VSL presell or text presell: which one to run first

Most paid funnels end up using both formats, one after the other: a short text page that warms the click, then a video that makes the pitch. So the useful question is which one goes first and which one you test first. This guide sets out the cases for each, how they stack, and how to read the test without fooling yourself. It is written from published guidance and practitioner reports; we do not publish campaign numbers of our own (see how we work).

What a VSL presell and a text presell are

A VSL presell, or video sales letter presell, is a short page built around a sales video. Its one job is to get the right people to press play and stay through the pitch. The text on it does what the video cannot: the ad label, a few lines of proof and the button.

A text presell does the persuading in words. It can be an advertorial written like an article, a listicle, the outcome page of a quiz, or a bridge page of a few lines and a button. There may be a picture or a short clip, but no video carries the argument.

Both sit in the same place, between the ad and the order page. The difference that matters most to affiliates is ownership: on many offers the vendor owns the VSL and the checkout, and the only page you control is the first one after the click. The presell and bridge pages hub lists the formats, and the carbon steel pan advertorial example shows a full text presell you can copy and edit.

Run a text presell first when the click is cold

Native and social traffic arrives mid-scroll. The reader did not search for anything and has no reason yet to give you ten minutes of video. Guides written for Taboola-style affiliates warn that native readers sent straight to a merchant VSL often bounce, and the usual fix is a short text pre-lander before the video.

A text page also starts first in these cases:

• The audience is sceptical or comparing. Health, money and anything with a big promise attracts readers who want their objections answered before they hear a pitch. Media buyers on r/FacebookAds describe a text advertorial that "addresses objections upfront" beating cold traffic sent straight to a product page. That is one buyer's account on one kind of offer, and the margin they quote does not transfer to yours.
• You need to test angles quickly. A new headline, lead or angle on a text page is an edit and a fork. On a video it is a new script, a new shoot and a new edit. When you do not yet know which promise works, text lets you find out for the price of a few hours of copywriting (the direct-response copywriting hub covers the headline and lead work).
• Your ads currently point at a product page. Another r/FacebookAds thread reports that the change that worked was pointing the top ads at a presell LP instead of the PDP. A text presell is the cheapest version of that change to build.
• Ad review matters to you. An article-style page is easy to label clearly, and it has to be. The FTC's native advertising guide says that on the page after the click, "disclosures should be placed as close as possible to where they will look first", which on an advertorial means near the headline, and that a disclosure needed to prevent deception "must be clear and prominent". The compliance and disclosures hub goes through placement in detail.

Run a VSL presell first when the video already sells

The case for leading with video is strongest when you are scaling something that works. If a script has already converted on this traffic source, putting a text page in front of it adds a step that has to earn its place, and it may not.

Video also goes first when the product needs motion to make sense: a demonstration, a before-and-after process, a founder explaining why the thing exists. Words can describe a pan going from hob to oven, but they cannot show it, and a reader who cannot picture the product will not buy it.

Warmer traffic points the same way. Retargeting, email lists and branded search bring people who already know the offer. A text warm-up repeats what they have heard and gives them one more page to leave from.

Video is not the default winner, though. In a thread about a struggling high-ticket coaching funnel, one commenter reported that "a sales letter worked better than a VSL". Long-form text still sells expensive things to people who want to read before they decide. The format follows the offer and the reader.

The VSL landing page is a performance page

A VSL landing page carries a heavy element at the top, so it needs a strict layout: a headline, the player, a short strip of proof, one call to action and next to no navigation. Every extra link is an exit before the pitch has finished.

Speed is the constraint that pushes many teams to text on cold mobile traffic. A speed guide on video landing pages warns that an autoplay player without a poster image can push mobile LCP past four seconds. Players differ, so measure your own, but the common mitigation applies to all of them: show a poster image first and load the player on tap or after the page shell has rendered. Mobile browsers also limit autoplay with sound, so plan the first frame and the play prompt as if nobody will hear the opening line.

Read a VSL page on two numbers together. Watch rate tells you whether the opening holds attention; purchase rate tells you whether the pitch converts. A video people watch to the end and do not buy from has a different problem from one they leave after twenty seconds. The testing and measurement hub covers how to track both.

Stacking: advertorial or bridge first, then the VSL

The most common affiliate funnel uses both formats in sequence: ad, then text presell, then the vendor's VSL, then checkout. When you do not own the video, the text page is the only lever you have, so it does the warming. It sets up the problem, makes the reader curious about the answer and hands them to the video already wanting to watch it.

When you own both pages, the text step has to pay for itself. An extra page warms some buyers and loses others on the way. Judge it on the whole chain: one guide on pre-landers puts it as "judge funnel-level EPC and cost per purchase, not page CTR". A presell with a high click-through that sends unconvinced people to the video can lose money while its own numbers look good.

A sensible first test keeps the video fixed. Feed the same VSL from two paths, a full advertorial and a short bridge page, with identical ads and budgets. That tells you how much warming this traffic needs before you spend anything on a new video. The advertorials hub covers how the longer page is built.

How to test the order without fooling yourself

Split at the ad set or campaign level, with the same creative on both sides. One path goes text-first, the other goes straight to the VSL. Changing the ad at the same time as the page means you cannot tell which change did the work.

• Primary metric: cost per purchase, or EPC if you are on commission, measured through the whole chain from ad to checkout.
• Secondary metrics: presell exit rate, the share of viewers who reach a quarter and half of the video, and order page conversion. Use them to find where a path leaks, never to pick the winner.
• Every hop logged: ad, presell, VSL and checkout each recorded, so a strong presell does not hide a broken hand-off to the order page.

Give each path enough purchases to tell a real difference from noise before you call it, and read the result in your own tracker. Nobody else's numbers stand in for your offer on your traffic.

What to do once you have picked a starting format

If text wins, tighten the hand-off. The order page or video should repeat the promise, the product name and the price the presell used, so the reader recognises where they have landed. A presell that promises one thing and lands on another throws away the warming it did.

If the video wins, fix load time and the disclosure before you raise spend. A poster-first player and a clear ad label above the video cost little to add and protect both the conversion rate and the account.

Either way, keep the losing format as a later test, because traffic and offers change. Our example pages show the layouts as copyable code; a VSL presell example is in preparation, and until then the presell pages hub describes its structure. More guides are on the guides index.