How to Build a 24/7 Lead Funnel using YouTube
- Ryan Snaadt
- 2 days ago
- 9 min read
Today, I’m breaking down the exact framework to use YouTube as a high-converting marketing funnel to capture leads, earn passive income, and scale your business while you sleep.
The tactics we’re covering today have helped me publish on this channel for over a decade. And grow the largest Facebook group in the world for over 94,000 freelance videographers. They also generate 25,000-40,000 views every single month and add at least 10 new warm leads to my list every week—completely on autopilot.
This system has made me tens of thousands of dollars in digital product sales and high-ticket video clients.
If you want to stop shouting into the void and start getting paid for your expertise, hit that subscribe button.
Class is officially in session. Let’s get into it.
SECTION 1: WHY YOUTUBE? (THE PSYCHOLOGY)
Why are we focusing on YouTube and not TikTok or Instagram?
Simple: Intent.
YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, and it’s owned by the largest—Google.
People don’t go to YouTube to doom-scroll at 2:00 AM because they’re bored—well, okay, maybe some do—but most people go there to solve a problem.
When someone searches "How to fix a leaky faucet" or "How to scale a marketing agency," they are in learning mode.
They are attentive, they are locked in, and they are looking for an expert to trust. That expert needs to be you.
Seriously, on other platforms, you have 0.5 seconds to grab attention before someone swipes to a video of squirrel wake boarding in a bathtub.. Here? People will actually sit still for 20 minutes. It’s the only place on the internet where people still have an attention span longer than a goldfish. Let’s not waste it.
GOTTA JOIN: THE COMMUNITY PLUG
Before we dive into step one, I want to give you a resource to help you implement this.
I created The Content Marketer Club. It’s a 100% free online community where marketing directors, solo entrepreneurs, and creators hang out to talk shop. We talk YouTube strategies, podcasting, and social media tactics to use each medium to grow your business.
If you want to see behind-the-scenes data and connect with people doing the work, click the link in the description and join us. We have corporate marketing directors, solo business owners, huge podcasters, and many more.
Alright, let’s look at the framework.
SECTION 3: THE 6-STEP FUNNEL FRAMEWORK
If you want a funnel that actually prints money, you need these six pillars:
Clarify your ICP (Your Ideal Customer Profile).
Create a High-Value CTA (Your Lead Magnet).
Topic Research (Finding what your ICP is searching for).
Production (The actual filming and editing).
Optimization (Thumbnails, Titles, and SEO).
Omni-Channel Marketing (Driving traffic from everywhere else).
SECTION 4: DEEP DIVE - THE ICP (WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO?)
Most businesses fail on YouTube because they try to talk to "everyone."
If you talk to everyone, you talk to no one. You need to define your Category of One.
Ask yourself:
What is the specific problem I solve?
Who has the money and the motivation to pay for that solution?
Don't just say "Business owners." Say "Real estate agents in the Midwest looking to automate their follow-up."
The more specific you are, the more your viewer will feel like you are reading their mind.
Having this clear make the other steps so much easier. You can address those people in each video “What’s going on Real Estate agents?” “If you are a busy mom you are going to love this video today”.. Knowing who is watching on the other end allows you to connect deeper.
SECTION 5: THE CTA (GIVE TO GET)
In each video, you will need a Call to Action that encourages viewers to leave YouTube and go to your owned pages.
The main goal with each video is to give the viewer so much value that they want even more from you. The feeling they should walk away with is - ‘this video was so good and it wa free, what else does he have for me?’ If they feel that way, you will get way more opt ins
Your video is the "first date." Your Lead Magnet is the "second date."
You need a Call to Action that solves a small part of their big problem for free.
A PDF Checklist.
A 5-day email mini-course.
A Notion template.
A free training.
Whatever your opt-in is make sure it is A: Related to the video they are watching. B: Actually helps or adds value and isn’t a piss poor effort to get their email. People can sense that stuff so actually help them and they will opt in and feel good about it.
Crucial Step: This link must be in the top two lines of your description and pinned in the top comment. Make it impossible to miss.
If your lead magnet is just "Sign up for my newsletter," I have bad news for you. Nobody wakes up and thinks, "Gee, I hope I can get more random emails in my inbox today!" Give them the goods, man. Give them the secret sauce.
*And if you are curious on HOW we implement all of these pages, collect emails and all of that jazz, we use an all in-one tool called Course Creator 360. I will link it below if you want to poke around and see if it’s worth it for you. But we love it and once it’s set up, the courses, email lists, automated email funnels, and all of those features run in the background and sell for us without any manual input.
SECTION 6: TOPIC RESEARCH (THE TOP OF FUNNEL)
We don't guess what videos to make. We use data.
In 2026, YouTube SEO is about Search Intent. Use tools like VidIQ or TubeBuddy, but also just use the YouTube search bar.
Look for "How to" phrases in your niche. Look for the "People also ask" section on Google.
Every video you make should be an entry point into your world. Something we have been using is prompting AI tools saying ‘Act as a YouTube expert and give me 20 video ideas for (ICP) struggling with (ICP COMMON ISSUE). Such a good prompt to get the gears going.
SECTION 7: PRODUCTION & OPTIMIZATION
Scripting: Next step is to take those ideas and script some YouTube videos! I have a whole video on how we batch produce multiple videos in a row to make this process easier for you. I will link it above this video.
Without getting too into the weeds, you will script out the full video, film yourself talking about that topic, and edit the video to be ready to post on YouTube. I could make an entire video on these 3 steps, but for this training - that give you the the overview. Comment below if you would like an in depth video on the actual production and I can create that for you as well.
Once you have your edited version in hand and ready to upload, there are some steps you want ot make sure you don’t skip.
I’m going to be honest: A pretty video that nobody finds is a waste of time.
The Thumbnail: This is your storefront. It needs to be high-contrast and tell a story in one second. Go for high impact images with a large text on screen that adds some input about what the video is about.
The Title: Needs to trigger curiosity OR promise a specific result. People love transformations, numbers, or ideal state curiosity. Some title examples are: “How I Survived a Bear Attack in the Woods”, 5 Secrets to Becoming a Millionaire, or ‘it almost broke me’.
The First 30 Seconds: If you don't tell them exactly what they’re going to learn in the first 30 seconds, they are gone. I could do a whole video on how to optimize these. But some solid advice is to create curiosity and excitement when people see the thumbnail and title. They click, and immediately tell them what they will be watching and learning to ensure they don’t click off right away. Be mindful of people’s time and it will help a lot with retention. Make people so curious that they have to click to learn more.
Now that your back end optimization is locked in - you are ready to post your video.
SECTION 8: MARKETING THE MACHINE
Once the video is live, the work isn't done. {HUMOR} You really thought the work was done?! Ha!
Take that long form YouTube video and chop it into:
5 YouTube Shorts.
3 LinkedIn text posts.
An email blast to your current list.
You want to create a "surround sound" effect where your ideal client sees you everywhere. Repurposing content is super easy now a days with AI editing tools and all of the things at our fingertips.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Then as you continue this exact same process, you will begin to get viewers that consume your content, click the links in the description and opt in to your email list where you can then sell them things later on. It won’t happen right away, but it’s one of those things you invest the time now and keep posting to get traction later on.
SECTION 9: MAKING THE MONEY (THE BOTTOM OF FUNNEL)
How does this actually turn into cash?
Lead Capture: The main goal with YouTube is to build know/like/trust factors with the viewers and get them to make a micro commitment by giving you their email address in exchange for something free.
Direct Sales: You don’t have to go the digital product route, however it’s super scaleable because you build it once and it can sell thousands of times - hence the mass appeal to most people on YouTube. But if you have a business that solves those viewer problems, you can pitch that in the videos as well. They watch, they click the link, they buy your course, product, or book a call.
Affiliate Income: Another niche of YouTube is affiliate marketing. This means that people making reviews of products or services they use can be linked in the description box. When someone clicks the link and buys, they get a small commission kickback for sending that traffic to the affiliate program.
There are other ways to make money on YouTube including brand deals and YouTube adsense - but if your focus is on creating your own lead pipeline, those are just icing on the cake. Focus on this framework to own your audience and not be beholden to the YouTube platform for your access to people.
[HUMOR BREAK 3] Pat your pockets. That’s the sound of a funnel working while you’re at the gym or, let’s be honest, probably just taking a nap. Naps are highly underrated business strategies.
Examples of YouTuber Funnels:
It’s a lot to take in, I hope you are still with me!
Now, let’s see it in action. A good example of a funnel is practice is my channel. For the past 10 years, I have mainly created content for freelance videographers to improve their business. How to make more money, sales tactics, how to close retainers, how to use systems and software, and a ton of other things in that realm.
That is my ICP and niche. To help those people, I created a ton of free trainings,webinars, and downloads to help videographers. When they download those things and give me their email, they get added to my list where we send them even more videos that help them with that same issue of growing their business.
Then after we have given a ton of value, we offer them a long form webinar training for an hour where I give even more value and eventually upsell one of our DIY course programs that go super deep on helping them reach $100,000 in revenue in their business. That is the general overview of how my YouTube channel has built me an actual business in the last decade. The insane thing is, if I had 17,000 subscribers on any other social media platform, it wouldn’t even come close to doing the numbers that YouTube has done. Again, it’s all about intent and helping people get where they want to go.
And income aside, it’s been super cool to help millions of people over the years with my free content to grow a video production business. So there are some good aspects of this outside of building a funnel.
FINAL THOUGHTS & WRAP UP
YouTube is the long game. It’s not about going viral tomorrow; it’s about being relevant three years from now.
Each video you post is a digital employee that never sleeps, never asks for a raise, and never calls in sick.
Alright, if you have made it this far in the video, thank you. This also proves that creating an engaging video can keep people locked in if they want to learn something new. These tactics have worked well for me, so I am glad to share them with you. If you have additional questions I didn’t cover enough, please leave them in the comments and I will do my best to to get back to every one of you.
Remember, If you want to connect with other online marketers growing their brands online, join The Content Marketer Club below. And if you have been following along, yes that is my lead magnet. BUTTT - it’s a great platform that truly is free and helps a ton of people. Check it out if you don’t believe me!
I’m Ryan Snaadt, it rhymes with odd, peace!
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