11 Lessons I’ve Learned Generating Over $20,000,000 In Revenue Using Webinar Funnels
How the world's leading experts and companies sell online courses using webinars and paid ads.
The days of getting $4 OUT for every $1 you put IN your automated webinar funnel using paid ads are probably gone.
I’m not saying you can’t generate high returns anymore, but let’s be realistic...
It became a lot harder than it used to be.
It takes more time and energy to build a mid-7-figure or 8-figure company.
In this post, I’ll explain to you the behind-the-scenes high-level advertising and business strategies that use 7-figure information / education to become 8-figure businesses selling online courses & high-ticket offers.
( If you can’t spend 20 minutes straight reading this case study without interruptions so you really understand the lessons, click here and I’ll send you a copy to your email)
It’s been six years since I wrote my very first blog post “11 Lessons I Have Learned Managing Webinar Funnel That Generated Over $200,000 In Revenue”
That was the first webinar campaign I ever did that generated over a million dollars in revenue when you sum up all the back-end sales ( monthly DFY service + high-ticket offers).
Since I gained a lot of knowledge (and weight) over the last 6 years…
This summer I decided to write PART 2.
THE Webinar funnel.
“Are they still “cool” and effective? “
“Is it still possible to build a 7-figure or 8-figure information business using webinar funnels? ”
“Can you still profitably convert cold traffic into sales? ”
Well, there are a lot of unanswered questions floating around in the room.
So let’s try to answer some of them.
A few years ago, I met Matthias & Dan who had an online course publishing company generating approx. $1M/year in revenue working with some of the world’s leading fitness influencers.
Today, they own an 8-figure education & software company generating close to $10,000,000 per year.
And the company valuation is probably close to $100,000,000 now. But that’s just my guess.
If they didn’t use webinar funnels (both LIVE & automated) they would NEVER make it.
This story goes back to November 2018.
That afternoon we landed in Berlin.
It was just a few hours before their initial launch that everyone was waiting for.
The first time they launched ads for a brand new webinar, they were getting registrations at $30/lead.
Guess what?
Their show-up rate wasn’t good either ~ 15% and they made NO sales on the first webinar.
As soon as the webinar ended, we sat down, created a script for a new video ad, and reduced the CPL to $9/lead.
They also generated the first customers for their online course which was a moment everyone in the room had been waiting for.
Just a few years later, the company is generating close to $10,000,000 in revenue selling its education programs & software.
Another great example of a client who built his 8-figure online empire using webinar funnels and paid ads ( with a focus on Facebook) is #1 Clickbank Affiliate, Robby Blanchard.
Robby was generating registrations at $30/lead at the moment we met him.
He was stuck at $2000/day and wanted to scale it back to $5000+/day quickly.
Just a week later, we reduced his CPL back to $8/registration.
(Both of them received their Two Comma X Awards.)
Do you know what they had in common?
They both focused on WEBINAR FUNNELS…
PAID ADS…
And they’ve done it RIGHT.
In the next few paragraphs, I’ll break down the entire process of what needs to be done in order to generate $100,000 - $300,000/mo each month using a webinar funnel and paid ads.
And how you can actually build an 8-figure education / information empire by using the same.
I’ll try to summarize some of the key stories and lessons I’ve learned over the last 6 years of working with some of the world’s leading experts and companies so that you get the most valuable insights based on real examples and case studies.
At the same time, I’ll try to keep this as simple as possible so that everyone can understand it.
Let’s dive in.
1. Your Market & Product (Offer) Fit
Does your market have a painful problem and is actively searching for a solution?
(Ex. People who can’t make money online at all.)
Can your OFFER relieve the pain caused by the problem?
( Ex. The product offers them a beginner-friendly step-by-step system almost anyone can follow and make their first sales online.)
Are there enough people who need a solution and are willing to pay for it?
(Eg. There are millions of people who want to make extra money from a laptop but don’t know how to get started.)
You want to have at least 5,000 potential customers for a $997-$1297 offer which is usually an online course + hands-on support inside the Facebook group.
If you have at least 5,000 potential customers, you have a good potential to build an 8-figure business.
Here are real examples:
Commission Hero By Robby Blanchard - CH teaches people how to generate income (~$1000/day) online with affiliate marketing using Clickbank & Facebook.
Passion.io by Daniel Harvey - Passion.io teaches experts how to share their knowledge more efficiently online by creating a mobile app inside their drag-n-drop builder.
Foundr Magazine by Nathan Chan - Foundr Magazine is one of the fastest growing magazines in the world with a large audience of motivated entrepreneurs interested in different topics. The company built its initial audience more than five years ago by leveraging Instagram's organic strategies, so its main offering was an online course about the same.
Real Estate High Rollers by Tatiana Londono - REHR educates and helps real estate agents to position themselves in the local market and get more buyer & seller leads.
Do you see the same pattern in the examples above?
All of these businesses are solving ONE BIG problem and have a huge market willing to pay for a solution.
But different markets and offers require different webinar approaches…
Let me explain in the next lesson.
2. Crafting The Right Presentation (MQL or SQL)
Let’s talk about the webinar presentation.
There are several ways you can craft your presentation:
Education-based webinar presentation for marketing qualified leads (̌~90 mins)
Direct offer-based webinar presentation for sales qualified leads ~(<30 mins)
What type of presentation is the best for you?
It depends on your current marketing (and business) goals.
If you’re selling a $997 online course to a cold audience, in that case, you want to use the 1) education-based webinar which sometimes lasts as long as 2 hours.
You need to “educate” them about the current problems they’re already aware they have… and present new solutions to solve those problems in a unique way.
Remember, sometimes you don’t need to educate them.
You just need to break the false beliefs.
Once the old beliefs are broken, you created a perfect environment to sell your new solution.
Another example would be when you want to sell a high-ticket coaching / consulting offer to your existing or even cold audience.
In this case, you want to talk to people who are aware of the solution and are ready to buy it immediately!
For these people, you should craft a direct offer-based presentation that takes 10-30 minutes and only speak to qualified sales prospects.
I’ll assume that you have already done all of this so won’t get into further detail about what your webinar funnel should look like.
However, the fact is, no matter how well your funnel works you can always improve performance if you know what numbers you’re aiming for.
That’s why you need to set up baseline benchmarks first and foremost.
3. Set Up Realistic Target KPIs
Setting up realistic KPIs is the next thing that needs to be done right in order to build a 7-figure or 8-figure business using webinars and paid ads.
If you still want to get 3X-4X ROAS on Facebook for a $997 - $1297 online course that you sell using an automated webinar funnel AND you don’t want to run the ads if your ROAS is not 3X, then you have a problem.
Target KPIs for an automated webinar funnel:
Webinar registration rate: 25-35%
Webinar attendance rate: 50-70%
Webinar close rate: 2-3%
That means that your show-up rate from FB ads can be 70%… while the show-up rate from YT ads can be up to 50% at the same time.
On average, your show-up rate is obviously 60%.
But you also need to consider other more important KPIs like ROAS to decide which platform you will prioritize.
Here’s an example.
Let’s say that your current ROAS from Facebook ads is 1.6 on the front end.
And your current ROAS from Youtube ads is 2.5 on the front end.
I know it seems so obvious that you’ll invest much more money in YT ads than on Facebook, even though your show-up rate is lower on that platform.
But you’ll be surprised how many people make wrong decisions based on less important KPIs.
4. Paid Ads Are Lifeblood Of Your Business
Now we’re getting to the most important part of growing your information / education company by using webinar funnels and it is called “paid advertising”.
If you don’t have the ability to consistently get # the number of new leads who are pre-interested, pre-qualified, or pre-motivated to watch your webinar presentation - you’ll never be able to scale it with predictability.
The more predictability & reliability you have - the more stable your business will be.
This paid advertising game will most likely determine how much revenue (and profits) you will make each month.
For example, if your average ROAS for selling a $997 online course is 1.8.
Then you need to spend $100,000 per month to generate $180,000 in revenue and make $80,000 in profits.
Here's one of our examples.
The more money you invest into the ads, the more revenue your business will make.
It is a smart calculated investment once you tune everything up.
At some point, you’ll want to sacrifice the ROAS on DAY 1 to take a bigger % of the market and make more revenue in the future selling back-end offers.
That’s how you ultimately win in this game, but we’ll get back to it later in this post.
And one important thing…
If you’re like many other education companies, you cracked the code for 1 or, in the best case, 2 channels like Facebook & Youtube.
You should also test other paid advertising channels like Pinterest, TikTok, Google Ads, Whatsapp, etc.
Sometimes, companies miss huge opportunities because they rely on proven channels and they hesitate to test something new.
Don’t be one of them.
Test new channels.
Test new ads.
This brings us to the next point….
5. Always Be Testing
Have you ever heard the famous saying between sales guys “Always Be Closing “?
In the advertising game, we say “Always Be Testing”.
No matter how good you think you are.
Or how good you think you understand your audience’s pain points, desires, …
You should ALWAYS test new ideas.
New marketing hooks for new avatars can “easily” turn your $1,000/day ad campaign into $10,000+/day.
A single video ad can bring you 50,000+ webinar registrations.
And millions of dollars in sales.
It is all about the testing at the end of the day.
Let me show you some real examples.
Let’s get back to the story about Dan & Matthias from Passion.io
The first time they ran the ads for the webinar they were paying ~ $30/lead using these videos below.
Just a week later, we came up with a new video script that lowered the price by 70%.
The new cost per lead was $9/lead.
And that’s how scaled from there.
Another great example is Commission Hero By Robby Blanchard.
He was paying almost $30/lead for months because he wasn’t able to find a reliable team to take care of his ad accounts.
We tested new:
Audiences
Ad copies
Ad creatives
Headlines
Within a week, we reduced his CPL back to <$15/lead.
There are so many examples here that we could break down
But I want to keep it simple as promised.
Testing is an important factor when you’re growing your company.
It takes knowledge, time, and energy.
But it also saves you time & money.
Unfortunately, testing is not possible if you don’t have the ability to read the results and make new decisions based on those results…
That’s why you need to make sure that your tracking is on point.
6. Make Sure Your Tracking Is Accurate
After the recent iOS updates, many businesses started having problems making new decisions because? they missed the data from Facebook ads.
If you’ve been advertising on Facebook for more than a year, then you probably know:
“The more data your pixel receives - the better ad optimization will be”.
The future is cookieless and we are forced to embrace the change.
All smart companies and marketers already started using server-to-server tracking because of that.
On Facebook, It’s called Facebook Conversion API.
And it provides even more accurate data when it is set up correctly.
However, the real problem appears when you start advertising on multiple channels.
In that case, each platform will show you its own numbers and in many cases, each platform will attribute more sales to its channel ( unintentionally of course) because they don’t track the entire customer journey.
That’s why it is crucial for you to have the ability to make the right decisions based on what’s really going on.
That’s why we use Google Analytics, and heat maps combined with some of the most powerful tracking tools.
If you need any help to find the best tracking tool for your specific needs - feel free to reach out to me directly and I’ll do my best to find you the solution.
7. Optimization Is The Key
That’s why we make sure that you have the ability to collect all available data so we can optimize all main variables of the customer acquisition process.
As soon as you have the data about your main customer acquisition funnel & channel, we start an endless optimization process.
New week = new test!
We do optimize the front end of your main acquisition funnel (both tech side and content) to maximize results (CPA & ROAS)
At the same time, you need to continue optimizing the following:
Ad creatives
Ad copies
Headlines
Descriptions
Audiences
Placements
It is important to understand (and remember) that optimization is an endless process.
As long as you have new ideas for testing and the ability to measure and learn from the results of your tests, you are able to optimize both your funnel and the ads.
First, optimize for minimum INPUT = maximum OUTPUT.
Then maximize the INPUT.
Once you have fixed all the leaks in your funnel and optimized the ads for maximum performance is time to scale your paid advertising.
8. “Scale” Only When You’re Ready
Now we’re getting to the most interesting part of this case study - scaling.
Over the past few years, you probably read so many success stories about how other entrepreneurs and companies have grown their businesses to 8-figure plus per year.
But just a few of them shared the real struggle they needed to go through to get there.
I’m going to try to explain what it really takes to scale paid ads to 7-figures in this lesson.
And no… there’s no secret sauce or silver bullet that will turn your losing into winning ads and you’ll make thousands of sales in just a few weeks.
Actually, it is the complete opposite.
Scaling is the outcome of the systematic optimization process.
Once you collect enough data to maximize the output while keeping your input within desired KPIs, you are ready to scale your campaigns.
Most people confuse the terms “scaling” and “growth”.
While scaling is fast and exponential, growth is in many cases slow and linear.
You’re growing your team. You’re growing your business.
You can scale your customer acquisition campaigns only if it doesn’t require adding people to your team.
In that case, you’re growing, not scaling.
Here’s an example of Robby Blanchard’s campaigns that we scaled to $5000+/day in just a few weeks.
We also spend 20% of the monthly budget retargeting those leads with monthly special promos.
As you can see, once you tune everything up you can easily scale your campaigns to $5000+ per day in ad spend.
But growing your company to 8-figure requires building a team, systems, new offers, etc.
9. Personalized Ads For Each Funnel Step
Now let’s talk about retargeting campaigns for different stages of the funnel.
First off, you need to build as many as possible custom audiences on Facebook and other channels to segment your audience based on their previous activity in the funnel.
If you present your $997 offer at the 72nd minute of the webinar, then you want to have the ability to retarget attendees based on what they’ve seen so far.
If they didn’t see the offer, then retarget those people back to the replay so they can continue watching the presentation at the moment they bounced.
If they watched the offer, then retarget people to the sales page.
I think this sounds super simple and logical but even established 7-figure information companies with internal marketing teams don’t do this correctly.
The problem is, you have to deal with:
Custom audiences on advertising platforms
Email lists (CRM + webinar platform)
Use third-party tools like Zapier to connect all of them in real time.
It is so important to retarget people with relevant messages and offers.
That’s why we will write an entire blog post just about this topic in the future.
Stay tuned!
10. Maximize Your CLTV With Automation & High-Ticket Offers
Alright. You’ve done everything right so far.
You have a winning offer, and a broad audience and your paid advertising campaigns work well.
You’re generating $200,000+ in revenue, meaning you get 150-200 new customers each month.
But guess what?
If your AOV = LTV, then you have a huge problem.
To build an 8-figure company, you need to increase your CLTV.
That’s why all successful information / education companies spend a lot of time working on their marketing automation behind the scenes.
They also offer to their customers DWY and/or DFY for $3,000 - $15,000+.
Many successful 8-figure companies host a LIVE event at least once a year.
If you want to win this game, first generate as many customers as possible.
Then maximize the revenue per each customer.
You can’t run a profitable company sitting just on a $997 online course.
You need to build more offers and make more revenue.
11. Building A Lasting Business Is The Ultimate Goal
Real winners are great at winning. They know how to get to the top.
But more importantly, they know how to stay on top.
Here are some of the things we noticed 8-figure education do once they get there.
First off, they reinvest all the revenue back into their company to build more content, hire more people, and build more offers.
The ultimate goal is to provide great value to the marketplace so you can monetize later when the time is right.
Secondly, they focus a massive amount of time and energy on serving their existing customers.
Customers become advocates who promote them simply because they’re happy.
The most successful companies in the world understand the power of branding.
Is all about building a brand that lasts.
IN SUMMARY…
Growing your online education / information business using webinars and paid ads can still work extremely well.
You just need to invest 10X more time and energy before you crack the code.
Don’t try to reinvent the wheel or figure it out all by yourself.
It is much easier (and faster) to ask someone for help who has done it multiple times.
Want to discover how you can generate 2-3X revenue using paid ads?
Schedule a free strategy session with us to discover how we can help.
On this call, we’ll go through your webinar funnel and paid ads to identify the main problems and come up with a solution.
By the end of 45-min together, you’ll have clarity on what needs to be done to improve your current performance and you can choose whether you want to do it alone or work with us.
The call is 100% free and has no strings attached.
However, we don’t have the capacity to talk to anyone.
Usually, we charge $500/hour for a call.
For a limited time, we have a few open spots for this free consultation only IF you qualify.
Are you ready to take your business to the next level?
Book a call with us and let’s talk!
- Dom
Thanks for sharing such a detail write-up for free subscribers! How long did it take you to make the first profitable campaign?
Hi Domenec, I'm running a subscription business which primarily gets customers through my youtube channel. Never did ads. Any ideas which is a good network to start?