Listen to the full podcast episode above or read on for the complete breakdown of what’s killing your funnel conversions and how to fix them.

If you’ve got a funnel that has stopped or stalled in the last 12 months, I bet I know why.

As someone who’s been deep in the funnel trenches testing strategies with real money (we’re talking thousands in ad spend), I’ve discovered four specific things that are absolutely crushing conversions right now that probably weren’t issues in previous years.

These aren’t theoretical problems – these are conversion killers I’ve tested extensively, and I’m going to show you exactly what’s happening and how to fix them.

Conversion Killer #1: Countdown Timers on Your Tripwire Pages

Let’s start with the big one that might surprise you. I just finished running a $1,000 test on this because I don’t make recommendations based on hunches – I put my money where my mouth is.

The test: I ran side-by-side split tests of identical tripwire pages. The only difference? One had a 20-minute countdown timer, the other didn’t mention any time pressure at all.

What happened: Yes, we got a tiny uptick in immediate sales on the countdown timer page. But here’s what I discovered when I looked at the bigger picture – everything else in the funnel conversion rates more than halved.

The people who didn’t buy on that countdown timer page? Their open rates plummeted, click-through rates disappeared, and sales from the follow-up sequence practically vanished.

Why this happens: Right now, people are more sceptical than usual. When someone’s never heard of you, they’ve just trusted you enough to opt in for something free, and then immediately you’re hitting them with high-pressure tactics saying “You’ve got 10 minutes to buy this or it goes away” – that feels like bait and switch.

The fix: Remove countdown timers from your tripwire pages. If you want to test this yourself, look beyond just the immediate page conversions and track what happens through your entire funnel.

Conversion Killer #2: Not Having Proper Tracking

This one drives me absolutely mad. The tracking inside platforms like Facebook is historically terrible and seems to get worse over time. Sometimes it’s kind of close, other times it’s nowhere near accurate.

The problem: You might see Facebook reporting zero sales from an ad set, when in reality, 11 sales came from it. Or the opposite – Facebook overreporting sales that didn’t actually happen. This leads to turning off ads that work or adding budget to ones that don’t.

When you need proper tracking: Once you’re spending about $300 a day or more on ads, it’s time to invest in proper tracking. I use a tool called HiRos (this isn’t a sponsored recommendation – I’m not affiliated with them).

The reality: These tools aren’t cheap, but the results are night and day. When you’re scaling, proper tracking will save you money by helping you make better decisions instead of just guessing.

Conversion Killer #3: Waiting Too Long to Make Your Offer

This goes against traditional wisdom, but hear me out. The old school of thought was to spend time “wooing” people – letting them get to know you before making any offers.

Here’s what’s actually happening: When someone opts into your list, they’re in a very specific state of mind. They’ve broken out of their doom scroll, they’re actively searching for a solution, and they’re interested enough to hand over their email address (knowing full well they’ll get emails from you).

The two problems with waiting:

1. Increased competition: They just clicked on something Facebook now knows they’re really interested in, so the algorithm will show them even more of your competitors
2. Lost momentum: They want the solution NOW. If you make them wait 7-14 days, they’ll have seen offers from dozens of other people

The fix: Bring your offer forward. We completely removed our warmup sequence and went straight to the pitch first, then into relationship building. This change more than doubled our conversions.

Conversion Killer #4: Not Having Any Deadline

Here’s a fun story. At the start of this year, I was researching what other marketers were teaching. I saw someone with a huge following claiming they’d “cracked the code” with a new funnel style that had no deadline – people would just “naturally know when the right time is to buy.”

My test: I decided to test this with about $1,000 in ad spend. It was an abysmal failure – probably the lowest converting funnel I’ve ever created, converting at less than 1%.

The fix: I took the same emails, same offer, and simply added a deadline. Conversions went from less than 1% to over 3% just by telling people they couldn’t buy forever.

The follow-up: That big-name person later recanted and admitted they’d made a massive mistake, switching back to their previous strategies.

The truth is, people need deadlines. I know I do – if someone tells me I can buy something in three weeks, I’ll forget about it completely.

Quick Recap: The 4 Conversion Killers

1. Countdown timers on tripwire pages – Creates distrust and kills follow-up conversions
2. Poor tracking – You’re flying blind and making expensive mistakes
3. Waiting too long to make offers – You lose people in their moment of highest intent
4. No deadlines – People need urgency to take action

Ready to Build a Conversion-Optimised Funnel?

If you’ve been making any of these mistakes (or even if you haven’t), I’d love to help you create a funnel that actually converts. I’ve been working behind the scenes on a brand new 3-day live virtual event where we’ll design, create, and launch your own funnel together.

This isn’t just any funnel – it’s designed to:

• Grow your email list consistently
• Make sales every single day
• Grow your social media following
• Add hundreds or thousands of people to your other launches and funnels

Thanks to AI and the templates I’ve been perfecting, you can get this created in just a few hours a day over three days. We’ll do it together, with support, feedback, and templates for everything.

For the first 100 people, tickets are just $97 (normally $197).

Ready to automate your way to consistent sales? Join the Automate It Challenge and let’s build your Content Engine funnel together. I can’t wait to see your results!