Your Guide To A Successful Webinar Funnel (Part 1)

For many of us, from small business owners to corporate teams, webinars have become an important piece of our marketing efforts in the past few years.

And for some very good reasons.

In addition to being affordable (affordable as in “free” many times), they’re also the perfect means to bring value to our audiences while generating interest in our brands.

Research has even shown that 61% of professional marketers incorporate webinars into their marketing campaigns.

However, even many of the pros are left guessing when it comes to properly hooking their webinars into a sales funnel.

And while there are many reasons for that, one reason sticks out more than others: pulling off a successful webinar is a complex task.

Sure, your audience is going to love the presentation you’ve put together and the ideas you’re going to cover.

They’re also going to appreciate the interaction with others in their industry.

Really, in a sense, you’re creating a mini-seminar for them and then broadcasting it to the world.

But in the end, many people are left wondering: was my webinar really a success? Was it the best it possibly could have been?

Well, we have good news for you… though you should always be looking for ways to improve your game, you can largely dispel these nagging questions through 1 simple method.

What marketing method could possibly have so much power? A properly set up webinar funnel!

In this 3 part series, we’re going to break down those steps for a successful funnel one-by-one for you.

Ready? Let’s get started.

Putting Your Webinar Funnel in Perspective

If you’ve put on or even attended a successful webinar in the past, you’ve probably seen webinars with anywhere from a few people in them to perhaps thousands of viewers.

So it’s really necessary to get a sense of what to expect for your own webinars.

Pre-webinar, we should set some realistic goals and benchmarks for our campaign.

This step helps you to have a better understanding of how well your content is working.

While every industry is different, it’s helpful to keep in mind about 50% of registrants attend any given webinar, on average.

There’s also some evidence that roughly the same percentage of visitors to your landing page will register.

But our goal at this stage is to use our funnel to increase the number of registrants, and so, increase our audience.

Makes sense right?

Protip: When creating your funnel, let relevant ideas guide your building process.

Questions like “what demographics will most enjoy my webinar content?” to “Are my sign up questions too invasive?” can really give you that added perspective.

Planning a Deployment Schedule

To ensure your pre-webinar funnel goes well, you’ll also want to set the pace with a deployment schedule.

Just like cutting corners for your other sales funnels will hurt your overall conversion rates, skipping your deployment schedule is a serious no-no.

As we noted earlier, webinars are complex affairs, and many audiences have gotten used to a certain level of interaction leading up to the event.

By determining the best time to have your webinar, long before the date, you’re setting yourself up for a far smoother ride during the rest of our steps.

And just like with any marketing campaign, there are good times and better times to have your webinar.

For this step, there are always plenty of tools available online to lay out your schedule.

But really, your deployment schedule can be as simple as using a Google Calendar to mark when you are sending your content.

The goal here is to have simply your content plan laid out in advance, which will enable you to deploy it, measure its impact, and focus on your webinar.

Protip: Here are 2 resources here and here to best determine what might work best for your webinar schedule.

Using Facebook Ads To Get Your Audience Registering

One of the purposes of a successful webinar is to attract new customers to your brand.

But if you only bury a link to your webinar on your own website, who’s going to find out about it?

Probably not very many people. Instead, let’s create some exposure to your event by leveraging one of the biggest social media networks in the world.

According to research presented by DMR Stats, not only are Facebook ads fairly cost-affordable per click, but they also capture, for example, almost 20% of all global mobile digital ads.

According to user statistics, the social media giant also has almost 1.5 billion users.

That certainly is a lot of eyeballs for your brand and your webinar!

You have a few options when it comes to creating your Facebook ad.

While using an ad pixel is by far the best option, we’ll focus here on the simplest method to drive traffic and get people signing up for your webinar.

Choose Your Image and Ad Size

Before we even create our ad, we know to know what size it’s going to be.

For our webinar, we’re going to create an ad that’s 1,200 x 628 pixels.

This is Facebook’s recommendation for for website link ads, but you can also use their handy guide if you’re mixing things up a bit or trying something different.

Be sure to choose an image that has a strong connection to your webinar, but also invokes some emotions in your viewers for greater impact.

Build Your Ad Content And Call-to-Action

Just like with any piece of advertising, you’ll want to guarantee that your message gets across to your audience.

Using content that accurately conveys what your webinar is about is a good start, but also think about the benefits that your audience will get from attending.

Will they discover more about their industry, connect with other like-minded professionals, or learn more about some awesome tips?

Keep your content straightforward and simple, but also include a call-to-action that invites them to sign up for your webinar.

Start Your Facebook Campaign

Setting up a basic ad campaign in Facebook only requires a few short steps.

In fact, you can have your ad running in under 10 minutes if you’ve already decided some of the key factors.

1. In Facebook, select the Ads Manager on the left-hand menu of your page. This will take you to the basic dashboard to create and manage your ads. You’re also able to manage any existing ads and also see some of your performance statistics.
2. You’ll want to use the Create Campaign button to begin a new ad for your webinar. But also be sure to add your billing and payment info if you haven’t already. This can be done by clicking Ad Manager at the top and selecting Billing & Payment Methods.
3. If you’re not using an ad pixel and simply setting up a basic ad for your webinar landing page, you’ll want to go with Send People to Your Website. But there are many choices, and you can feel free to explore them and decide which option might be best for your specific campaign and strategy.
4. Filling out your audience info is going to vary widely, even from business to business. But as you define the type of viewers you’re looking to attract to your webinar, take advantage of the audience definition gauge to your right. This can give you an idea of how many people you’ll reach and how well defined your audience is.
5. Decide your budget, and on the next page, set up your relevant information. If you’re just starting out with Facebook ads, we recommend focusing on single image ads; however, don’t forget to use the ads preview to review how your ad will look across devices and networks. You’re ready to roll!

Protip: You can also add custom audiences to Facebook Ads now with the Create a Custom Audience link on your audience selection page.

This option lets you enter the information for past customers or other database leads, further strengthening your funnel.

Knowing How Long to Run Your Ad Campaign

Too often, we see people shut their ad campaign off a day or two before their webinar.

Many people assume that the rest of their funnel has taken over and should be doing its job.

That sounds reasonable, right?

Not exactly! It might be true that 75% of some Facebook ads come in the first 5 hours they’re placed, but there’s more to webinar advertising than meets the eye.

Even if traffic has slowly trickled off on your ad, there’s still a very good reason to keep it running all the way up until the very day of your webinar.

Research into webinar attendance and viewership have shown that up to almost 25%, 1 in 4 attendees, sign up the day of the event.

That’s right!

Shut that ad off too early and you may be depriving your webinar of a lot of its potential.

We recommend keeping that ad up until the very second your webinar is finished to maximize visitors.

Protip:  Check out our article here on using Facebook ad pixels for an even better way of tracking your conversions. This way, you can get perspective on your own ads over time.

In Part 2 of our All-In-One Guide, we’ll take a look at best practices for your landing pages, capturing customer info for our funnel, and generating some buzz about your event.

Stay tuned!

Webinars can be a lot of fun and excitement when it comes down to it.

Which part of hosting one stays on your mind the most?