My best-performing front-end funnel on cold Meta ads traffic, part by part:
1. The ad – a normal photo of me that keeps winning.
2. The opt-in page – 90.51% (248 opt-ins from 274 visitors), later 91.29%.
3. The “anti-hype” sales page for a $49 handshake offer – 17.68%.
4. Checkout, bumps and upsells – where the math actually works.
5. The follow-up emails – a 76.3% open rate and 55% click-through on the first one.
A great opt-in rate alone doesn’t mean a funnel makes money. Judge the whole chain.
A while back, I published a YouTube series where I break down my current BEST-performing front-end funnel.
And instead of just telling you airy-fairy insights…
I’m literally opening up my dashboards and walking you through everything, step-by-step (including what’s working right now and why)
Here’s the whole series in one place – every part, the numbers, and the video for each one.
What does the whole funnel look like?
This first one is a general overview of my funnel.
The foundation.
I’m sharing this first because if you don’t understand the architecture, every tweak you make later is basically you spinning knobs in the dark.
Now…
Regarding the 90.5% (opt-in / landing page conversion rate) number:
It’s so good, some people might consider it fake!
In fact, when I first pulled it up, I refreshed the page like an idiot because I thought Thrive Leads was bugging out on me.
But no…
It’s consistently real.
At the time of shooting this video, my landing page conversion rate was 90.51% on COLD TRAFFIC (!)
(That’s 248 opt-ins from 274 visitors)
Now it’s even higher… but we’ll get to that in the opt-in page part below 😉
Although – believe it or not – despite such an incredibly high opt-in page conversion rate, your funnel can still quietly bleed money if you’re not careful about a couple of things.
So in the video, I show the other KPIs that actually decide whether this thing deserves to live:
– I show the front-end ROAS (1.23x at the time of shooting the video – now higher)
– I show the cold traffic sales page conversion (almost 18% (!))
– I show what changes when the same page gets organic traffic vs retargeting traffic.
– and many other eye-opening details.
If you’re planning to build a funnel soon, this will save you from the most common “looks smart, works terrible”-style mistakes.
And if you’re already running one, you’ll get a better way to judge what’s working before you go “fix” the wrong thing.
Free book + AI assistant
Turn the Leads Already Joining Your List Into Buyers – Faster
The Rapid Lead Activator reveals the psychology-based framework I use to write welcome sequences that sell – without hype. Normally $9.99 on Amazon, yours free. Plus a bonus AI assistant that writes your first 5 welcome emails for you – in minutes, not days.
Send Me the Rapid Lead Activator →Why does this Meta ad get clicks when most don’t?
This is the next domino in the series…
And it’s all about the ad itself that people see on Meta.
The actual copy and creative that’s been sending cold people into this funnel.
In this video, I’m showing it all… nothing gets held back!
And the funniest part?
The ad image that’s consistently working best for me.
It’s a normal photo of me ______
(^ ^ You didn’t think I’d reveal it right here, did you? That would kill all the curiosity :))
I picked this image randomly, almost as a “let’s see what happens” thing.
And – surprise, surprise – it keeps winning.
In the video, I explain the psychology behind why this image slips past the scroll, and how to think about creativity when everyone else is trying way too hard.
And then we get into the copy.
I’ll show you the structure of the ad itself…
The opening lines I tested…
What I kept (and what I killed)…
And the small wording choices that make a BIG difference.
If you’ve been tweaking buttons and headlines on your page while your ads quietly underperform… this might be the missing piece.
How does an opt-in page convert at 91% on cold traffic?
This part’s all about the opt-in page, which – get this – is converting EVEN higher now!
How high?
(^ ^ One of my favorite movies of all time, btw. If you know, you know :)
91.29%
As part of a front-end funnel…
On ice cold traffic…
Using Meta Ads.
That’s craaaaaaazy, yo! 🤯🤯🤯
Sometimes I’m still wondering if there’s a glitch in my reporting or something like that…
But as you can clearly see from the KPI updates I share in the video, it’s as real as gravity.
And the coolest part?
This page isn’t some 47-step “CRO masterpiece”…
It’s a short, simple, but VERY intentional opt-in / landing page that anyone can replicate (including you).
So in this video, I open the page and walk through every single detail like a crime scene.
I show you what’s on the page…
I show you what’s NOT on the page…
I show you the few elements that are doing the heavy lifting (and why they’re there)…
And I also point out the small detail that looks stupid… until you realize it’s the reason the page feels easy to say “YES” to :)
PLUS: how – despite raising the price for the upsell offer – my conversions actually went… UP!
What makes an “anti-hype” sales page convert?
17.68%.
That’s the sales page conversion rate for the special “handshake offer” people get when they first subscribe to my email list.
And this is consistently the case on ice-cold Meta Ads traffic.
If you know anything about funnel economics, you KNOW this is 🔥🔥🔥
Because THIS is the part where most people totally mess up!
They start adding more copy…
They start adding more urgency…
They start “building trust” with fifteen paragraphs of motivational TED Talk energy.
And somehow… sales don’t go up.
People just get tired way too fast.
What’s working for me here is exactly the opposite.
I call this the “anti-hype” sales page.
Why?
Because it’s calm and direct…
And it treats the reader like an ADULT who can make a decision – without being wrestled into it.
Inside the video, I reveal:
– How the page is structured from top to bottom
– Why I’m not starting with a long story (even though old-school copy rules would tell you I “should,” especially for cold traffic)
– How I get the offer and the price in front of people early (because attention spans are cooked and I’m not here to act as if it was still 2010).
– Where the proof goes… and what kind of testimonial actually HELPS at the top (instead of the usual “life-changing, transformed, aligned” nonsense).
– Heck, I even show you the little “this isn’t a magic button” expectation-setting line… because I’d rather be slightly less sexy and keep the RIGHT people.
And yes, we talk about the actual offer mechanics too.
This “handshake offer” is $49 for the first 4 days…
Then it goes back to $99.
You’ll see exactly how that fits into the front-end math.
Where does a cold-traffic funnel actually make its money?
Time to talk about the part of funnels that most people completely neglect:
Upsells.
They’re 100000% critical to any cold-traffic funnel…
And that’s why I dedicated close to 40 minutes to this exact topic (and how it applies to my own live cold-traffic funnel) in Video #5 of the series.
In this deep-dive, I’m breaking down the checkout page…
The order bumps…
And all the upsells I’m using right now.
This is the whole reason why the math behind my funnel works!
Because the main front-end offer is only a “handshake” at $49 (for a few days)…
And it wouldn’t be able to make things work on its own.
So that’s why I built the rest like an à la carte menu.
If you want fries with that, great.
If you don’t, also fine.
But the people who DO want the extra thing make the whole funnel dramatically healthier.
So in the video, I reveal:
– The actual bump offers I’m testing…
– The exact “yes” and “no” button copy (you’d be surprised!)
– How I’m actually having FUN by adding a little reverse psychology (I’ll show you exactly how I do it without sounding cringe)
– OTO #1, and why it has the highest take rate.
– And much more!
The result?
You go from a $49 buyer… to someone who happily spends a few hundred bucks 15 minutes after meeting you.
What should the follow-up emails look like?
I’m going to start this part by saying something mildly offensive:
Most “funnel emails” feel like they were written by an intern who hates you 😅
And then we all act shocked (SHOCKED, I tell you!) when nobody clicks.
So to address this problem, the last video of the series is ALL about the follow-up emails.
The actual sequence people get right after they opt in.
I’m not covering abstract frameworks on a whiteboard in this one…
Instead, I’m pulling up the real emails and the real numbers!
The first email is sitting at around 76.3% open rate…
And it’s pulling a 55% click-through rate.
From cold traffic.
Not bad.
But the next several emails in the sequence have consistently 50%ish open rates too…
…all while generating lots of customers, engagement, and replies too.
Inside this last video of the series, I reveal how I pull this off consistently…
The strategy & psychology behind it all…
The logic behind each email…
How I sell with an “integrity first” approach without turning into a motivational poster…
And more!
After you watch, steal one thing.
Steal the reply trigger.
Or steal the pacing.
Or steal the way each email points to the next step.
Just don’t keep sending “hope you’re doing well” emails and blaming cold traffic, por favor.
What to steal for your own funnel
1. Learn the architecture before you tweak anything. Otherwise every change is you spinning knobs in the dark.
2. Judge the whole chain, not one number. A 90%+ opt-in rate can still sit in a funnel that quietly bleeds money. Look at front-end ROAS and the sales page conversion too. (Here’s how I read the ad side: Facebook ads metrics explained.)
3. Keep the opt-in page short, simple and intentional. Not a 47-step “CRO masterpiece” – just the few elements that do the heavy lifting. (More on that in my landing page best practices.)
4. Make the sales page calm and direct. Get the offer and the price in front of people early, put proof where it helps, and set honest expectations. Treat the reader like an adult.
5. Build the back end like an à la carte menu. The handshake offer gets people in. The bumps and upsells make the math work.
If you want a calm, direct sales page like that – one that sounds like you – my Sales Page In An Hour tool walks you through it, in as little as an hour.
Free book + AI assistant
Turn the Leads Already Joining Your List Into Buyers – Faster
The Rapid Lead Activator reveals the psychology-based framework I use to write welcome sequences that sell – without hype. Normally $9.99 on Amazon, yours free. Plus a bonus AI assistant that writes your first 5 welcome emails for you – in minutes, not days.
Send Me the Rapid Lead Activator →-Csaba
