like a few days away, send "indoctrination" videos that provide more value and information about your offer and get them excited for the webinar.

If they miss the session, send a replay as a last chance to get the offer.

The bridge funnel

A bridge funnel pre-frames visitors, or connects two different but related ideas for them.

You usually start with a squeeze page (an opt-in page) about something the visitor already knows. After they opt in, you send them to a page where they learn about the product you recommend — bridging the gap between what they know and what they need.

Bridge funnels are especially useful for affiliate and network marketers: they pre-frame customers before sending them to a sales page you don't control, or introduce a product people need but don't know they need yet.

The two-step tripwire funnel

A tripwire is a low-priced front-end offer that's so irresistible people just have to buy it. After they enter their payment details, you can add an order bump.

For a tripwire funnel to work, you also need a one-time offer that can be accepted with one click on the page after the main order. It's also recommended to add an upsell and/or downsell.

The idea is that the front-end offer pays for your ad spend, while the one-time offer, upsell and downsell — higher-priced items — are where most of your profit comes from.

And even if someone only buys the first offer and doesn't continue, you can still email them about the one-time offer, upsell or downsell later.

Why funnels make you more money

These are just examples to show what different sales funnels mean. They're all essentially a controlled sales or lead-collection process. Funnels can greatly increase your profit, because each extra offer — the order bump, one-time offer, upsell or downsell — adds to the final cart value.

For example, if you're running ads with a single $10 offer, the most you can make per customer is $10. If you have a $10 offer, followed by a $37 one-time offer, followed by a $297 upsell, the most you can make per customer is $344. Not everyone will buy everything, of course — but your average order value will be much higher than $10.

All with the same ad spend!

I built my funnels with ClickFunnels. In 2019 it was the easiest builder I'd found, with the shortest learning curve, and it includes templates for all of these funnel types to get you started fast.

If you're still not sure where to start, I recommend the One Funnel Away Challenge.

Questions about setting up your funnels? Email me at support@spen10.com — I'd love to help.

— Spencer

Disclosure: Some links in this post are affiliate links. If you sign up through them, SPEN10 may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I'm an independent ClickFunnels affiliate, not an employee, and these opinions are my own.