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September 15, 2025 16 mins

Your self-liquidating offer isn’t broken—it’s just missing a key step. I walk you through why most $27 low-ticket funnels fail to pay for themselves and how a tripwire can bridge the gap. 

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I share what makes a tripwire work, how it reduces your ad costs, and why alignment between your main offer, order bump, and upsell matters more than you think. 

Learn the smarter path to making your ads profitable without gambling your whole budget on an SLO that isn’t ready yet.



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Kwadwo [QUĀY.jo] Sampany-Kessie’s Links:

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So, as a course creator, you figured that
creating a $27 low ticket offerand then running Facebook and
Instagram ads to that offerwould be a straightforward, easy
way to begin to make profit inyour business and achieve that
holy grail of adding buyers toyour email list, who would thus
engage with your marketingemails and continue to buy

(00:22):
things from your business, workwith you, get transformation in
their lives and you could cashall those checks, or stripe
payments, so to speak.
But instead the numbers areadding up and that offer is not
profitable.
And you're wondering, quajo,why aren't facebook and
instagrams working for thisoffer?

(00:42):
Well, it could be your ads, butmost likely it's your
self-liquidating offer structure.
And in this episode I'll showyou how to pick the right
self-liquidating offer andstructure it so that it has the
best chance of being profitable.
And I'll explain to you andshow you why.

(01:03):
Having a tripwire is usuallythe missing step on the way to
getting a profitableSelf-liquidating offer.
And if you don't know what atripwire is, just keep watching.
Okay?
So reality check on selfliquidating offers.
The goal of a self liquidatingoffer I ESL, oie a main offer

(01:25):
with an aligned order bump andthen an upsell that's available
on that next page after somebodygives you their name, their
email, their credit cardinformation.
The goal is not to get richfast.
The goal is to first break evenwhile building your email list
with buyers, and then the nextgoal is to be able to well,

(01:45):
sorry, hold on a second.
When I say break even, I mean,within the context of running
Facebook and Instagram ads, thatyou make your ad spend back
okay.
And then that next goal is tobe profitable.
And the problem here is thatmost course creators hop into
creating a self-liquidatingoffer.
You know 27 with a 10 orderbump and then a 57 upsell.

(02:11):
I'm just pulling out numbers.
By the way, these are not setin stone.
This is not a recommendation.
I'm just telling you.
Most course creators jump intothat without proving first that
their audience will even buyanything from them up front, and
that's why so many flop.
Let alone the fact that theorder bump isn't really aligned
to the main offer, let alone thefact that the order bump isn't

(02:34):
even aligned super well to theoffer and the upsell is not
aligned either.
So that's where a tripwirecomes in right.
Think of it as aself-liquidating offer's little
sibling, with the samepsychology, just it's a lot
smaller and easier to do and thestakes are lower.

(02:56):
Now here's the thing what is atripwire and why is the logic
for a tripwire the same as aself-liquidating offer?
Why should you start with atripwire first?
Well, a tripwire is a low-costproduct, just like a
self-liquidating offer couldcost $7, $17, maybe $27.
But that tripwire is offeredimmediately after somebody

(03:18):
downloads your lead magnet.
It's right there on the thankyou page, like hey, you got this
lead magnet Before you go away.
Here's an offer that you can'tresist.
That, by the way, is alignedwith a problem that I know you
have because I'm an expert insolving the things that plague
you.
And you came to get the leadmagnet, which tells me you need
to solve problems, similarproblems, right, here's why a

(03:40):
tripwire can work.
It gets people to pull outtheir wallet.
That's why a tripwire can work.
It gets people to pull outtheir wallet.
That's such a cold term.
It helps people get a win withyou right away.
It establishes your authority,right.
I mean, somebody that buys alow ticket offer from you as a
tripwire and gets a win is likewow, this person can really help
me.
It turns a percentage of yourleads into buyers.

(04:04):
Now, before you think, oh hey,I can set up a tripwire after
leads into buyers.
Now, before you think, oh hey,I can set up a tripwire after my
lead magnet Quajo said, this ishow I'm gonna get rich.
No, but realistically, ifyou're able to reduce your lead
costs by 40% over what they werewith a tripwire, as in make
back 40% of your money, that isgood.

(04:25):
Okay, that's actually quitegood.
Now, heading further on in thisepisode, starting now, we're
going to talk about how tochoose a tripwire or a
self-liquidating offer.
But remember, if you start outwith low stakes as a tripwire,
you're still going to get leadsregardless, and then a
percentage of those leads willpurchase the tripwire.

(04:46):
You have to know that.
Yes, a percentage of peoplewill get your tripwire after
they download your lead magnet,but that percentage is going to
be small.
Okay, because people are comingto you for something for free
and then they see paid on thethank you page and your
messaging will have to be verygood.

(05:06):
Okay, it's always going to comedown to very, very, very, very,
very good messaging.
As in what the issue is,empathize with them on that
issue, either because you'veexperienced it or you've helped
people who've experienced it,but make that issue real in a
non-triggering way.
And then why are you qualifiedto help them solve that issue

(05:27):
and why do you align with them?
Start there with your messaging.
Okay, now to pick a topic.
Right, because tripwires andSLOs, they're effectively the
same thing.
Okay, so both solve a highdemand problem, a simple, quick
win.
What else is the same?
Both are priced like at anirresistible low brainer, low

(05:48):
brainer, no brainer, oops priceyet high enough to signal value.
And they're not random topics,but they're stepping stones,
usually stepping stones intoyour mid-tier offer.
You know the 597, the $797offer that you might sell later
on in your funnel.
Okay, so yes, making a tripwireis a bit like training wheels

(06:11):
on the way to building asuccessful self-liquidating
offer.
It allows you to test in a lowstakes environment.
So how do you pick a successfulself-liquidating offer or
tripwire?
In this case, I would like youto start with a tripwire, okay,
so think about it.
You already have a program or acourse, let's say, with people

(06:32):
inside of it.
Why don't you choose the mostsought after part of your course
, pull that out, build a decentsales page and go ahead and let
people get that, since clearlyyou can look at the metrics
inside of, let's say, if youhost your course on Kajabi or
maybe on ThriveCarts, learnsoftware, then you can look and

(06:54):
see which of the lessons arebeing watched the most.
Or you can just look inside ofyour community that's related to
your paid course and see whatare the questions that you get
over and over and over again.
Maybe you look in your DMs,right, and you find what people
are constantly DMing you about.
I know you know.
Spend 10 or so minutes in aquiet spot and think about that,

(07:18):
because this matters, sinceyou're basically choosing a
demand driven, already validated, easy to pull out some sort of
topic and packaging that up forsell.
Here's the bottom line.
You want to get somethingthat's driven by demand.
Create something that peoplealready are asking, something
that's driven by demand.
Create something that peoplealready are asking for, that's

(07:41):
already been validated, so tospeak, because of the demand for
it, and something that's easyto create.
Now, self liquidating offers, orlet's just say tripwire, since
we're talking about a tripwire,that's on the Thank you page of
your free lead magnet.
They usually do not break evenon their own.
I do have some clients who arethe exception to the rule, right

(08:04):
?
I'm thinking of a client whosells a $67, and, by the way,
don't price yours this high, butit works for her business and
we have tested lower pricepoints, actually, and they
haven't worked as well as the$67 price point for this offer
that she has.
And get this.
It's not like even the standardamount of buyers end up buying

(08:26):
her order bump or upsell.
Her self-liquidating offerbreaks even just on that first
$67 offer.
Now will yours Probably not.
So what you really want is to,in addition to that main offer,
have a natural add-on.
Okay, call this an order bump.
Right, it needs to below-priced and super duper

(08:47):
aligned to your main offer.
Okay, cool.
And then you want to have anupsell, which would be the
logical next step or nextproblem that somebody would have
if they got your main offer andor the order bump.
Now here's some benchmarks.
All right, you should expect tocold traffic, as in if you're

(09:11):
showing Facebook and Instagramads to cold people who do not
already know about your business.
They have not watched anyvideos about your business or
from you on social mediaInstagram and Facebook.
They have not been to yourbusiness website.
They are not on your email list.
Okay they're not following youon Instagram or Facebook.
You would expect 15 to 20% ofpeople who buy that main product

(09:33):
to also get the order bump.
Then you would expect another,let's say, 5 to 10 percent of
people who buy that main productto also get the upsell.
So if you do not have a tightlyaligned order bump and a
tightly aligned upsell, you areleaving money on the table.
My name's Quajo, by the way.
If we don't know each other yet, say hi to me on Instagram.

(09:58):
I'm at Q-U-A-Y-J-O and ask me aquestion.
I might make a video about it,but I've been coaching online I
should say established as inhigh earning online course
creators for you know, threeyears since the pandemic started
, a little before that and I'vebeen running Facebook ads for
the same demographic, highearning course creators for

(10:19):
about that long.
That's like five to six yearsof experience now, and I'm a
Facebook and Instagram adstrategist, that's if we don't
know each other.
Hi, good to meet you.
I've seen so many funnels andI'm attempting to take what I've
seen work for establishedonline course creators and
distill it into very easilydigestible information for you.

(10:44):
If you wanna see me on YouTube,because there's lots of visual
teachings that I do like insideof Facebook Ad Manager.
Then go down to the show notesbelow, click there and watch
this on YouTube.
So I was going to say if yourorder bump or upsell is not
converting as in, if you don'thave the percentages of people
getting those that I just laidout for you, it's usually

(11:06):
because it feels disconnectedfrom that main offer.
So you're gonna start with atripwire.
I recommend you start with atripwire.
You don't have to listen to me.
In fact, I do want you tounderstand.
Disclaimer incoming thatFacebook and Instagram ads is
not an automatically guaranteedget rich kind of quick strategy.

(11:26):
Nope, in fact, most likely youwill eventually, at one point or
another, lose money on Facebookand Instagram ads.
But as long as you're willingto put in the work to test your
ads and test your offer,eventually you will make the
equation work, or I should sayeventually you can make the
equation work such that you areprofiting.
But this does take work.

(11:47):
If you cannot make a $7 to $17tripwire work, scaling a $27
self-liquidating offer withFacebook and Instagram ads will
be an uphill battle.
Okay, tripwires allow you toget feedback in a low stakes
environment and they allow youto generate some cash flow from

(12:09):
day one.
Don't sleep on setting up atripwire.
Even if you can reduce yourlead cost by 40%, that still is
generating some cash in yourbusiness and it's still
something to be paid attentionto, and I know you know.
The downside of having a leadmagnet is that it attracts
people who are looking forsomething for free, and yet

(12:30):
having an email nurture sequencethat nurtures people who got
onto your email list for free isa tried and true way to
eventually sell your offer.
In fact, in an upcoming episode, we're going to talk about
launching your course with awebinar and I'm going to distill
into a very compact episode achecklist of everything you

(12:52):
would need so that you can runFacebook and Instagram ads to
this webinar and dial everythingin so that you have the best
chance possible at selling yourcourse in a profitable way.
The thing about the Tripwire isit trains your audience to buy.
People who may have come to youfor a free lead magnet with a

(13:13):
I'm gonna get this thing forfree mentality, some of them
will see your paid offer andchoose to make that leap to work
with you.
Have success because your paidoffer gives them success,
because you're an expert at whatyou do and that does help feed

(13:34):
your business right, becausemore people on your email list
will already have worked withyou in a paid capacity and thus
are more likely to work with youin a greater paid capacity
further down on in your funnel.
If you're realizing that yourSLO self-liquidating offer is
struggling because you skippedthe step of creating a
successful tripwire, well,that's why I have this course

(13:57):
called Tripwire Mastery and Idon't talk about it often, so
you probably haven't heard aboutit and you probably won't hear
about it in another episode.
So take a moment to reallylisten and think is this for you
or not?
And that link is in below.
You will learn how to choose amain offer and then how to
choose an aligned order bump andhow to choose an aligned upsell

(14:21):
.
Plus.
You're going to look at theperfect price formula and quit
guessing what you should priceyour offer at.
You'll be able to make a verygood, educated decision from me
on what to price your offer at.
And then also I have proventemplates you know.
So basically, you'll be gettingadvice based on what I've seen

(14:44):
high earning course creators do,so that your tripwire, one that
you can finally make it superquick, and two so that you have
the best chances possible of itactually reducing your lead cost
by a substantial amount.
So you can grab that course.
It's normally at $57.
It should be a little bit lessexpensive than that.

(15:04):
If you head down to the linkbelow again that's in the show
notes it'll show you how tobuild Tripwire so you can make
some money back immediately.
So make sure that before you goto a self-liquidating offer,
that you set up a tripwire andmake sure you go through the
steps to get some money back, asin that tripwire is selling,

(15:27):
and that your stats as far asthe percentage of people that
get the order bump and theupsell, are on point or at least
on par.
Okay.
Once you get that tripwirenailed, then you have something
that could be a successful selfliquidating offer and you can go
and run Facebook and Instagramads to that.
Until the next time you see meor hear from me.

(15:48):
Take care, be blessed, and I'llsee you in the next episode.
Goodbye.
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