The Best Cold Paid Advertising Strategies Working Right Now

I hope you enjoy reading this blog post. If you want my team to just do your marketing for you, click here.

Author: Jeremy Haynes | founder of Megalodon Marketing.

Published April 23, 2026

Earnings Disclaimer: You have a .1% probability of hitting million-dollar months according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. As stated by law, we can not and do not make any guarantees about your own ability to get results or earn any money with our ideas, information, programs, or strategies. We don’t know you, and besides, your results in life are up to you. We’re here to help by giving you our greatest strategies to move you forward, faster. However, nothing on this page or any of our websites or emails is a promise or guarantee of future earnings. Any financial numbers referenced here, or on any of our sites or emails, are simply estimates or projections or past results, and should not be considered exact, actual, or as a promise of potential earnings – all numbers are illustrative only.

Cold audiences represent your path to genuine scale. These are people who have never heard your name, seen your content, or engaged with your brand. If you want to break through your current revenue ceiling, you need to completely separate your cold audience strategy from your warm audience approach.

Strategies that work for people already familiar with you will fail with cold traffic—or at best, deliver returns too weak to justify the ad spend. The conversion mechanics are fundamentally different. Rolling over your organic content strategy or warm audience remarketing campaigns to cold traffic without adaptation creates expensive lessons in what doesn’t work.

Cold traffic demands a different framework. This article covers the advertising strategies and funnel structures that are producing results with cold paid audiences right now.

I teach these strategies in my flagship program, where we work with established operators twice a month on one-on-one calls and weekly group coaching sessions.

Results are not typical. Your results will vary and depend entirely on your individual capacity, business experience, expertise, and level of desire. There are no guarantees concerning the level of success you may experience. The testimonials and examples used are not intended to represent or guarantee that anyone will achieve the same or similar results. We don’t believe in get-rich-quick programs. We believe in hard work, adding value and serving others. As stated by law, we can not and do not make any guarantees about your own ability to get results or earn any money with our information, courses, programs, or strategies.

Why Live Webinars Still Outperform Automated Versions for Cold Traffic

Webinars remain the priority conversion mechanism for operators scaling with cold audiences. They function as content-based conversion events that bridge the gap between “never heard of you” and “ready to buy.”

At our Q1 mastermind in Miami, we awarded nine trophies to top performers. Eight of those nine achieved their results with webinars. Of those eight, seven relied exclusively on live webinars. The single operator who used automation still ran a hybrid model—showing up live for the introduction and close while automating the middle teaching section.

This pattern matters. Automated webinars continue to underperform compared to live presentations. The data from our community shows that live delivery still drives superior conversion rates.

The buying behavior around webinars reveals another critical insight: approximately one-third of buyers attend two to three webinars before purchasing. They’re not impulse buyers. They’re doing research, comparing options, and building trust over multiple exposures.

Weekly cadence remains the standard for live webinars. Once you’ve optimized your presentation and proven the conversion rates, you can increase frequency to two or three times per week. This scaling opportunity exists because cold audiences are constantly refreshing—new people discover you every day, which means you’re not exhausting the same small pool of prospects.

The ability to run webinars multiple times per week depends on your total addressable market (TAM). If you operate in a niche with only a few thousand potential customers, weekly or even bi-weekly presentations may be your ceiling. Markets with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of prospects can sustain higher frequency without audience fatigue.

According to research from the Content Marketing Institute, live interactive content formats continue to outperform pre-recorded versions in engagement and conversion metrics, which aligns with what we’re seeing in the webinar space.

What Happens When Operators Try to Automate Their Webinars

Operators running webinars weekly or multiple times per week eventually face burnout. The time commitment becomes substantial, and the natural instinct is to automate what’s consuming your calendar.

The testing phase that follows reveals a consistent pattern: automated webinars underperform live presentations. Operators who transition to fully automated formats watch their conversion rates decline. They test different platforms, adjust timing, modify the presentation—but the performance gap persists.

This creates a difficult choice. You can reclaim your time through automation and accept lower revenue, or you can maintain live delivery and protect your conversion rates while sacrificing personal bandwidth.

The single exception in our recent trophy winners—the operator running a hybrid automated webinar—still showed up live for the introduction and the close. The education portion in the middle ran on automation, but the human connection points remained live. Even this “automated” approach required live participation for the highest-leverage moments.

True automation that matches live webinar performance remains elusive. When the data shifts and automated webinars begin converting at comparable rates, that information will be shared immediately. For now, live delivery maintains its advantage.

How Content-Based Conversion Mechanisms Function with Cold Audiences

Webinars work for cold traffic because they operate as content-based conversion mechanisms. They follow the same principle as long-form organic content—education builds trust, which creates buying intent—but compress the timeline dramatically.

With organic content, the relationship develops slowly. Someone might consume thirty pieces of your content over six months before they’re ready to buy. In a paid traffic environment, you can’t afford that timeline. Every person who sees your ad costs money, and you need conversion velocity to make the economics work.

The webinar solves this problem by concentrating your most valuable teaching into a single two-hour window. You’re delivering the same “aha moments” that happen across dozens of organic content pieces, but you’re stacking them in rapid succession during the webinar presentation.

In an organic context, you can tolerate slow conversion timelines. You’re not paying for each impression, so whether someone buys after three months or nine months doesn’t fundamentally change your economics. You might check out my flagship program, my 7-week live comprehensive training, or our Gen 3 AI platform Utari on your own timeline, and that’s fine—because I’m not fronting cash to stay in front of you.

Cold traffic operates under different constraints. You’re paying for attention, which means you need to compress the value delivery and trust-building that normally happens over months into a single session.

Webinar retention rates reveal whether your presentation is working. Ideal retention from peak attendance to the pitch is around 80%. Top performers maintain 90% retention. Presentations that lose more than 20% of the audience before the pitch need structural revision.

You typically have 60 to 90 minutes of teaching before you transition to the pitch. During that window, you need to deliver enough concentrated value that someone who’s never heard of you before feels confident enough to hear your offer. The subsequent 30 to 60 minutes handles the pitch and close.

This compression of value delivery—taking insights that would normally be spread across dozens of content pieces and concentrating them into 60 to 90 minutes—is what allows webinars to convert cold traffic. You’re replicating the organic trust-building process at 10x speed.

Why VSL Call Funnels Require Stronger Sales Teams and More Infrastructure

VSL call funnels still work, but only for organizations with genuinely strong sales teams. The difficulty level increases substantially compared to webinars.

The structural challenge is this: when you run a webinar, the presentation handles education and begins the closing process. By the time prospects talk to your sales team, they’re educated on your methodology, familiar with your positioning, and pre-sold on the value. The sales calls become layup conversations.

VSL call funnels create a different dynamic. The video sales letter generates interest and books the call, but it doesn’t provide the same depth of education as a 90-minute webinar. Your sales team inherits the responsibility for both educating the prospect and closing the sale in a single conversation.

Most sales teams aren’t equipped for this. The skill set required to educate a cold prospect while simultaneously moving them toward a buying decision is rare. You need salespeople who can teach, handle objections rooted in confusion rather than resistance, and build trust in real-time.

A common mistake: operators who successfully run VSL call funnels with warm organic traffic assume the same funnel will work with cold paid audiences. It won’t—or at least, not without significant modification.

The organic traffic entering your VSL call funnel has already consumed your content. They’ve watched your videos, read your posts, and developed familiarity with your thinking. Your organic content has already handled the education phase. The VSL just converts that existing awareness into a booked call.

Cold traffic has none of that context. They see your ad, watch your VSL, and book a call—but they’re walking into that conversation without the foundation your organic audience has built over time.

To make VSL call funnels work with cold traffic, you need to layer in content ad strategies and back-end selling systems. These components recreate the education and trust-building that happens organically, but in a paid traffic context.

According to HubSpot’s sales research, educated prospects who receive value before a sales conversation close at higher rates than those who don’t, which is why back-end selling systems matter so much for cold traffic.

What Back-End Selling Systems Include and How They Support Your Funnel

Back-end selling systems consist of five components that work together to educate prospects between the moment they book a call and the moment they show up for it. We added the fifth component a few months ago based on emerging opportunities in AI distribution.

These systems amplify results across multiple funnel types. You can apply them to webinar funnels, low-ticket to high-ticket ascension models, or any cold audience funnel. But for VSL call funnels targeting cold traffic, they’re not optional—they’re required to make the economics work.

First: Confirmation page breakout videos. Instead of a simple “your call is booked, see you then” message, you create a series of short videos that begin the education process immediately. These videos answer the questions your sales team is tired of answering, provide transparency about your organization, and help prospects do research before the call.

Second: The hammer-them strategy. After someone books a call, you remarket to them with both short-form and long-form content. This is a content ad strategy that keeps you in front of prospects while delivering additional value. You’re spending a small amount on ads to ensure that the person who just booked a call continues to engage with your content until the appointment happens.

Third: Value-dense email sequences. Most businesses send reminder emails: “Don’t forget about your call tomorrow.” That’s necessary, but insufficient. Your email sequences should also deliver education. Pull topics from your confirmation page videos, your hammer-them content, your top organic content, or the questions your sales team repeatedly answers. Make the emails valuable, not just transactional.

Fourth: AI model manipulation. You can influence what AI models say about you through strategic content distribution. This includes news distribution, Reddit engagement, and other tactics that help AI models develop positive associations with your brand. When prospects ask ChatGPT or Claude about you before their call, you want those models to reinforce your credibility.

Fifth: Setter pre-call education. Your appointment setters shouldn’t just confirm income qualification and appointment times. They should proactively reach out with sales assets and trust-building materials. Ask prospects what questions they have before the call. Send them relevant resources. Turn your setters into educators who warm up prospects before they ever talk to a closer.

Running a VSL call funnel with cold traffic without these systems creates unnecessary friction. Your sales team ends up fighting an uphill battle on every call, trying to educate and close simultaneously. The conversion rates suffer, the sales team burns out, and the funnel never reaches its potential.

Webinars avoid this problem because the education happens during the presentation. The back-end selling systems still improve webinar performance, but they’re not structurally necessary the way they are for VSL call funnels.

How Content-First Ad Strategies Replicate Your Organic Sales Process

Content-first ad strategies represent another approach to warming cold traffic. These strategies put educational content in front of cold audiences first, then follow up with direct response offers to people who engage with that content.

We’ve developed several versions of this approach. One is called the Forester, which I’ve covered in depth in other resources. We also teach the Tornado and the Harvester inside our paid advertising trainings, available through my flagship program and our 7-week live comprehensive training.

The basic structure: you run content ads to cold audiences. People who watch or engage with that content get added to remarketing audiences. You then show direct response ads (webinar registrations, VSL opt-ins, application funnels) to those warmed-up audiences.

Some content-first strategies also continue showing content ads alongside the direct response ads. You’re mixing education with conversion opportunities, creating multiple touchpoints that build familiarity while also driving action.

Beyond content-first strategies, we also use standalone content ad strategies like the Reverse Flytrap and the Hammer-Them approach. These serve different functions within the overall paid traffic ecosystem, but they all share a common goal: replicate the trust-building that happens organically, but in a paid traffic context.

These strategies work. They’re effective at warming cold audiences and improving conversion rates on your direct response funnels. They bridge the gap between “never heard of you” and “ready to buy” by providing value before asking for a transaction.

There’s one additional strategy I’m currently teaching exclusively inside my flagship program. It doesn’t have a name yet. It’s producing strong results for the operators who’ve implemented it, but I’m not covering it in public resources. If you want access to that strategy, you’ll need to join the program.

My flagship program is designed for established operators focused on significant scale. We conduct one-on-one calls twice monthly, weekly group coaching sessions, and quarterly in-person masterminds in January, April, July, and October. We vet every applicant—this isn’t a program where we simply accept anyone willing to pay. The community quality matters as much as the training and resources, which is why we’re selective about membership.

The depth of what we cover inside the program goes far beyond what’s available in public resources. These articles, videos, and free trainings are designed to help you generate results and reach the point where investing in my flagship program or my 7-week live comprehensive training makes sense.

According to Forrester’s research on B2B buying behavior, buyers consume an average of 11 to 13 pieces of content before making a purchase decision, which is why content-first strategies align with how people actually buy.

What I Would Recommend If You’re Building a Cold Traffic Plan Right Now

If you’re developing a cold traffic strategy from scratch, start with a webinar.

VSL call funnels create higher friction. Even adding content-first ad strategies to support a VSL funnel introduces more complexity than simply executing a well-structured webinar.

The pattern we see across our top-performing members in the flagship program and the businesses we work with directly is consistent: webinars drive the best results with cold traffic. When we launch a new business or help an existing business scale into cold paid audiences, we build a cold-audience-optimized webinar first.

You should explore the additional resources available on each of these strategies. I have detailed training on VSL call funnels, breakdowns of content ad strategies, and organized playlists that walk through implementation. The more context you have when building your plan, the better your execution will be.

But if you want the most direct answer: for warm traffic, run a call funnel. For cold traffic, run webinars. That’s the clearest path forward based on what’s working right now.

When you’re ready for the complete frameworks and advanced strategies, check out my flagship program or my 7-week live comprehensive training. Until then, the free resources will help you make progress.

About the author:

Jeremy Haynes

Owner and CEO of Megalodon Marketing

Jeremy Haynes is the founder of Megalodon Marketing. He is considered one of the top digital marketers and has the results to back it up. Jeremy has consistently demonstrated his expertise whether it be through his content advertising “propaganda” strategies that are originated by him, as well as his funnel and direct response marketing strategies. He’s trusted by the biggest names in the industries his agency works in and by over 4,000+ paid students that learn how to become better digital marketers and agency owners through his education products.