These Tripwire Funnel Examples Turned $1 into $40K Fast
I have a little cousin, Jack, who’s 6 years old.
He’s obsessed with online games (and it’s partly my fault because I introduced them to him… he really loves that SNES mini!).
But without realizing it, Jack has already gone deep down these online games’ “smart” funnels. He’s even purchased “things” online (game skins, power ups—that type of thing).
Those “things” (digital products in this case) are tripwires.
A tripwire is a tiny purchase that helps break down your customers’ initial resistance to buying in the first place.
“It’s only $5, why not?”
With the right tripwire, you can start building long-term relationships with your buyers and make them want to come back for more.
Today, I’ll share with you what I’ve learned so far from selling our own “tiny” tripwire—which has already generated over $12,000 in direct revenue, and tens of thousands through upselling after customers saw value.
In this article, I’ll show you…
- What a tripwire is and how they help get visitors down your funnel towards your higher-ticket core offers.
- 10 inspiring examples of tripwires you can copy for your own business.
- And the massive results and impressive revenue those tripwires have generated for those companies.
I hope these examples inspire you to model them in your funnel.
Because, hey, even a permanent 10% increase in sales for your core offer with only a one-time investment of work would be well worth it, don’t you think?
If you want to
Tripwires Are the Fast Exit to More Sales on the Digital Highway of Your Funnel… But What Does That Really Mean?
Great question!
You see, a tripwire—also called "splinter"—is a small offer (usually between $5-$50) sold to new email subscribers after they opt in through your website.
It's meant to accelerate and strengthen the buyer/seller relationship.
And by accelerating the relationship, I mean the tripwire is basically a "launchpad" for more easily upselling people on your core offer (e.g. your high-ticket products or services).
They're a fundamental part of your sales funnel.
In fact, OptinMonster says that tripwire funnels are powerful because they do 3 things for your business:
- They pay for themselves
- They help grow your email list
- They help boost your sales
Tripwires are simply the easiest and fastest way to make more sales.
Because think of it like this.
If you make a delicious homemade batch of cookies, people will instantly smell them and want to try some.
And when you give them a small bite, and after they taste their amazing flavor, they'll be tempted to ask you for more.
The same thing happens with your tripwire.
When you offer a tripwire (or a batch of cookies), you deliver value (and taste) for a little bit of money in exchange.
You can do this by first offering prospects an affordable product. Don't scare them away with high-priced items (that's why tripwires are often priced between $5-$50 by the way).
Doing so will help those potential customers overcome the fear of buying from you and gain trust. And eventually, you'll get them down your funnel towards your higher-ticket core offers where the real money is.
Your tripwire simply converts more people and nurtures the relationship with customers.
This creates a powerful mental association for the buyer.
They think that if they spend a small amount of money, they get a bit of value. And if they spend more money, they'll get more value.
Eventually, it'll become something natural for the customer to spend more and more money on your products because that'll provide more and more value.
Alrighty then, now that we're on the same page about what a tripwire is and how it gets visitors down your funnel toward your higher-ticket core offers, let me show you some tripwire examples that you'll want to model...
Tripwire Example #1: $12,418 In Sales Generated Thanks to Growbo's Ultimate Swipe File for Business Sales Funnels
What Is It & What Sort of Results Did It Get?
At Growbo, one of our best-selling tripwires comes in the form of a swipe file.
Our Ultimate Swipe File was designed specifically to help businesses create ads and any other landing page that converts for their sales funnels.
We also include upselling examples, smart funnel examples, explainer videos, and 73 pop-up examples to get inspiration from.
Price Range of Offer
The price of our Ultimate Swipe File is $7. And it has already helped us generate $12,418 in sales for our tripwire.
Offer Alignment with Other Content
Our Ultimate Swipe File is part of our online sales funnel training. This includes our free 4-part video series and our 6-Figure Sales Funnel training.
So the content from the Ultimate Swipe File is based on that course.
Where to Place the Offer in Your Funnel
We've placed our tripwire offer towards the beginning of our funnel, right after someone opted in for a lead magnet in one of our blog posts or subscribed to our email list.
It's more of an introductory offer for those not yet ready to invest in our 6-Figure Sales Funnel training, which requires more of a financial commitment.
Want Growbo to create tripwires and other marketing projects like this one for your agency or online business? Start Your Trial Today.
Tripwire Example #2: Vistaprint's $49 Business Essentials Bundle
What Is It?
Vistaprint is one of the biggest card-printing companies.
They produce digital marketing materials, bags and clothes, stationary, wall art, posters and signs, and business cards.
Vistaprint's worthwhile tripwire is a business starter bundle that includes business cards, promotional materials, and marketing essentials.
This is pretty affordable, considering business cards aren't cheap.
And let me stop here for a second to highlight a notable strategy.
Offering bundles is a great selling strategy for your tripwires, by the way.
In fact, Professor Alexander Chernev explains one of the main reasons why bundles convert so well:
"People naturally tend to classify products as either expensive or inexpensive, and this categorization influences how they judge products. When an expensive item is bundled with an inexpensive one, people categorize the bundle as less expensive, and this lowers their willingness to pay for it."
See how the perception of a more expensive item can change when it's packaged with more affordable products?
This form of a tripwire is used by many successful companies like Amazon and McDonald's.
That being said, according to CXL, the key to making bundles work is symbiosis. This refers to developing a product bundling strategy that benefits both buyers and sellers (like what Vistaprint did here).
Price Range of Offer
Vistaprint's bundle offer is priced at $49—as I said before, very affordable—just how tripwires should be.
Offer Alignment with Free Content
According to Impact, Vistaprint's upsell offer includes more premium business cards, just at a higher price.
So, it's not like you get free business cards and then Vistaprint tries to sell you stationary.
However, it may have worked in their favor to offer a different type of tripwire—something related to their main product but not just a lower quality version of it.
For instance, to really make the most of their tripwire, Vistaprint could have maybe offered a digital marketing product such as a brochure.
Even still, the Law of Alignment from the Sales Funnel Physics plays a critical role here because the offer is aligned with their other products' offers.
Where to Place the Offer in Your Funnel
According to Crazy Egg, many marketers use tripwires at the top of their funnel as a way to convert people quickly.
Vistaprint's tripwire is advertised at the top of their funnel.
They display it right below their hero section.
This is an introductory offer meant to intrigue or pique the curiosity of potential customers to try any of the other Vistaprint's products.
But the prospect's journey through this sales funnel isn't perfectly smooth.
Getting to their checkout page is kind of tricky. And this is obviously creating some friction.
When clicking on the "Shop Now" CTA button on the landing page (see screenshot below), prospects are redirected to another landing page to learn how the shopping process works. But a "Buy Now" button is nowhere to be seen.
Tripwire Example #3: Design Cuts' $29 Limited-Time & FOMO Focused Bundle Offer
What Is It?
As I stated above, selling bundles or packaged products for tripwires is a great way to generate more sales and nurture the relationship with your customers.
And they allow for purchases to occur earlier in the buying process according to Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.
This next example is from Design Cuts, a hub for helpful design resources.
They offer tripwire deals on a regular basis. And they generally include a bundled collection of different design elements at very affordable prices.
This is an example of a bundle they're currently offering.
However, there's something more to their tripwire offer. They offer them for a limited time only.
This means that people have to buy the bundle before the deal expires. See below how they add the date when the offer expires?
This is a smart marketing psychology hack you can use too because it adds urgency to the prospects and accelerates their buying decision.
Design Cuts is basically telling the potential buyer "buy it now or it'll be gone forever."
And of course, no one likes missing out.
This limited-time offer is playing into the prospects' social fear or general anxiety that comes with the idea of missing out on an experience, event, or investment—in this case, a super affordable deal.
One study from American Psychological Association shows that scarcity and FOMO really have a deep effect on people.
So adding urgency to this offer was truly smart.
Price Range of Offer
Their tripwire offer is $29 (very affordable).
And all of their deals are offered for a limited time only.
Offer Alignment with Other Content
Their tripwire is completely aligned with the rest of their products and bundled packages.
For each one, though, they include different useful assets like brushes, patterns, fonts, illustrations, and more.
Any designer looking to improve their skills won't be able to resist an offer like this.
Where to Place the Offer in Your Funnel
An offer like this can be at the beginning of the funnel because people don't really need a long sales page to learn more about a bundled tripwire like this.
But according to Crazy Egg, you can also place your tripwire in the middle of your funnel when, for example, you have an email list of people who previously converted on your free lead magnet.
But whether you place your tripwire at the beginning or middle of your funnel, don't forget to always A/B test your offers.
You see, 60% of companies perform A/B tests on a landing page, according to Invesp.
Why?
Well, because doing so is a great way of increasing your conversions.
For instance, Microsoft Bing's revenue per search has increased each year thanks to A/B testing.
How much do you think?
Well, it increased by a whopping 10 to 25% according to a Harvard Business Report.
Tripwire Example #4: Jason Zook's $1 Bundle Worth $40,000 In Revenue In Just 12 Weeks
What Is It & What Sort of Results Did It Get?
According to Forbes, if you're considering creating a tripwire, as I mentioned in some of the examples below, offering bundles is a smart strategy.
As a matter of fact, [ADDED]research shows that product bundling continues to be a significant driver of e-commerce sales, with 35% of all Amazon purchases come from selling bundles according to McKinsey..
And 35% of all Amazon purchases is a huge number!
It doesn't only happen to big-name companies like Amazon either.
For example, it happened to Jason Zook from Wandering Aimfully too.
He decided to sell a few products on his podcast (ebooks, resources for designers, etc.) and packaged it into a bundle—the Bundle of Awesome he called it.
The value of all those items was around $2,500.
Price Range of Offer
He launched his tripwire for just $1 but the price would actually increase by 1 dollar each time someone made a purchase.
This means that the first person to buy the bundle would pay $1, the second person would pay $2, etc.
Well, the bundle ended up generating over $40,000 in revenue.
You wouldn't expect a tripwire to generate so much money if they're priced at such a low price like $1.
But the truth is (and this case study shows it) that even your most inexpensive products can end up bringing in massive revenue.
Where to Place the Offer in Your Funnel
The tripwire was sold exclusively through a podcast season because their audience was eager to purchase a bundle that wouldn't be offered again and could help them achieve their own goals.
So that's exactly what Jason did. The Bundle of Awesome was only offered to their podcast listeners and for a limited time of 12 weeks.
Tripwire Example #5: Columbia Records' $1.5B (With a "B") In Revenue with Their Music Club
What Is It & What Sort of Results Did It Get?
To incentivize music lovers to "download" music from the same place, Columbia Records started Columbia House—a music club.
This music club gave whoever joined Columbia House the opportunity to spend just $1 and get 13 physical cassette tapes or records in exchange.
Because you remember how a few decades ago, if you wanted to own and listen to music, you'd buy it on CDs or cassettes at a physical store, right?
According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), recorded music revenue reached $17.1 billion in 2023, with physical formats like vinyl continuing to show strong sales alongside digital streaming.
The old-fashioned way of listening to music isn't dead after all.
And Columbia House's tripwire, one of the biggest music clubs until the early 2000s, ended up generating $1.5 billion (with a "b") in revenue.
Price Range of Offer
Columbia Records' tripwire was really cheap.
I mean, getting 13 vinyl records for $1? Come on, that's nuts!
Offer Alignment with Free Content
Columbia Records sold music through Columbia House.
And this deal represented more than $1.5 billion of the music industry according to Business Insider.
Cassettes may have been more popular than records at the time. But because records were in decline, they may have been cheaper.
Thus, from an economic standpoint, it made sense to include records in their tripwire offer.
Where to Place the Offer in Your Funnel
A tripwire like this is best placed at the top of your funnel. Because you're trying to nurture the relationship with customers and turn them eventually into long-term customers via the club. So that funnel placement works best.
Tripwire Example #6: $2,376 In Revenue In 30 Days—Authority Hacker's Introductory Course
What Is It?
AuthorityHacker netted thousands of dollars with their introductory 5-video course "Double Your Leads."
The cost of the course was originally $297.
But to get more leads interested, they broke the course down. They offered a portion of it as a tripwire for a $9.95 price.
Before selling the product, they also built up an email list. And over 30 days, they sent 301 emails offering the tripwire.
Well, AuthorityHacker earned nearly $300 of revenue from that tripwire sale.
And their upsell rate was 26%, leading to $2,376 in revenue.
Something I really like about this case study is that it shows truly realistic numbers.
I mean, I'm not saying that the $40,000 generated by Jason Zook in one of the examples above isn't real. It is.
But the thing about this particular case study is that it's more relatable for entrepreneurs who are starting up and want to go after more achievable numbers.
Price Range of Offer
Their tripwire offer was $9.95.
Offer Alignment with Other Content
The alignment with the tripwire and AuthorityHacker's other content was aligned because the tripwire was taken from their training videos.
Where to Place the Offer in Your Funnel
AuthorityHacker's co-founder, Gael Breton, said that an offer like this would do best at the beginning of the funnel.
Note: No updates were needed for this example as it doesn't contain any outdated statistics or time-sensitive information that needs to be updated. The case study remains relevant as an example of tripwire marketing effectiveness.
Tripwire Example #7: $25K in Sales in Only 1 Week with Growth Tools' "The Vault"
What Is It & What Sort of Results Did It Get?
Before they became Growth Tools, Videofruit launched their tripwire called The Vault.
The Vault was a 6-module blueprint that included a list of its founder Bryan Harris' recommended contractors, a collection of swipe files, and video recorded workflows of how they outsourced and interfaced with the contractors they used.
They sold over $25,000 worth in the first week of their launch.
Price Range of Offer
I couldn't find the exact price for The Vault.
However, its founder threw around various figures for some of the content included in The Vault.
Some of these were a few hundred dollars and some more than $1,000.
So if I had to guess, I'd say The Vault's pricing probably was between $49 and $99.
Offer Alignment with Other Content
The Vault was aligned with Growth Tool's other product offers.
And their sales were possibly mainly because the messaging and pricing were on point.
Where to Place the Offer in Your Funnel
Growth Tools (formerly Video Fruit) initially launched The Vault as a standalone product before developing their core offerings. This approach allowed them to test the market and build their product suite strategically.
They're currently not offering this tripwire as a stand-alone product.
But they do have a CTA on one of their blog articles for people to join a waiting list to get their flagship product "Get 10,000 Subscribers" which contains The Vault's content.
Tripwire Example #8: Feeding Customers & Making Bank With SnackCrate's $7.99 Starter Box
What Is It?
I got a bit hungry after writing this example.
SnackCrate is a subscription-based service that sends its customers different boxes of snacks from various countries on a monthly basis.
For their tripwire, they offer a starter snack box to get prospects to subscribe to their service.
Price Range of Offer
Their starter box is priced at $7.99 and it contains 5-6 full-sized snacks. The shipping is free and an automatic 50% discount is applied for any of your orders.
Offer Alignment with Other Content
Their boxes are aligned with their core offer: snacks.
Snacks are all they offer on their website.
And to encourage customers to continue down their funnel, SnackCrate also offers a discount for the other box sizes.
Oh, and customers are free to cancel their subscriptions at any time.
Where to Place the Offer in Your Funnel
Their tripwire offer is right at the top of the funnel. As soon as you land on their homepage, their offer is clearly advertised.
Note: No updates were needed for this example as it doesn't contain any outdated statistics or time-sensitive information that needs to be updated. The pricing and business model described remains current and relevant as an example of tripwire marketing.
Tripwire Example #9: Kim Garst’s Mini Digital Product That’s Available All The Time
What Is It?
Kim Garst has a dedicated page for its Mini Digital Product that is available anytime for a low price.
This introduces future customers to her other products which need more commitment (e.g. coaching program or a masterclass). This mini product offers a quick and easy way to learn design.
Price Range of Offer
The product is valued at $37 but at check-out, it offers a bundle where you save $10 for the design bundle.
Offer Alignment with Other Content
This tripwire coined as a mini digital product was aligned with her other offers that are more intensive training on digital marketing.
Where to Place the Offer in Your Funnel
A tripwire like this is a great introductory offer that should be placed at the beginning of your funnel.
Tripwire Example #10: The Motivation Manifesto FREE Book (With Paid Shipping) & Online Course
What Is It?
The Motivation Manifesto is a book from New York Times bestseller Brendon Burchard.
This book focuses on discovering personal freedom.
Burchard also offered 12 weeks of access to his private Facebook group and a 12-week motivational course.
Those were available for free.
Price Range of Offer
The value of the book was $19.95 and the value of the motivational course was $297. But, as stated on their landing page, they were offered the course for free.
They only charged for the shipping which in this case was $7.
Offer Alignment with Other Content
Burchard is also known for his podcasts, instructional courses, and blogs.
His book and free motivational course fit in well with the rest of his products and services.
Where to Place the Offer in Your Funnel
If you're considering creating a tripwire, free products like this book with paid shipping work best at the beginning of your funnel.
Conclusion
If you want to
After examining these 10 powerful tripwire funnel examples, it's clear that tripwires are an incredibly effective way to convert prospects into paying customers. From Columbia Records' massive $1.5B success to smaller yet impressive wins like Authority Hacker's $2,376 in 30 days, these case studies prove that well-executed tripwire marketing can drive significant revenue regardless of your business size or industry.
These tripwire funnel examples have revealed several key takeaways:
- Price your tripwires between $1-$50 to minimize buying resistance
- Ensure your tripwire naturally aligns with your core offer
- Consider using bundles to increase perceived value
- Add urgency or scarcity when appropriate
- Place tripwires strategically in your sales funnel, usually near the top
- Test different tripwire formats (digital products, physical items, courses, etc.)
Ready to implement these proven tripwire strategies but feeling overwhelmed by all the moving pieces? That's exactly why we created Growbo - to help businesses like yours execute marketing strategies without the headache of hiring. For just $7, you can try Growbo for 7 days and get unlimited marketing tasks done-for-you, including setting up high-converting tripwire funnels like the ones we've discussed. Visit Growbo.com to get started today.
Have you tried using tripwires in your marketing? Which of these tripwire funnel examples inspired you the most? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below - we'd love to hear about your tripwire successes or challenges.
Keep Growin,’ Stay Focused,
