We’ve been talking a lot about ads lately. And how Facebook ads have helped us make a massive jump in revenue this year.
But here’s the thing: ads alone are not the solution.
You need ads. You need the right funnel strategy. And you need the right offer.
Because I’m seeing a pattern: a lot of people are struggling to sell their real programs. Not the $27 impulse buys — I’m talking about the $997, $2,000, $3,000 programs. The ones that feel like an investment.
And they’re wondering why it’s gotten so hard.
What’s Changed (And Why It Matters)
There’s more competition. Ads are more expensive. But the biggest shift?
People are distrustful.
They’re distrustful of you, the person selling to them. And they’re distrustful of themselves.
They’ve bought a lot of things. They’ve invested a lot of money. And either they followed the program and didn’t get results, or they spent the money and didn’t actually do it.
If they can’t even trust themselves to follow through, it doesn’t really matter how good your offer is.
The way most people are selling their programs is only designed to work with a warm audience. And unless you’re constantly refilling that warm audience — adding hundreds of people to your list every single week and warming them up correctly — you’re going to struggle.
So what’s the answer?
You Need a Gateway Offer (But Not Just Any Low-Ticket Offer)
A gateway offer is a low-ticket offer. But it’s not just any low-ticket offer.
Because there are plenty of people running low-ticket offers and still not making sales.
Your gateway offer needs to do three things:
- Allow you to sell more of your mid-ticket and premium programs.
- Grow the audience who are going to see those offers.
- Be profitable enough that you can scale it with ads.
When your gateway offer does all three? It’s a game-changer.
But most people are making at least one of these three mistakes.
The 3 Biggest Gateway Offer Mistakes
Mistake #1: Going Too Niche
Low-ticket is not the place to go super niche.
To run profitable ads at scale, you need an offer that appeals to a large audience. The trick is finding something that appeals to your ideal client and an audience bigger than your ideal client.
You need to be okay with making sales to people who won’t buy anything else from you. Because those sales are funding your ads and getting you in front of more ideal clients.
Mistake #2: Solving a Functional Problem Instead of a Vanity Problem
As experts, we know that the problem people think they want to solve isn’t always what they actually need.
When you’re talking to a cold audience with direct ads, you have very little time. You need to meet them where they are and offer them something that solves the problem they’re looking to solve.
We call this a vanity problem.
It’s probably easier to solve than the real problem. It might feel surface-level. But that’s exactly why they want it — and why it works for cold traffic.
Most people try to solve functional problems with their gateway offer. That’s why they don’t convert.
Mistake #3: Pricing It Wrong
People either price too low ($7) or too high.
To run scalable ads, you need to break even — ideally be profitable — right up front. It’s really hard to do that at $7.
Plus, order bumps and upsells are anchored by your initial price. You can’t jump from $7 to $99. So your entire average order value shrinks.
You need to find your impulse buy price. But not the cheapskate impulse buy price.
What’s Next
Now you know what not to do.
Next week, I’m walking through what you actually need to do to create a gateway offer that scales your sales, grows your audience, and runs profitably on ads.
This has been one of the big game-changers for us this year.
Listen to the Full Episode
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