What is a tripwire funnel?
A tripwire funnel is a type of front end funnel used to qualify leads coming into a business.
Tripwire funnels have fairly simple structure.
The first page is a sales page for a small lower cost offer, called a tripwire offer.
This offer is in the $1-$10 range.
Its purpose is to be a quick no-brainer offer that visitors can say yes to.
If a visitor buys the first offer, they are taken to an upsell page that sells a higher priced product.
In a well optimized tripwire funnel, between the price of the tripwire offer & the price of the first upsell, the funnel should be able to breakeven on ad spend.
Breaking even on ad spend in a front end funnel is a game changer…
It means that you can acquire an unlimited amount of leads!
At the end of a tripwire funnel is a second upsell.
With this upsell the goal is to possibly make a profit while generating leads.
If you want to get more advanced, you can also add downsells to offer anyone who said no to an upsell, but this isn’t necessary.
When to use a Tripwire funnel
Tripwire funnels are front end sales funnels, which means they are focused on getting new leads and customers into your business.
But in order to sustain having a front end funnel, you need to already have a back end sales funnel further up your value ladder that you can ascend leads and customers to.
Your backend funnel is where you are looking to make your big profits, not your front end funnels.
So you shouldn’t use a tripwire funnel until you have an established way to sell your core offer.
The reason is that you’ll need some time to split test and optimize your tripwire funnel before it breaks even.
Which means you’ll be losing money until it gets optimized!
One of the positives of a tripwire funnel is that it can be used with both physical and digital products.
What is a Free Plus Shipping Funnel?
A Free Plus Shipping Funnel is another type of front end sales funnel.
The Free Plus Shipping Funnel gets its name from the offer at the front of it…
At the start is an offer for a physical product that visitors don’t have to pay for, if they will pay for the shipping cost.
Usually the shipping cost for domestic shipping is $7-$10.
For the product, you want it to be a value of $25 or more.
The big difference between the value and the cost of shipping is really what gets this funnel to work.
One thing you have to make sure to do with this funnel is explain why you’re giving the product away for free.
Most people are somewhat skeptical and get concerned about it somehow being a scam if you don’t explain it a little.
When to use a Free Plus Shipping funnel.
A Free Plus Shipping Funnel is still a front end funnel, so its goal isn’t really to make a lot of money.
If it can breakeven on ad spend with a Free Plus Shipping funnel is an accomplishment in itself.
Because of that, you want to have your backend funnel already set up and converting well BEFORE you set up your Free Plus Shipping Funnel.
This is especially true with this funnel because you also have the cost of the physical product you’re giving away for free AND your ad costs.
So don’t use a Free + Shipping Funnel as your first sales funnel you’re building for your business.
What are the main differences between a tripwire funnel and a Free Plus Shipping funnel?
The main difference between the Tripwire Funnel and the Free + Shipping Funnel is a tripwire funnel can use all digital products.
This can be a HUGE advantage for smaller businesses that don’t want to invest the upfront capital into inventory for the free product.
One advantage that the Free Plus Shipping Funnel has is you can use the word Free in your marketing.
That doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it has a huge impact on your click through rates and ad costs.
Other than those 2 big differences, the two funnels are set up almost exactly the same.
Their first offers are in the same price range…
They have the same goals and they use the same number of upsells.
Tripwire funnel vs Free Plus Shipping Funnel, which is better?
The answer to this really comes down to what type of business you have.
If you have an established ecommerce business, a Free Plus Shipping Funnel will probably be better for your business.
For established ecom businesses, the drawback of sending out free products while you finish optimizing your funnel is less extreme.
Mostly because you already know how to sell those customers more things in your follow up.
Also, being an ecommerce business, you already have physical products you can offer as Free + Shipping.
For any other type of business, a Tripwire Funnel is going to be the better option!
This really just comes down to not needing a physical product.
Even if you have an established digital products business, finding or making a useful, inexpensive physical product can be a daunting task.
This is especially true if it’s the first physical product your company has ever offered.
Adding that on top of losing money offering it, just makes it too much of an uphill battle.
Even though you will still probably lose money on the tripwire offer in the beginning, you’ll be losing less…
AND it will be easier to get up to breaking even.
If you’re a newer ecommerce brand, I would still say the Tripwire funnel is the better fit…
This is because it requires less cash up front than a Free Plus Shipping Funnel.
Which allows you to invest in more inventory of your core products and advertising to grow your brand!
