I think you’ll agree with me when I say this:

There are A LOT of sales funnel types out there and knowing what to choose can be hard to say the least.

Since the competition for leads is getting harder by the day. Knowing what funnel to use and when can be the difference between great success and complete failure.

So, even though the demand for your product or service might be high, and the traffic is flowing…

You need to do your best to ensure that as many visitors as possible converts when they land on the first page of your funnel.

And having the wrong funnel at the right place could severely hurt your chances of converting those visitors into leads and customers.

The question is: Do you know which funnel type is best for your next project? Well, that’s where this guide comes into play.

How does a funnel work?

Think of sales funnels like if you were out fishing.

You find yourself a good spot by the lake, bait your hook and throw it in the water. Then you wait (for what feels like an eternity) for a fish to take the bait.

Once the fish is hooked and you’ve reeled it in, diners is served.

And although the fish might not be that exited to become lunch, you are happy that you got food for another day.

The same thing goes for funnels (but the customer doesn’t become lunch…hopefully).

First you choose your niche (same as the lake).

From there you crate your sales funnel and bait the first page with a curiosity based headline and a good lead magnet.

Then you throw it in the water, or place it where your dream customer hangs out (it’s up to you).

Now when a visitor lands on your page and takes the bait, they’ll enter the rest of your funnel. Or you start to reel them in to become a customer.

Once the visitor has gone through all the carefully crafted steps of your funnel, it will come out the end of it as a happy customer.

And you’ll be happy too since you got to add one more customer to your list.

Here’s what I decided to do…

Now, I was thinking about how I could help you learn more about the sales funnel types and when to use them…

So, I sat myself down and did some research in order to figure out what the most popular funnel types are and what people are using in their businesses.

What I came up with was this list, 22 of the most commonly used sales funnel types out there.

A trend that I saw when I did this research was that almost every funnel on this list could be sorted in to only four categories:

• Event
• Buyers and sales
• Lead
• Other, which contains the more “custom” funnels.

Now, to make it even easier for you to choose your next funnel. I’ve decided to split each funnel type into four parts:

• What category it belongs to
• How many pages it “should” have
• When to use the funnel type
• And a short description of the concept behind it

1: Lead Magnet Funnel

Category: Lead

Pages: Two

When to use: To collect new leads and build a list

The Lead Magnet Funnel is by far the most commonly used funnel out there. You can see literally it everywhere.

Everyone from big businesses to small businesses and even single individuals use this funnel.

The reason why it’s so common is probably due to the fact that it’s so simple, only two pages.

And the idea behind it is even simpler…

On the first page you give away something for free in exchange for a visitors email address.

What you decide to give away in this funnel is totally up to you, but it’s usually something like a report, video, or a free trial.

And on the second page, you hold your end of the deal and deliver on what you promised.

2: Bridge Funnel

Category: Lead

Pages: One or Two

When to use: Pre-framing and lead generation

Another very popular funnel people like to use is the Bridge Funnel.

This funnels works best when you need to pre-frame something you want to sell. Or if you want to connecting (bridging) two different, yet relatable products with each other.

Affiliate marketers love this funnel because they most of the time don’t have any control over the page where they are sending their traffic.

Putting a bridge funnel between you and the final destination of your visitor gives you a chance to pre-sell the product and build some hype around it.

You also get the opportunity to catch a visitors email address before sending them to a funnel you can’t control.

3: Squeeze Funnel

Category: Lead

Pages: Two

When to use: Lead generation and list building

The Squeeze Funnel has only one goal, to get someone to give you their email address.

This funnel type is super simplistic and has almost no other distractions on it. Most of the time there is no logo on it and the footer is kept as simple as possible.

Side note: When you’re using this funnel with PPC advertising, check the terms of the platform you’re using. Most of the time a platform like Google will demand a logo at the top and privacy, disclaimer and terms in the footer to stay compliant.

The secret sauce to get the most conversions out of a Squeeze Funnel is to use a curiosity-based headline. Then, when a visitor enters their email address and click “submit” they’ll get the answer to the question on the next page.

Hence why this funnel type is such a good choice when you are going after a new “colder” audience. Now you don’t use a lot of branding and instead you use the power of curiosity to get someone the opt-in.

Then on the next page which would be the “Thank You” page, you give the answer and start introducing your brand and services, etc.

The no.1 rule is…

The more curiosity your headline has, the more likely it is that someone enters their email address to find out more.

4: Reverse Squeeze Funnel

Category: Lead

Pages: Two

When to use: Lead generation

The Reverse Squeeze Funnel is pretty much the opposite of the one I mentioned above.

This funnel is based on the concept: Give before you take.

On the first page you’ll give away some of your best stuff or knowledge before you ask the visitor to opt-in.

Personally I think that in order to get the most out of this funnel, you should have a video on the first page. Then once the video is over you ask the visitor to “opt-in for more”.

This funnel is very useful when you need to drop a visitors guard quickly, since you’ve already put some time and effort into the ‘relationship’ with them.

The “Thank You” page is then used to deliver further information and also include a share with friends option.

This funnel type usually have lower conversion rates compared to the Squeeze Funnel. However, the quality of the lead tends to be much higher.

5: Survey Funnel

Category: Lead

Pages: Once

When to use: Get visitors to commit and engage with you

The Survey Funnel is one of the “less” frequently used sales funnel types. But that doesn’t mean it can’t pack a powerful punch.

The two main purposes of this funnel type is to get the visitors to engage with you and for you to figure out who the visitor is.

The first step is to get the visitor engaged, and you do this by having the visitor answer questions and make micro commitments.

With the information you get from the questions you can then figure out who the visitor are. This will then allow you to show them a more personalized sales message based on the results.

In the survey you may ask things like, “Are you a dog or a cat person”.

If they choose dog person, then you can direct them to a funnel that is specifically designed to sell to people interested in dogs. The same thing goes if they were to choose cat person.

6: Application Funnel

Category: Lead

Pages: Three

When to use: High ticket lead generation

This is one of the most used sales funnel types when it comes to high ticket sales and lead generation.

With the Application Funnel a potential lead must first “apply” and be approved before they can work with you.

That’s why this funnel is so useful and popular among high end coaching and consultation businesses.

Depending on how you set it up, this funnel lets you rule out everyone that isn’t a perfect fit for you.

Resulting in you having a smaller list of leads that is a perfect match for you and who are super exited to get the opportunity to work with you.

7: Ask Campaign Funnel

Category: Lead

Pages: Two

When to use: To figure out what customers want

A Ask Campaign Funnel can be used whenever you need to figure out what a customer really want. This makes this funnel type very versatile and it can be used throughout all the stages of your business.

When you use this and ask customers something, you’ll most likely use open-ended questions like: “What’s your no.1 question/challenge with…?”

Simple yes or no questions will not cut the mustard here, since they doesn’t provide you with any real information.

Using this method, you’ll get to know the customers false-belifes and pain points before they give you any money.

The data you get from this “ask campaign” will then serve as the basis of your next new offer.

By the way, having trouble getting people to respond to your campaign? Offer them a gift if they participate.

8: Sales letter Funnel

Category: Buyers and sales

Pages: Four

When to use: Selling your own products and services

Ahh, the grand father of the sales funnel types. This one has been around for ages and I would even say that this is where the funnel game started.

The Sales Letter Funnel uses a long form sales letter to sell a product or service (hence the name).

Here you’ll use the “Hook, Story, Offer” method all in one page, to grab a visitors attention, tell a story and offer them a solution to the problem.

The first page in this funnel will sell the initial offer (maybe with an order bump), and then you’ll have upsells and downsells right after to try and increase the overall cart value.

9: Video Sales Letter Funnel

Category: Buyers and sales

Pages: Four

When to use: Selling your own products and services

Accompanying the grand father of funnels is the Video Sales Letter Funnel.

This works in the same way as the Sales Letter Funnel, but instead of text you use video to convey your sales message.

Like with the sales letter, the first page sells the initial offer, and then you have upsells and downsells afterwards to try and increase the cart value.

A neat thing many do with this is that they hide the “Add to cart” button till the video has raveled the price, this way more visitors will stay and listen to your entire sales message.

10: Invisible Funnel

Category: Buyers and sales, Event

Pages: Three

When to use: Sell your product using an “event”

There are no ghosts involved in this funnel so put down the phone, you don’t have to call ghostbusters…yet.

The Invisible Funnel varies compared to the other event style funnels in the way you structure the product.

Now, on the video sales letter page you sell access to your event, but instead of just selling it as a product that someone is going to buy…

You allow them to have access to it for free.

They still put in their credit card information, but you only charge them after they’ve attended the event.

If the customer likes the free training they are told to “do nothing, and that their credit card will be billed in two days for example.

And if they for some reason didn’t like the training, tell them to let you know and that you won’t bill them at all.”

From there you use the usual OTO’s, upsells and downsells to increase the cart value afterwards.

Think of it like this…

You go to a restaurant, order food, and then you only pay for it if you liked it (that would for sure have given me some free meals over the years).

11: 2-step Tripwire Funnel

Category: Buyers and sales

Pages: Four

When to use: Selling products using advertisement

A popular sales funnel types that goes hand in hand with PPC advertisement, is the 2-Step Tripwire Funnel.

With this funnel you crate a low ticket irresistible offer that you put on the front-end of your funnel to help you break even on ad spend.

This because a cheaper low ticket product is much easier to sell “on the spot” than an expensive one. Leading to higher conversion rates.

The name “2-step” comes from how the orderform is structured on the first page.

On step one, a potential customer is asked to submit their contact information, weather just a name and email or more.

Then on the second step, the potential customer selects the product and enters their credit card information.

Since both of these steps take place on the same page, it creates a seamless experience for the customer. But for you it’s two individual steps with their own marketing setups.

This is why the true power behind the “2-step” is in the way you can follow-up with potential customer that left without (completing step 2) buying.

OTO’s, upsells and downsells are used on the backend to try and increase the cart value.

12: Daily deal Funnel

Category: Buyers and sales

Pages: Two

When to use: To sell products

One of the sales funnel types that was made famous by companies like Groupon or Living Social is the daily deal funnel.

This funnel is basically an irresistible offer paired with an evergreen campaign to bring a steady flow of customers into your business.

The first page is a 2-step order form page where you add your irresistible offer.

And the second page or “Thank You” page is where you encourage your customers to share the same deal with their friends.

This way, when people buys they bring more people in and the loop continues.

13: Membership Funnel

Category: Buyers and sales

Pages: At least 4

When to use: When you have a membership to sell access to

The Membership Funnel was created for those who have a membership or subscription service they like to sell. This includes:

• Course membership sites
• Paid newsletters
• Or other similar services

The way someone sells access to a membership site varies from person to person, but a few popular alternatives are when combined with a:

• Sales letters
• Video sales letters
• Webinars
• Summits
• etc.

What many have in common though is that on the first page they usually sell some type of trial period or offer access as a bonus.

But others have members area access offers as a upsell further down the funnel.

Anyway, when a customer accept the offer for the trial, they’ll be taken to the next step in the funnel where they get a link to crate their account.

The user then create their own unique username and password and unlocks the content he or she paid for.

The cool thing about the membership funnel is that most softwares allows you to lock and unlock content depending on what a member has bought from you.

Like a free trail period that only unlocks certain parts of your members area.

14: Webinar Funnel

Category: Event

Pages: Four

When to use: When you want to host a webinar event

This must be one of the sales funnel types that has grown the most over the years.

I feel like everywhere you look there is a webinar to attend to, and when you understand the concept, you’ll know why it’s so popular.

With a Webinar Funnel you get more time to close potential customers at a much higher price compared to if it was “just” another product.

This is because most webinars are at least one hour long and this gives you more time to address false-belifes, pain points and why you have the best solution.

This funnel falls into the “event” category and can therefore be broken down into two phases.

Phase one: The visitor registers for a seat to attend and here you use success stories to increase curiosity.

And unlike the Auto-Webinar Funnel (which you can read about next), this is a live event and is usually hosted on a 3rd-party software like WebinarJam or Go-To-Webinar.

However, some sales funnel platforms have the live webinar function built in.

Phase two: In this phase, visitors attend the live webinar and gets presented with the offer.

Once the presentation is over, the viewer can watch a replay of the event in a “replay room”, but only for a limited time until the offer expires.

This way you create tons of scarcity and urgency.

15: Auto-Webinar Funnel

Category: Event

Pages: Five

When to use: When you have perfected your live webinar

I’m going to be honest here and say this the way I learnt it…

Don’t use the Auto-Webinar Funnel until you have proven your offer several times with your live webinar.

The biggest difference between this funnel and the usual Webinar Funnel is that this uses the recording of the best converting webinar fromt the live session.

This is why the live must be perfected first.

The best performing video is uploaded YouTube, Vimeo, etc. and is then embedded in its own “webinar broadcast room”.

The best thing about a Auto-Webinar Funnel is that you can have a webinar start every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

This way you always have a webinar going and your products and services are selling automatically around the clock.

And here’s how it works…

When someone lands on the registration page and registers, they are taken to a confirmation page where they can see the date and time for the event.

They are also emailed links to “indoctrination” pages where you get them all worked up and exited for the training they are about to watch.

After the webinar is over, the viewer are emailed a link to a “replay room” where they have one last chance to watch the presentation.

16: Product Launch Funnel

Category: Event

Pages: Four

When to use: If you have a new product to release

Jeff Walker introduced something called the “Product Launch Formula” and this has helped many entrepreneurs to launch their new companies overnight.

And with this, the Product Launch Funnel was born (don’t quote me on it, this funnel could have been around longer).

Think of this concept as how Hollywood is giving previews on their next release.

The product launch funnel lets the you build up anticipation around the product before the customers are allowed to buy it.

Small previews about the product are sent on a daily basis to the potential customers. This builds urgency and scarcity for when the final day comes and the “cart opens” and customers gets to buy.

The thing that defines this funnel is that the cart will close after a few days, hence the big scarcity.

Once closed, you can decide if you want to open the product again, some might not do this and closes the deal forever. Creating super high scarcity and urgency.

17: Homepage Funnel

Category: Other

Pages: At least two

When to use: When you want a homepage that also is a lead funnel

A Homepage Funnel is just what it sounds like, a funnel with all the traditional “homepage” features but with an underlaying Lead Funnel.

The true power with this funnel is that it’s good at highlighting the core of your business while still allowing you to display products and collect leads.

The first page of this funnel tells the story of your business and invites for an opt-in.

On this page you can also display testimonials, your crew, products and other important elements that highlights your business.

The second page is a simple “Thank You” page, where you can deliver your lead magnet and also encourage people to share with their friends.

18: Hero Funnel

Category: Other

Pages: Two

When to use: For when you want to highlight yourself

This funnel does one thing really good and the bi-product is a bigger list.

Instead of highlighting the business, you the entrepreneur is in the spotlight this time.

Here you get to shine some light on your story, who you are, and what you’re all about while building a list of followers.

Once someone subscribes to your newsletter, they land on the “Thank You” page where you ask them to follow your social media accounts too.

19: Summit Funnel

Category: Other

Pages: Three

When to use: To provide value and build authority

This is one of the more creative sales funnel types and I personally really like the concept of this one.

Now, I’m guessing that you are an entrepreneur who wants to grow your authority and provide tons of value in the process?

Then this is the funnel for you.

The Summit Funnel works by putting together a online summit (not obvious right…) with multiple speakers that you interwire.

Typically you’ll let people register for free and then you upsell them the recording of the event.

This is a great way to build a list as well as growing your authority in the industry and providing tons of value to the viewer.

The idea is that on the sales page, you add the biography of each of the speakers you’ve invited and on the registration page you’d add all of their headshots.

And why not use the recording of the event as an upsell.

The “Share Page”, is where you get the current attendees to invite their friends to the event.

20 :Cancelation Funnel

Category: Other

Pages: Two

When to use: For when someone is trying to leave

As business owners, the last thing we want to see a Friday morning is someone trying to refund, cancel a service or return one of our products.

To remedy this, the Cancellation Funnel can be used.

In fact, one of the resons to why someone might want to refund your product is because they don’t understand some part of it.

Letting the customer go through a quiz before they cancel lets you figure out what their specific concern is, and then you can try and save the sale on the next page.

Sure some will still refund you, but having a Cancellation Funnel in-between can drastically reduce the refunds and cancelations.

21: Storefront Funnel

Category: Other (sales)

Pages: One

When to use: To mimic a e-commerce website.

Of all the sales funnel types listed so far this is the one that mostly resembles window shopping.

It’s a one-pager where you’ve gathered all of your products with links to each products individual funnel.

In essence, it’s built to “simulate” an e-commerce website. But here, instead of just being a shopping cart, each product leads to a funnel that sells that product.

22: Live Demo Funnel

Category: Other

Pages: Two

When to use: When you want to show off a product

Think unpacking videos on YouTube and you’ll get the idea behind this funnel.

The best way in my mind to show off your product is to actually use it yourself. And with the Live Demo Funnel you can do just that.

With this funnel, not only do you get to show off you new shiny thing, but you can also answer questions live while you demonstrate it.

Also, remind your viewers where they can get the product your showing off and keep the past episodes below.

Conclusion

There you have it, the complete list of the 22 most common sales funnel types and what you would use them for.

Now it’s your turn:

Which of these sales funnel types do you like to use?

Is it the traditional sales letter funnel? Or are you going to try something new in your next project?

Or maybe you have a funnel type that I didn’t cover here.

Either way, leave a comment below to let me know.