The Retargeting Ad Funnel Behind $34,000 Days

Most founders running ads know the feeling. Money goes out, nothing comes back, and you start wondering if ads even work for your business.

They do. But in coaching, consulting and info, a single cold ad usually isn’t enough anymore.

Here’s the ad funnel I use that has done over $34,000 in a day, and the two ingredients every ad needs to work.

The two ingredients: attention and belief

Every ad has two jobs.

1. Attention. Make someone stop what they’re doing and notice your message.
2. Belief. Get them to believe your offer can actually solve their problem.

Belief is the more important of the two. Attention gets people to look. Belief gets them to buy.

Why belief is harder to earn now

I’ve been in coaching, consulting and info marketing for seven years. The barrier to entry is low, so there are a lot of weak providers out there.

That means many of your prospects have already been burned. Trust is lower than it used to be, so ads in these niches need more sophistication than one video and a booking link.

Segment and retarget by topic

This is the core of the funnel.

1. Run a normal cold ad on Facebook or Instagram, and still try to convert on that first ad.
2. Build a retargeting audience of people who watched at least 30 seconds of the video. That’s a strong signal of intent.
3. Segment by topic. If you run separate ads on running sales, hiring, and training or fulfillment, keep those viewers in separate audiences.
4. Retarget each segment with ads about the video they actually watched. Someone who watched your hiring ad sees more hiring proof, not a generic pitch.

When I retarget, I lean on credentials that build belief: over $30 million spent on ads, a trained team of 100, and about 50,000 fulfillment clients.

Why does this work? Because a cold viewer who watched 30 seconds of your hiring ad has told you exactly what they care about. Showing them a random sales ad next wastes that signal. Matching the follow up to the topic keeps the conversation going where they left it.

This takes real work to manage. Audiences need to be built, ads need to be matched, and creative needs refreshing. I recommend a full time media buyer.

Remove risk and friction

The retargeting ad’s job is to remove risk and friction. The right guarantee depends on what you sell.

• Software or physical products: a money back or 30 day guarantee works fine.
• Information, marketing or consulting: a simple refund is weak. Use a performance based guarantee. If the buyer completes specific steps and doesn’t hit the result by a deadline, they can get their money back.

You can’t force people to act. It’s like knowing how to work out. Knowing the method doesn’t mean someone will follow it. A performance guarantee rewards the people who do the work.

Build the landing page around proof

I have a full time copywriter, but here’s the truth: people skim. They scroll fast, looking for proof.

So the page is simple:

• A VSL at the top that establishes authority, including how I made $150 million in six years, followed by a call to action to book a call.
• Testimonials for the rest of the page, mostly video. We add new ones as they come in.

One example is a client who grew from $200,000 to $600,000 a month. Video testimonials are harder to get than written ones, and people know it. That’s why they signal real results.

Make sure the offer is actually good

Clear offers convert more easily. One client helps students get into Ivy League schools. You either get in or you don’t. There’s no arguing with the result.

Business building offers are harder. I’ve had clients double their business and still feel they should have gotten 3x or 4x.

If your results are poor, the product might be the problem. Confirm the offer is genuinely good before you spend time optimizing ads.

Even in a tough market, it works

High ticket consulting is one of the toughest markets out there. That’s part of why I’m moving into private equity, hedge funds and tech, which I expect to be easier.

But even in this crowded space, this method has produced over $4,000 a day. The market being hard isn’t an excuse to skip the system.

How to put this together

If you want to build this yourself, here’s the order I’d do it in:

1. Check the offer first. Is the result clear, and are past clients actually getting it?
2. Build the landing page: a VSL that establishes authority, a book a call button, and as many video testimonials as you can collect.
3. Launch cold ads split by topic, so each ad speaks to one problem.
4. Create 30 second viewer audiences for each topic.
5. Write retargeting ads for each audience that add proof and remove risk with the right guarantee.
6. Hand the daily management to a media buyer once it’s working.

The takeaway

• Attention gets the look. Belief gets the sale.
• Retarget people who watched 30 seconds or more, segmented by the topic they watched.
• Use a guarantee that fits your product, and make it performance based for services.
• Load your page with proof, especially video testimonials.
• Fix the offer before you scale the ads.

Want to know if it’s your ads, your offer or something else capping your business? Take my free 90 Day Ceiling Plan. Answer 18 questions and get a written plan, built on your own numbers, that names the one thing holding you back and what to fix first.