Big Idea

The argument in one line.

Getting your first paid-ads client comes down to one repeatable system: run your offer through the value equation, keep the ad, above-the-fold, and VSL congruent, and lead with proof instead of production value.

Who This Is For

Read if. Skip if.

READ IF YOU ARE…

A service business or agency owner who has never run paid ads and is intimidated by the idea of doing it.
A B2B or B2C business owner relying on referrals or organic traffic who wants a repeatable client-acquisition system.
A marketer who wants a live, no-fluff walkthrough of building a static ad, landing page, and VSL structure from scratch.

SKIP IF…

You already run paid ads profitably and just need advanced scaling or media-buying tactics, not funnel fundamentals.
You're looking for platform-specific setup help (Meta Ads Manager, campaign structure, targeting) — this video is about messaging, not ad platform mechanics.

TL;DR

The full version, fast.

The video live-builds a complete book-a-call funnel for landing a first paid-ads client. It starts by running the offer through the value equation (dream outcome times believability, divided by time delay times effort) to find the top three objections cold traffic will have. From there it builds a static image ad, an above-the-fold landing page section, and a VSL opening, all built to say the same thing: who the offer is for, what they get, and why to believe it, within the first few seconds. The rule repeated throughout is congruency: the ad, landing page, and VSL must never introduce new claims, they only need to say the same thing more directly.

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Chapters

Where the time goes.

00:00 – 01:57

01 · The fear of paid ads, and the funnel it's for

Matthew opens on why paid ads intimidate even large businesses, frames the before/after of having a predictable lead source, and shows the book-a-call funnel diagram: ad, sales page/VSL, application, calendar, call.

01:58 – 04:44

02 · Score the offer with the value equation

Runs the offer through dream outcome times likelihood of achievement, divided by time delay times effort and sacrifice, explains why perceived time delay matters more than real time delay, and sets up finding the top three sales objections from call transcripts.

04:45 – 13:17

03 · Live-building the static image ad in Canva

Builds a financial-advisor lead-gen ad from a blank Canva file: ICP callout, high-contrast headline, three bullets that overcome the top three objections (CRM integration, 48-hour first leads, free replacement of dead leads), and a CTA with a $5,000 qualifier.

13:18 – 21:16

04 · Building the above-the-fold landing page section

Rebuilds the same message in Webflow: star rating and trust line, ICP callout, headline and subheadline mirroring the ad, a VSL placeholder, a book-a-call CTA, and the top objection restated as a P.S. line.

21:16 – 23:33

05 · Nailing the first 15 seconds of the VSL

Lays out the VSL opening structure: strongest proof and ICP callout in the first 5 seconds, a second proof point plus the full offer explanation in the next 10, then plays an 18-second example from an organic creator's VSL that hits every beat.

23:34 – 24:59

06 · Making the page sell without the VSL

Since successful prospects often won't watch the video, the rest of the page has to work as a written version of the VSL, answering who it's for, what they get, how it works, timeline, and why to believe it, with proof placed beside each specific objection instead of dumped together.

25:00 – 25:18

07 · The final funnel check

Closes with a nine-point checklist to run before spending on traffic: does the ad call out the ICP, do the bullets answer the objections, is proof visible in the first 5-15 seconds, and does the page still sell if nobody watches the VSL.

Atomic Insights

Lines worth screenshotting.

Cold traffic doesn't dig for information: if a claim isn't visible in the ad, landing page, or VSL, it effectively doesn't exist to the prospect.
The value equation for judging any offer is dream outcome times perceived likelihood of achievement, divided by time delay times effort and sacrifice.
Perceived time delay matters more than actual time delay: reframing a year-long engagement around a 7-day first result shrinks the delay a prospect feels, even though the real commitment hasn't changed.
Listing your top three sales objections directly on a static ad functions as a subtle form of social proof, since it signals you already understand the prospect's concerns.
A static image ad, an above-the-fold section, and a VSL opening should structurally be the same message repeated, not three different pitches.
Congruency between the ad and the landing page prevents the VSL from having to re-explain the offer from scratch.
The first 5 seconds of a VSL should show the strongest available proof, call out the ICP, and state the result; the next 10 seconds add a second proof point and explain the full offer.
A sales page has to fully sell the offer even for the visitors who never press play on the VSL, since successful, busy people are the least likely to watch a 15-20 minute video.
Proof should sit directly beside the specific objection it answers rather than being dumped in one generic testimonials section.
A qualifier in the CTA, like a stated minimum order size, filters out unqualified leads before they ever book a call.

Takeaway

Congruency is the whole paid-ads game

OFFER TO CLOSE

The ad, the landing page, and the VSL opening are the same message told three times, and running an offer through the value equation first is what makes that message worth repeating.

01The fear of paid ads, and the funnel it's for

A predictable client pipeline changes the business from reactive lead-chasing to knowing exactly what input produces what output.
The book-a-call funnel breaks into four parts: the paid ad, the sales page and VSL, the application and calendar, and the sales call itself.

02Score the offer with the value equation

Score any offer with dream outcome times perceived likelihood of achievement, divided by time delay times effort and sacrifice, before writing a single ad.
Reframing a year-long commitment around a fast first result, like a video live in 7 days, shrinks the perceived time delay without changing the real timeline.
Pull your top three objections directly from past sales call transcripts rather than guessing what prospects are worried about.

03Live-building the static image ad in Canva

An ICP callout, a clear headline, three bullets overcoming the top objections, and a CTA with a qualifier is the entire structure a static ad needs.
Listing objections in ad copy works as social proof: it shows the prospect you already understand their specific hesitations.
A stated minimum order size in the CTA, like $5,000, pre-qualifies leads before they ever book a call.

04Building the above-the-fold landing page section

The above-the-fold section is a landing page's first impression, and it decides how professional the brand looks before a visitor scrolls.
Above-the-fold copy should repeat the ad's exact message rather than introduce new claims, so nothing needs re-explaining in the VSL.
A trust line, like client count or star rating, is one of the few forms of proof that fits above the fold without crowding the layout.

05Nailing the first 15 seconds of the VSL

The first 5 seconds of a VSL should show the strongest available proof, call out the ICP, and state the result or offer.
The next 10 seconds add a second proof point and fully explain the offer: what they get, how it works, the timeline, and what happens next.
A well-executed VSL open can cover proof, ICP, and offer in under 20 seconds, as shown by the reference example that hit every beat in 18.

06Making the page sell without the VSL

The rest of the landing page must sell the offer completely even if the visitor never presses play on the VSL.
Write the full page as if it were the VSL's script transcribed: who it's for, what they get, how it works, timeline, and why to believe it.
Group proof by the objection or FAQ it answers instead of dumping all testimonials into one generic section.

07The final funnel check

Run a nine-point funnel check before spending on traffic: ICP callout, offer clarity, objection coverage, proof timing, and whether the page sells without the video.

Glossary

Terms worth knowing.

Value equation: A framework for scoring how compelling an offer is: (dream outcome x perceived likelihood of achievement) divided by (time delay x effort and sacrifice). Higher perceived value on top and lower perceived cost on the bottom means a stronger offer.
Above the fold: The portion of a webpage visible on screen before a visitor scrolls, typically viewed on a phone. It functions as a landing page's first impression and often the only section some visitors read.
ICP: Ideal Customer Profile: the specific type of person or business an ad or page is written for, called out explicitly so the right prospect self-identifies immediately.
VSL: Video Sales Letter: the video on a landing page that explains an offer and moves a cold visitor toward booking a call or buying.
Congruency: The requirement that an ad, its landing page, and its VSL all deliver the same core message and proof, so a prospect never feels like they clicked into something different than what was promised.
Cold traffic: Prospects encountering a business for the first time through paid ads, as opposed to warm traffic from referrals or an existing audience who already trust the brand.

Resources

Things they pointed at.

00:00productMatthew Larsen's Productivity Course ↗

00:00channel@morematthewlarsen (second YouTube channel) ↗

Quotables

Lines you could clip.

00:05

“There's absolutely nothing that freaks people out more than the idea of running paid ads for their business. It's like the boogeyman to them.”

cold open pain point that sets up the entire video→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote

02:28

“The perception of your offer is the reality of your offer.”

tight, quotable maxim→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote

06:38

“That kind of proof, conveying that you know what their concerns are, is more powerful than all the case studies, screenshots, logos, and testimonials combined.”

contrarian claim about objection-handling beating traditional social proof→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote

24:03

“Our page needs to really work even if they don't watch a second of that VSL.”

actionable warning for anyone building a sales page→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote

The Script

Word for word.

Read-along

Don't just watch it. Burn it in.

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metaphor

I've worked with over 1 ,800 clients since the start of 2024, and there's absolutely nothing that freaks people out more than the idea of running paid ads for their business. It's like the boogeyman to them. And this is obviously true for beginners, but it's also true for bigger businesses than you'd think, you know, five, $10 million a year businesses who've just never done it before.

They're just very organic or network or referral or, you know, prospecting heavy, and they just don't know how to do it, right? And it's very important stuff, paid ads, because to me, it's one of the biggest before versus afters that you could possibly have in business. Before you get your first client from paid ads versus after.

Before, you know, you're grinding, lead flows kind of up and down. You don't really know where the next client's coming from or when you're going to get it. But after, you're kind of the master of your own destiny, so to speak.

You know, if you put this much money in, you're going to get this. many clients out, largely speaking. So today I'm going to live build the exact system to get you your first client with paid ads.

So you can see how simple and how stupid and how easy it actually is. Nothing to be afraid of. So let's get started.

So this will be basically the exact system to get your first client with paid ads, whatever type of business you're in. This will work as long as it's, you know, B2B. We'll probably work in a lot of B2C businesses too.

As far as a framework goes, like this is a typical book a call funnel. At least here, we're going to talk about the paid ad. We're going to talk about the sales page of the VSL.

And then you basically would send them through your application, your calendar link, and then you would get them on the phone and close them. Basically going to talk about booking the call in this video, because that's really the constraint. A lot of people, like if you get them on the phone with someone, even if when they're going from warm traffic to cold traffic, they might mess up the first couple.

actually selling it is not really the main constraint. So the first thing we're going to want to do here is we're going to want to take whatever offer we have. It'll probably be pretty terrible if we've never got a paid ad client before, but we're going to try whatever we have.

We're going to at least start there. So basically what we're going to do is we're going to take our offer and we're going to apply Alex Ramosi's value formula to it. And then we're going to also find the top objections.

So when you're going from warm traffic, organic referrals to cold, Usually your offer is not going to cut it, but this is not going to be a video on how to do an offer, right? So we'll try this out first, and if it really doesn't work, probably an offer problem.

So basically, the important thing to understand when you are doing paid ads, or anything really, but the perception of your offer is the reality of your offer, right? It really doesn't matter if you have X, Y, and Z. If it's not in the ad, it's not in the VSL, it's not in the landing page, it's not clearly there.

Because when people are clicking on your ads, like they're not warm, right? They're cold traffic is what you call it. They're like kind of care, they're vaguely interested, but they're not going to go digging for stuff.

So it really has to be extremely obvious. So if the prospect or person who clicks on our ad doesn't actually see it, basically doesn't exist, right? It doesn't matter.

essentially we're going to go through the value formula like right is this what they actually want what is the exact result and is that clear you just see like so many people make their very basic offer extremely complicated so just like make it clear yeah how much proof will they see basically how believable is the result you know not i'm gonna add a million in mrr in 30 days of your money back right that does more harm than good how can you reduce the time delay and more importantly perceived time delay and a use case for this is like you know work with us for a year for your youtube and you're going to see results like wow i have to work with them for a year that seems like a lot right so you would just say like maybe you keep it as the year but it's just like you have a note on there it's you know 95 of our clients get their first video live in seven days that shrinks the perceived time delay from a year from how you're describing it to seven days right

And then effort and sacrifice really like make it very, very simple for them. Right. Very good.

And then what we kind of want to do is we want to find the top three objections. We basically want to go through our sales calls for our warm sales calls or whatever we have previous. We want to find the top objections.

You can use your own brain for this. You can use AI to find these, but it's best if you basically use. your transcripts.

List out all of them and then find the top three because that's what we're really going to focus on in this video. And then number two is we want to make our first static image ad. I think a lot of the time people get so freaked out about ads because they think they're going to have to be some insane, you know, camera speaker with insane editing and not really true at all, right?

We just really want to make a good static ad and I'm going to do this for you live so you can just see how easy it is. So we have to understand a few things. The first thing is congruency.

We basically want to understand that when we're making our ad, our ad, then our landing page, and then our VSL need to work together. You can go very wrong when you treat them as separate things. So basically our ad, especially our static image ad and the above the fold section on our sales page, which we'll get to in a minute, they must make it clear what the offer is and who it's for.

Like within like... Like you should just know just by looking at it. And a lot of the time you don't know because people make it really overcomplicated.

And we want to do this, obviously, just because that's probably a good idea to begin with. But we want to do this so we don't have to re -go over it in our VSL, which we'll talk about later. As far as the structure goes, you kind of just want the ICP callout.

You want a headline that just says what the offer is. Like, seriously, just stop overcomplicating it. You want to basically have three bullet points overcoming those top three objections and then a call to action with a qualifier.

So basically like the goal that we want to do here is we want to like instantly say, okay, this is for me, the CTA, like this is what I get. And then by putting these objections, it's kind of a very, you know, high form of social proof in a way that you like, you know, these people understand my concerns, right? Very like subtle form of social proof, but to me.

That kind of proof by you like conveying that you know what their concerns are is more powerful than all the case studies, screenshots, logos, testimonials combined. Very, very important. And then this is what I should do next.

Like this is what just like seeing your ad should go for these in like literally like five seconds, to be honest, maybe even less. So I have a Canva thing on my other thing here and let's just make an ad. So to me, let's just do something that I know quite well, which is a pay -per -lead type ad.

So let's pretend that I'm a marketing agency. And let's just say that I'm trying to sell leads to financial advisors. So let's get our headline here.

Let's get a couple of things just here. Let's add a sub -headline type thing. And we'll fix these later.

And then let's just add. This kind of sizing So I like to typically use like it doesn't really matter but we want our screenshot to be Or our ad to be like high contrast in the feed, right? I'm not a canvas sans font guy There we go So let's just go here.

Let's get a big call out and let's get some contrast going so like financial advisors let's get an underline here um probably use yellow on a black background like yellow works like this kind of lime green works so financial advisors right like you shouldn't be able to miss it basically like you can't miss it right someone's scrolling through their feed financial advisors are you a financial advisor yes like okay this is for me essentially then let's get What do I get?

And these will be the objections. So basically, because we got to like think of something. So in this scenario, I'm essentially going to pretend that I'm selling leads to financial advisors because, you know, that's not going to make sense if we don't have our thing, right?

So let's go here.

Let's go call to action book a call with our team to place your test order. So and I'm going to go $5 ,000 minimum. So that's what I said, basically.

You don't necessarily have to do it, but that's what I kind of said about the qualifier, right? Because financial advisors, yes, but I don't want to talk to a bunch of retards, basically, who can't afford anything. It's just one of those things, right?

So book a call with our team.

We might even make this white, so book a call with our team. No, let's make it yellow. I kind of like it.

So, you know, what is the result? What do these people want? We will regenerate qualified, exclusive, let's go qualified, exclusive leads synced directly.

To your CRM qualified annuities. Let's just say that first. Cause we will just pretend these are, they want annuities leads, right?

Qualified exclusive annuities. Think direct directly to your CRM. Like that is really my offer and desired result.

They want them qualified. They want them exclusive, right? They don't want shared leads.

I might just also put that. lead annuities leads sorry not leads annuities that was pretty pretty embarrassing live here you know what i mean pretty embarrassing i'm trying to show you something and then i can't even speak english and what are those top objections so i'll just tell you the top objections basically so like number one we will handle the integration to your crm because a lot of these people are solo kind of operators type thing And like the tech thing, the tech side of things really kind of gets them.

So the second one is, you know, like they think they're going to take forever. You will get your first leads within 48 hours. So that's a good one.

Time delay, right? So effort and sacrifice kind of, but it's also a big objection. Time delay.

And then like the biggest one. We will replace dead fake leads for free. It's got to be the top possible objection.

And I'm just going to, we'll just take my word for it. That's going to be the top possible objection because that is the top possible objection.

Qualified exclusive insurances directly to your CRM. So like literally, this is all you need to do. Some shit like this.

Whatever your version of this is, you could just do it like this and it will work great. If you're doing it on Canva, there's this little box here. I'd highly recommend putting it in that little box, to be honest.

But it will work just fine.

Qualified exclusive leads drink directly to your CRM. So financial advisors qualified exclusively to directly to your CRM. That's the offer.

That's what they want. That is the desired result. We're reducing time delay or effort and sacrifice by handling the integration.

We're reducing time delay and we're hitting on the direct result again. Clear call to action and minimum $5 ,000 because I don't want to talk to dumbasses.

So really, let's see how we did. So in our thing here. congruency like we we need to understand who it's for financial advisors annuities leads like you could make that connection very very quickly in your head structured icp headline three bullet points cta this is for me i'm an assurance and or financial advisor okay i get leads okay these people clearly have done this before they understand my concerns okay i should book a call right it's really all you need to do The next thing is the, basically the above the fold and above the fold section is like, if you just, you know, record or like you went onto any site right now on your phone, like the thing that loads above the, like the section you can see on your phone is the above the fold.

So if I, well, I'm not going to show you actually, but I'm sure you can get it. Well, I'm going to show you. This is the above the fold.

Without me touching anything, that's the above the fold. So essentially, this is very important because this is your first impression, right? And that's going to set the tone for how serious and how professional they view your brand because they're paid ads.

They've probably never seen you before. And then on top of that, a lot of people won't even scroll down at all. So we need to have everything above the fold.

So we kind of like need to work with our ad here to basically make sure they know it here and then here. So we don't have to do it in the VSL. We've already kind of talked about that.

But essentially the structure, essentially like we're kind of doing the same thing again here with a little bit more elaboration. So the strongest available proof we have, that call out, that headline, the VSL, the call to action qualifier. If you want, you could also do.

you know, number one objection, overcome number one objection. And let's, let's do that. So we want to see, you know, who this for, what are we offering?

Why should I believe them? What do I do next? And essentially this is going to be kind of like your paid ad, except just a little bit deeper in the flow.

So I have my thing here. I have a template here as I don't think anybody would value me going from scratch. So basically let's just do it here.

So this is what I mean by you probably want to have some sort of star rating. That's usually the best way to do it. So rated, trusted by over 1 ,800 clients, let's just say.

So for financial advisors, I swear to God, you look at people's pages and it's just like you spend more time deciphering what it even is than anything else. And we really want to... We really want to keep this congruent.

We need, like, if we have something in our, especially in our static image ad, right? Like, they clicked on our static image ad because it resonated with them. So why would we basically change it, right?

It's a very bizarre thing. Like, it's very bizarre, like, the kind of things that people go through, like, their brain when they're talking about paid ads.

So we'll go. Like that.

We generate qualified leads via Facebook ads in your market, via Facebook ads, and they are synced to your CRM in real time.

I don't know. We generate leads, qualified leads. In your market, we have Facebook ads, we have meta ads.

We use meta ads to generate leads in real time. They are synced to your CRM. All you have to do is close them.

There's some kind of shit padding on this page, on this template. We've got to fix that.

Book a call. You'd insert your VSL here. I'm not really going to insert the VSL because it's fine.

So let's get this. Definitely want to... You need to get this down to three pages or three things in my opinion.

Synced to your CRM. You probably don't need the word directly in there, to be honest.

And I'm just going to replace any logo here, to be honest.

Let me just replace this with annuities agency or something, just so we have some form of logo in there. I'll just pretend that's the logo. What am I doing here?

There we go annuities marketing agency This is all you have to do guys like it's not Very complicated at all and it's always surprising to me how much people build it up in their head So we and PS we handle the CRM integration you will be In 48 hours Maybe a little bit of space there.

Not much, but there we go.

You can even get a little bit more space. But this is your first impression, guys. Let's put an image here just to pretend we have a VSL.

So you can see.

It's like very important, guys, like make it very you need to make this good. Like this is in many cases what you're going to be judged on and how professional you are going to be seen forever. So we have proper hierarchy.

This logo is probably too big. Like in reality, we have our little trust here. We have our call out so they know who it's for.

And we have qualified exclusive annuities leads. The same as in the ad. We have our sub headline.

basically elaborating on how it works a bit. We'll just pretend this is our VSL. We have a book of call and then we have the two kind of objections like really here.

Like this will be bigger than it looks like on the screen right now on an actual phone. It's just a little zoomed out, but it really is like that easy guys. Like it's not, it's not hard at all.

Like we do it in a few seconds and then we just kind of. Then we ball out with paid ads. This is where everybody should start.

So let's see how we did here, basically. Structure, strongest available proof. Kind of our, you know, there's limited ways that we can do proof above the fold.

So we're going to do the star rating. Clear ICP callout. Financial advisors.

Headline explaining the offer. Yes. Sub headline.

Basically elaborating on the offer a bit. vsl yes call to action yes qualifier or number one objection overcomer well kind of bad english but we handle the crm integration you'll be live within 48 hours so like very very easy so we have our ad we have our above the fold what we really want to do here is we want to nail the first 15 seconds of the vsl and i'm not going to write these for you guys here like that would be excessive But we need our VSL to be congruent.

Our VSL basically, because we did a good job in our add and our above the fold, our VSL should just be about showing as much proof as fast as possible and then overcoming as many FAQs. Like a lot of people, they don't do a good job in the previous steps so that they have to like really get into and explain their VSL and then it becomes very long and the pacing is poor.

So basically the structure, show our strongest proof as fast as possible for that ICP. And then state the result or offer in whatever way you can. You don't need to really do this hardcore because you've already done a good job before.

And then within the first 15 seconds, let's assume that we only do 15 seconds. Like that's how much they're going to watch. You know, we have the offer explained, you know, basically how they, like what they get and how it works and kind of like basically like a one line type of thing.

Timeline, all that. And then the rest of the VSL, you can basically just. elaborate a little bit, but then you can just go from stacking proof to overcoming objections, stacking proof, overcoming objections.

So I actually have a very good example here. And he's an organic person. So people are getting lapped by an organic person, but hopefully you can hear this.

So he does literally everything you could possibly think in 18 seconds. We'll give him a pass here because he's an organic first business. But very, very strong.

This is the proven YouTube growth system for generating consistent views and sales. sure and then he just starts with proof like where people go wrong is they just don't do this at all and then they have to explain everything from scratch and then you know people lost interest and then for the rest of the page we basically like there's so many different ways to make a sales page i wouldn't say one is better than the other but we got to understand that like not everyone especially really successful people they're not going to watch our like 15 20 minute vsl And our page needs to really work even if they don't watch a second of that VSL.

So you can basically need to have a written version of your VSL that is your entire page, so to speak. And then you could have a full sales letter, designated sections, like whatever you kind of want. But basically it should answer everything that your VSL would answer.

And then you can round it off by you basically want to have proof, but don't just dump a bunch of proof. Like take those objections from earlier and say like, you know, FAQs, like, is this worth the price or some whatever, like FAQs, you know, what results have people gotten?

And then boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, like group your proof by FAQ, it becomes 10 times more powerful. And then for the final funnel check, like if you're just doing all of this at once, you know, does the ad clearly call it the ICP? Does it explain the offer?

Do the bullet points answer the objections? Does the above the fold basically continue on that? Is the proof visible within the first five seconds of the VSL?

15 seconds for more proof and is it explained? Does the page still work if no one watches the offer? And then is the next step obvious?

Like literally, you just do this, you'll be good to go. It's not that difficult. So best of luck.

The Hook

The bait, then the rug-pull.

Matthew Larsen has run ads for over 1,800 clients, and he says nothing scares business owners more, even multi-million-dollar ones, than the idea of running their first paid ad. So he live-builds the entire system in real time: the offer, the static ad, the landing page, and the VSL opening, using nothing but a value-equation worksheet and a blank Canva file.

Frameworks

Named ideas worth stealing.

03:21model

The Value Equation

Dream Outcome
Perceived Likelihood of Achievement
Time Delay
Effort & Sacrifice

Value = (Dream Outcome x Perceived Likelihood of Achievement) / (Time Delay x Effort & Sacrifice). Used to audit an offer before writing any ad copy for it.

Steal forauditing any offer before running cold traffic to it

06:08list