What a funnel is
A funnel is the user's path from the first ad impression to the target action (deposit, sign-up, order). At every step some people «fall off». The media buyer's job is to lose as few as possible at each stage.
Funnel stages
1. The ad (creative)
The first point of contact. This is where CTR is decided — how many people click. A weak creative = expensive clicks and little traffic downstream. This is also where the platform's moderation sits.
2. Cloaking (the filter)
A layer invisible to the user: cloaking figures out who's in front of it — a moderator/bot or a real person — and routes them to different pages.
3. White page (for the moderator)
What the moderator sees: a legitimate cover page. Its job is to pass review (more on this: what a white page is).
4. Pre-lander (for the user, optional)
A warm-up page for the real user: a story, a quiz, a «news piece», reviews. It raises readiness to act before the offer.
5. Offer (the target page)
The advertiser's page, where the conversion happens. This is where the user signs up or pays.
Where you lose the most
| Transition | Metric | Typical loss |
|---|---|---|
| Impression -> click | CTR | 98-99% don't click (normal) |
| Click -> landing | speed/trust | 20-40% drop off on a slow landing |
| Landing -> offer | landing CR | landing quality decides this |
| Offer -> action | offer CR | depends on the advertiser |
The stage that «leaks» most often is click -> landing -> offer: a slow or unconvincing landing burns traffic you've already paid for. Lifting landing CR from 2% to 3% = +50% conversions with no change in budget (how — in the guide on conversion).
Simplified funnels
- No pre-lander: creative -> landing -> offer (when the offer is convincing on its own);
- No cloaking: on loyal sources (push/native) you can often send straight to the pre-lander;
- Direct linking: creative -> offer (only «white» verticals with no moderation).
Bottom line
Don't think about «the landing» — think about the whole funnel: a weak link kills the entire chain. Measure CR at every transition (with a tracker) and reinforce the weakest one. Get white pages and pre-landers built for your funnel on order or from the pool.