A video sales letter funnel is a sales funnel that sells with a video: the VSL (video sales letter) page makes the pitch, then an order page, a checkout, a one-click upsell, a downsell for the buyers who say no, and a thank-you page that hands the buyer to their account.
Below is a complete one, built as a template kit, page by page.
If your VSL ends on a single checkout button, the pages after the payment are where I'd spend the next week.
Most guides on this topic stop at the video script. This one follows a buyer through the Supplement VSL funnel kit, an ElasticFunnels template for a fictional joint-support supplement, and every page below is live in the kit preview: the VSL page, the sales letter, the order page, the upsell, the downsell and the thank-you page.
Each section shows the page and lists what it does. You can start your own funnel from the same kit and change it from there.
The preview is a library copy with no payment account behind it, so it stops at the checkout form. The upsell, downsell and thank-you pages open on their own, with an example order.
| Page | Its job | Price |
|---|---|---|
| VSL page | Make the pitch on video, show the offer at the pitch | none |
| Sales letter | The same pitch for people who read | 3 bottles, $108 |
| Order page | Pick 1, 3 or 6 bottles | $49.00 to $192.00 |
| Checkout | Take the payment, with the pack still switchable | the chosen pack |
| Upsell | 3 more bottles, one click | $72 |
| Downsell | 1 more bottle, only after a no | $33 |
| Thank-you page | Confirm the order, send the buyer to their account | none |
| Members area | Orders and the bonus downloads | none |
When a video sales letter funnel is the right shape
A VSL earns its length when the offer needs a story or a demonstration before the price makes sense: a supplement with a new angle, a course, a device that has to be shown working. Picture a buyer who has never heard of the product, arriving from a native ad. A product page with a price at the top asks them to decide before they know why they should care. A video can spend ten minutes on the problem first.
- Good fit: one hero product, cold or warm paid traffic, an offer with a mechanism to explain.
- Poor fit: a catalogue, a commodity the buyer already understands, a price the buyer can judge at a glance.
- In front of it: on cold traffic, many funnels put an advertorial before the VSL page, so the click arrives already curious.
The broader process, from picking the offer to tracking every step, is in how to create a sales funnel. Here we go page by page through one that is already built.
1. The VSL page: video first, offer at the pitch
The first page is a headline, the video and very little else.
- Above the video: a one-line briefing bar, the headline and two lines on who speaks in the video.
- The player: the video plays muted with a "Click to listen" overlay. It is hosted on TrackPlay, and you can paste another player's embed code instead.
- The way out: "Prefer to read? Read the letter instead" opens the same pitch as text.
- Under it: four short facts and a quote card from the expert.
The order buttons are not on the page at first. They appear when the video reaches the pitch: the player sends its call-to-action event at the time you set, and the page reveals the offer.
- Fallback: if the event never arrives, the offer shows after a delay you set once (two minutes in the kit).
- Returning visitors: the page remembers the reveal in the browser, so someone who comes back tomorrow sees the packs straight away.
- What it reveals: the same three packs as the order page, the 90-day guarantee, reviews and an FAQ.
Every bracket on this page is yours to fill: the expert's name and credential, the years in practice, the customer count. If a number can't be backed, take it off the page. On a supplement offer, the claims on the VSL page are what an ad reviewer and a payment processor will read first.
The VSL page with the player embed, the reveal at the pitch with its fallback delay, the three packs priced from your Products, and the dietary supplement disclaimer in the footer.
2. The sales letter: the same pitch for readers
Some visitors will never turn the sound on. The letter gives them the pitch as text.
- Format: a dated letter from the expert, a 9-minute read, with a photo, a pull quote and a "what's in the bottle" list.
- The offer: one box for the three-bottle pack in the middle and again at the end, with a link to compare all three sizes.
- Proof: reviews, the guarantee and an FAQ, the same blocks as the VSL page.
I'd never run a VSL without a text version next to it. It costs one page, it catches the reader who is at work with the sound off, and it gives you a second thing to split test against the video.
3. The order page: three packs, priced per bottle
Every "Order now" link in the funnel lands here, and so does the reveal on the VSL page.
| Pack | Price | Per bottle | Free gifts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 bottle (30 days) | $49.00 | $49.00 | none |
| 3 bottles (90 days), "Most popular" | $108.00 | $36.00 | mobility plan, morning-stiffness journal |
| 6 bottles (180 days), "Best value" | $192.00 | $32.00 | both, plus a 1:1 check-in call |
The three-bottle pack is the one the page is built to sell. It sits in the middle, raised and highlighted, and the copy explains why: a cycle of the product runs about 90 days. The single bottle is there so nobody leaves for lack of a cheap option.
The gifts carry the step up as much as the price does. They are digital, so they cost nothing to deliver, and each one has a page in the buyer's account later. The 1:1 call is a service you deliver yourself; the kit's notes say to remove it if you can't.
4. The checkout: change the pack without starting over
Each pack's button opens the funnel's checkout with that pack already ticked.
- Switch in place: picking another pack swaps the order line, the price and the free gifts in the summary.
- Gifts in the order: each bonus is a line in the summary marked FREE, so the buyer sees what the bigger pack added.
- The rest: email, phone for tracking updates, the shipping address, the card, and the guarantee next to the total.
This kit has no order bump. The checkout page already shows any bump you attach to it, so adding one is a product and a setting, not a page edit.
The checkout page set as the funnel's checkout, the 1, 3 and 6 bottle packs as one product with a "Bottles" option, and the gifts attached to the bigger packs as bonuses.
5. The upsell: 90 more days at the lowest price
Right after the payment, before the thank-you page, the buyer gets one more offer.
- Offer: 3 more bottles for $72, which is $24 a bottle, shown against $177.
- One click: "Yes, add 3 bottles to my order" charges the card from the first order, with no card form.
- Gifts: a 1:1 mobility check-in call and a 12-month stair plan.
- The argument: a short note on why buyers run out around day 75, two reviews and the guarantee.
It sells more of what the buyer just chose, at a price they have not seen anywhere in the funnel. That is the whole case for a one-click upsell: no new product to judge, no card to type. In ElasticFunnels the one-click charge works on Stripe, NMI and PayPal.
6. The downsell: one bottle for the buyers who said no
"No thanks" on the upsell does not go to the thank-you page. It goes here.
- Offer: 1 more bottle for $33, shown against $59.
- The pitch: "Were three bottles too many?" One bottle covers the gap while the next order ships.
- After it: yes or no, the buyer goes to the thank-you page.
A buyer who says yes on the upsell never sees this page. That is the point of the decline branch in the funnel: the cheaper offer only reaches the people who turned down the bigger one, so it can't pull buyers down from $72 to $33.
Both pages with their products and one-click accept links, wired in the funnel so a yes on the upsell goes to the thank-you page and a no goes to the downsell first.
7. The thank-you page: the order, then what to do next
The last page of the sale confirms the order and starts the buyer's first week.
- Order summary: built from the buyer's real order, upsell included. The preview shows an example order, PREVIEW-1048.
- Open my account: a link to the members area, with "sign in with the email you used at checkout".
- Four next steps: save the sign-in page, start the mobility plan, add the support address to contacts, and when to take the first dose.
- Support: one block with an email button for anything wrong with the order.
Supplement refunds often start in the first week, when nothing has changed yet. A page that says "most people notice around week six, mark day 45 on the calendar" is cheaper than any retention email you'll write later.
8. The members area: orders and bonus downloads
The buyer signs in with their email and gets a one-time sign-in link. There is no password.
- Home: the most recent order with its status, and the 90-day toolkit.
- The toolkit: the mobility plan, the journal, the stair plan and a doctor conversation guide. Each one shows only to a buyer who owns the product it came with.
- Protected pages: the dashboard, orders and welcome pages require a login and send everyone else to the sign-in page.
- In the preview: the dashboard shows an example customer, Alex, with the same example order.
The members area is where the gifts from the order page get delivered. Without it you'd be emailing PDFs by hand, or sending a link anyone could forward.
The math: what each step adds to the order
The take rates below are made up for illustration. They are plausible guesses, and yours will differ.
| Step (hypothetical take rate) | Revenue per 100 buyers | Per order |
|---|---|---|
| Packs: 40 take 1 bottle, 45 take 3, 15 take 6 | $1,960 + $4,860 + $2,880 = $9,700 | $97.00 |
| Upsell: 20 take 3 more bottles | 20 × $72 = $1,440 | $14.40 |
| Downsell: 10 of the 80 who declined take 1 bottle | 10 × $33 = $330 | $3.30 |
| Total | $11,470 | $114.70 |
More than double the one-bottle order, and the pack choice carries most of it. The upsell and downsell add about $18 an order on these guesses.
That gap decides what you can pay for traffic. At a $60 CPA, a funnel that sells one bottle at $49.00 loses money on every sale; at $114.70 AOV (average order value) it has room left for product, shipping, fees and refunds. Bigger packs also cost more to make and ship, so run the same table with your own costs before you trust it.
What to test first in a VSL funnel
Test where the money is decided, in this order.
- The reveal time. Too early and the offer interrupts the pitch; too late and people leave before they see a price.
- The video against the letter as the page the ad lands on. Same offer, one change.
- The upsell offer. 3 bottles at $72 against 2 at a different price. The page stays the same.
- The pack that carries "Most popular". It moves the order value more than any headline.
In ElasticFunnels a split test runs up to 5 variants under one URL, so the ad keeps sending traffic to the same link while the pages change behind it. Judge each test on revenue per visitor as well as conversion rate: a page that sells more single bottles can win on conversions and lose money. The A/B test sample size calculator tells you how much traffic a test needs, and how to split test landing pages covers the setup.
How to create a VSL funnel from the kit in ElasticFunnels
Everything above is one template kit. Here is the path in the app.
- Find the kit. Create page, Choose Template, the Kits tab, then search "vsl".
- Open What's inside. The review draws the funnel journey with a thumbnail of each page, then lists every page and product with its price.
- Apply it. Add a folder if some page URLs are taken, leave "Create the 9 products" on and press Apply kit. It runs in the background.
- Make it yours. Add your video, fill in the brand and expert variables, set your prices in Products, replace every review and count, and link your own files to the four downloads.
Want the platform side in one page? The VSL funnel builder covers the video host, the checkout and testing.
- Custom checkout with the pack switch and the free gifts, on your own domain.
- One-click upsells and downsells charged to the card from the first order, on Stripe, NMI and PayPal.
- Funnels that send a yes and a no to different pages, and split tests of up to 5 variants under one URL.
- A members area with passwordless sign-in for orders and bonus downloads.
- Every feature on every plan, with a 14-day free trial.
- Set the reveal from the script, not from a guess. Watch your own video with a stopwatch and put the offer where you first say the price.
- Keep the letter. A VSL page without a text version leaves every muted visitor with nothing to read.
- Make the upsell the cheapest bottle in the funnel. A buyer who just paid $36 a bottle will say yes to $24 far more easily than to the same price again.
- Replace every bracket, review and count before the first ad runs. Placeholder proof on a supplement page is the fastest way to lose an ad account or a merchant account.
I spent nine years as CTO of a direct-response company, building the checkout and the funnel system behind offers like this one. The video gets all the attention, and it should, but the pages after the payment decide how much each buyer is worth, and that decides how hard you can push the ads.
Watch the kit's VSL page as a buyer would, then open the page your own buyers see right after paying. If it only says "thank you", start there.
