---
title: Choosing the funnel path — ad, advertorial, VSL, product page, checkout
slug: presell-funnel-paths-advertorial-vsl
summary: Stefan Georgi's 2025 view of direct-response funnels — pick the page after the click by platform congruence (YouTube → video page, native → advertorial), use a long advertorial to a PDP for cheap products or a short advertorial to a VSL, the five common paths (ad → advertorial → PDP → checkout is the most common at 8-figure e-com), and what an on-page VSL must do.
domain: marketing
tags: [funnel, advertorial, vsl, native-ads, youtube-ads, direct-response, congruence]
related: [writing-advertorials-with-ai, ad-landing-page-message-match, persona-landing-pages-and-listicles, video-script-four-forces, meta-landing-page-congruency, teep-funnel-stage-creative, checkout-button-copy-test, dtc-offer-pain-point-and-awareness-level, web2app-upsells-and-downsells]
sources: [yt:MH_fU3JOP3M]
updated: 2026-10-24
---

# Choosing the funnel path: ad, advertorial, VSL, product page, checkout

Source: Stefan Georgi ([[people/stefan-georgi]]), the "state of direct response" module of his RMBC2 course, 2025.

## TL;DR
- **Context is king.** The page after the click should feel like the platform the visitor came from. Stefan calls this *congruence*[^1][^2].
- **YouTube** viewers are there for education or entertainment. Educational or entertaining video ads beat hard sells, and they should land on a page that leads with a video[^3][^4].
- **Native ads** look like news links and should land on an **advertorial**, not a product page[^5][^2].
- **After the advertorial:** if it's long and the product is cheap, go to a **product page**. If it's short (under ~200 words), go to a **VSL**. Both work, so test[^6][^7].
- **"Ad → VSL → checkout" is no longer the default.** Brands that struggle are often still forcing it. The most common path among people he knows doing eight figures in e-com is ad → advertorial → PDP → checkout[^8][^9].
- **The checkout page still needs copy work.** It's where people type card details and commit[^10].

## Details
**Two customer journeys.** Journey 1 takes a prospect to a first purchase. Journey 2 takes a customer to repeat purchases: upsells right after checkout, email, SMS and content. Copy doesn't exist in a vacuum, so a copywriter writing "just emails" without knowing the journey underperforms[^11].

**Right person, not most clicks.** For a "coffee without the crash" ad, the ideal clicker loves coffee but feels they drink too much. Non-coffee drinkers clicking is waste. An ad's quality is whether it gets the *right* people to take the action consistently[^12][^13].

**Congruence examples.** A YouTube video ad that sends people to a plain text page "breaks the spell", so send it to a page with a prominent video (a VSL or an e-com page with video). A native-ad click that lands on a hard sales page jars the reader. An advertorial that reads like the news story they were on keeps them reading, even when the formats "look ridiculous"[^4][^2][^14].

**The paths** Stefan lists[^9]:
1. Ad → VSL → checkout (the classic, still works)
2. Ad → advertorial → VSL → checkout
3. Ad → advertorial → VSL → product page → checkout
4. Ad → product page → checkout
5. Ad → advertorial → product page → checkout (the most common at 8-figure e-com)

The ad itself can be a VSL-style video ad. You'll never have perfect information about the optimal funnel, so hypothesise and test. For example, start with a long advertorial to a PDP, then test a VSL[^7].

**What an on-page VSL does** [^15][^16]: hook in the first five seconds, create curiosity, build rapport and credibility, then tell a hero's journey. A reluctant hero sees suffering, searches for the *real reason* people suffer, and finds the real solution (the unique mechanism; see [[name-the-unique-mechanism]]). The product is then presented as the easiest, best manifestation of that solution, with a high perceived value and a price that's "a great deal". Long on-page VSLs are used less and less, but they still work.

**AI changes the economics.** In 2020 his RMBC method cut a sales letter from about 8 weeks to 1. In 2025 he claims 2–4 quality VSLs a day, 20–40 ads a day, an upsell in about 15 minutes and email sequences in under an hour, using Claude projects loaded with deep research. The skill becomes "copy thinker, not copywriter": editing by giving the model ideas and judgement[^17][^18][^19]. Modelling (swiping) what already works for similar products is the foundation[^20].

## Disagreements / caveats
- These are practitioner claims from a course intro, with no data shown. The "most common" path is an observation of his peers, mostly supplement and health DTC brands.
- Dose's data says keep the buy box on the advertorial or listicle rather than adding a PDP click ([[persona-landing-pages-and-listicles]]). Path 5 adds a click. Both views agree that you should test it.
- For Meta traffic specifically, see [[meta-landing-page-congruency]].

## See also
- [[writing-advertorials-with-ai]] — producing the advertorial step
- [[video-script-four-forces]] — scripting video ads and VSLs
- [[checkout-button-copy-test]] — the last step of every path

[^1]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 10:06 — Stefan Georgi
[^2]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 15:50 — Stefan Georgi
[^3]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 11:49 — Stefan Georgi
[^4]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 12:36 — Stefan Georgi
[^5]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 13:23 — Stefan Georgi
[^6]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 18:11 — Stefan Georgi
[^7]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 19:02 — Stefan Georgi
[^8]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 21:23 — Stefan Georgi
[^9]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 26:07 — Stefan Georgi
[^10]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 24:30 — Stefan Georgi
[^11]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 03:06 — Stefan Georgi
[^12]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 06:22 — Stefan Georgi
[^13]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 08:57 — Stefan Georgi
[^14]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 14:13 — Stefan Georgi
[^15]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 22:12 — Stefan Georgi
[^16]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 22:58 — Stefan Georgi
[^17]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 27:40 — Stefan Georgi
[^18]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 29:15 — Stefan Georgi
[^19]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 31:37 — Stefan Georgi
[^20]: yt:MH_fU3JOP3M @ 26:53 — Stefan Georgi