Key points
- Choose a funnel by price point, sales-cycle length and how warm your traffic is, not by what's popular this year.
- The more an offer costs, the more explaining it usually needs, which is the job webinars, VSLs and sales calls do.
- Order bumps and one-time offers add revenue at and after checkout without changing the front of the funnel.
- Public benchmarks exist for landing pages and webinars. We found no primary benchmarks for application funnels or lead magnets, so we don't quote any.
The parts most funnels are built from
Most funnel “types” are different combinations of the same components, so it helps to name those first.
| Component | What it is | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Lead magnet | A free resource such as a checklist or e-book | The entry point, offered for a signup |
| Tripwire | A cheap but high-quality product (one glossary cites $5 to $25) | Right after the lead magnet signup |
| Order bump | An add-on offered on the checkout page, such as a $19 workbook | Checkout |
| One-time offer (OTO) | An upsell screen, such as the core product at a discount | Immediately after purchase |
| Video sales letter (VSL) | A sales video making the full pitch, hook to call to action | A landing page built around the video |
| Webinar | A live or replayed presentation that ends with an offer | Between signup and sale |
| Application | A form that qualifies a prospect before a sales call | Before a sales conversation |
The tripwire, order bump and one-time offer descriptions come from ablefy, getebook.ai and Distribb. The webinar and application descriptions are our own working definitions.
Five funnel types
1. Lead magnet funnel
A landing page offers something free, such as a checklist or e-book, in exchange for an email address. Follow-up emails then build toward an offer. This is the base layer for almost every other type, since they nearly all start by earning permission to follow up.
The key metric is landing page conversion rate. Unbounce's 2024 median across all industries is 6.6% (Unbounce), but that covers every kind of landing page. We haven't found a primary benchmark specific to lead magnet pages, so treat the Unbounce figure as a rough reference, not a target.
2. Tripwire funnel
A tripwire is a cheap but high-quality product offered right after someone signs up for a free lead magnet (ablefy). One glossary puts the typical price at $5 to $25 (getebook.ai). The aim is to turn a subscriber into a customer early. That first purchase changes the relationship more than the revenue does.
A tripwire can pair with an order bump at checkout and a one-time offer right after, as in Distribb's examples: a $19 workbook as the bump, then the core product at a discount on the post-purchase screen. Take the word “high-quality” seriously. A cheap product that disappoints teaches buyers not to buy from you again.
3. Webinar funnel
A registration page leads to reminder emails, a live or replayed presentation, and an offer at the end. The weak point is attendance. ON24's 2025 data puts attendance at 60% of registrants, with average engagement of 49 minutes (ON24). Zoom's 2026 roundup cites Univid figures of 49% live attendance and 57% including replays, and names Tuesday through Thursday as the best days (Zoom).
Webinars suit offers that need explanation and benefit from live questions. They also demand scheduling, rehearsal and a reminder sequence, so they take more work to run than a single page.
4. VSL funnel
A video sales letter makes the full pitch, from hook to offer to call to action, usually on a landing page built around the video (Vidalytics). Vidico calls it the video version of a text sales letter (Vidico), and Pipedrive says a VSL has one objective: to make the sale (Pipedrive).
Compared with a webinar, a VSL is available on demand, with no registration gap and no scheduling. You give up live interaction in return. You can also run both: a VSL for visitors ready to decide now and a webinar for those who want more time and questions answered.
5. Application funnel
In our working definition, a prospect fills out an application, you review it, and qualified applicants book a sales call. It's built for high-touch, higher-priced offers such as coaching, consulting or done-for-you services, where both sides need to confirm fit before money changes hands.
We looked for primary sources on application funnel conversion and close rates and didn't find any we'd stand behind. If you see a figure, ask for the source, date, sample and definition before planning around it.
Decision matrix: which funnel to start with
| Situation | Price point | Sales cycle | Traffic temperature | Starting funnel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low-priced digital product | Low | Short, often the same visit | Cold to warm | Lead magnet plus tripwire, with an order bump |
| Course or group program | Mid | Days to weeks | Warm | Webinar or VSL into checkout, then a one-time offer |
| High-ticket coaching or service | High | Weeks or longer | Warm to hot | Lead magnet or webinar into an application and call |
| Software product | Varies | Often tied to trial length | Cold to warm | Landing page into free trial or demo, then onboarding emails |
| Physical products | Low to mid | Short | Cold to warm | Product page into checkout with order bump and post-purchase offer |
Traffic temperature means how well a visitor already knows and trusts you. Cold traffic has never heard of you, warm traffic follows or subscribes, and hot traffic includes past buyers and referrals. The colder the traffic and the higher the price, the more steps you usually need between the first click and the ask.
Worked examples by business model
These examples apply public median benchmarks to round numbers so you can see how to read your own results. They illustrate the arithmetic. They are not predictions or promises, and your results depend on your offer, audience and traffic.
Coach
Funnel: lead magnet, webinar, application, call. Unbounce has no coaching category, so the closest comparison is professional services, with a 2024 median of 6.1%. If 1,000 people visit your checklist page and it converts at that median, you get 61 subscribers. What you manage after that is how many apply, and how many applicants are a genuine fit.
Course creator
Funnel: webinar or VSL, checkout with an order bump, one-time offer. Say 200 people register for a webinar. At ON24's 60% attendance rate, about 120 attend. At Univid's 49% live rate, it's 98, or 114 if you count replays at 57%. Same event, a 22-person gap between benchmarks, which is why you should always note which source you're comparing against.
SaaS
Funnel: landing page, free trial or demo, onboarding emails that lead to the upgrade. Unbounce's 2024 SaaS median is 3.8%, well below the 6.6% all-industry figure. At that median, 1,000 visitors produce 38 signups. A SaaS page converting below the overall median may still be normal for its category.
Ecommerce
Funnel: product page, checkout with an order bump, post-purchase offer, email follow-up. Unbounce's 2024 ecommerce median is 4.2%. For follow-up, an agency's 2026 ecommerce figures show Klaviyo senders at a 31.0% open rate and 1.69% click rate, and Mailchimp senders at 29.8% and 1.27% (Threadpoint). Watch clicks and purchases more closely than opens; the metrics guide explains why.
Choosing tools by workflow, not price
ThriveCart notes that hundreds of new tools are entering the funnel software space and that the right platform depends on your business model, such as course creators or agencies (ThriveCart). We don't publish price lists because prices change. Start from the workflow your funnel needs:
- Pages: can you build and test landing pages without a developer?
- Checkout: are order bumps and one-time offers supported natively?
- Follow-up: can email sequences branch on behavior, such as attending a webinar or finishing a video?
- Video and webinars: does the tool host or integrate with the format you chose?
- Calls: for application funnels, can applications feed a CRM and a booking calendar?
- Reporting: can you see conversion at each stage, using your own definitions?
For how these stages connect, see our sales funnel stages guide.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between a webinar funnel and a VSL funnel?
Both deliver a full pitch before the offer. A webinar is scheduled, often live, and needs registration and reminders; ON24's 2025 data shows 60% of registrants attending. A VSL is a sales video available on demand on a page built around it, so there's no attendance gap but also no live interaction.
What is a tripwire offer?
A cheap but high-quality product offered right after someone signs up for a free lead magnet. One glossary puts typical prices at $5 to $25. Its job is to turn a subscriber into a first-time buyer.
What's the difference between an order bump and a one-time offer?
An order bump is an add-on shown on the checkout page, such as a $19 workbook. A one-time offer is an upsell screen shown immediately after purchase, such as the core product at a discount.
Which sales funnel should a beginner start with?
Usually a lead magnet funnel, because every other type builds on having permission to follow up. Add a tripwire, webinar or VSL once you know the lead magnet attracts the right people.
Are there benchmarks for application funnels?
We haven't found primary sources we trust. Treat any application funnel conversion or close-rate figure as unverified until you've seen its source, date, sample and definition.
Sources
- Tripwire glossary entry — ablefy
- Tripwire offer glossary — getebook.ai
- Tripwire offers guide (2024 edition) — Distribb
- Video sales letter — Vidalytics
- What is a VSL in marketing — Vidico
- Sales video letter — Pipedrive
- What's a good conversion rate (2024 Conversion Benchmark Report) — Unbounce
- Key takeaways from the Webinar Benchmarks Report — ON24
- Webinar statistics — Zoom
- Ecommerce email open rate benchmarks 2026 — Threadpoint
- Best sales funnel software — ThriveCart