Hernan VazquezFounder and CEO, Rapid Scale Framework · Creator of The Rapid Scale Framework, Author of Low Ticket Profits

Why A Rising CPM Isn't The Problem You Think #shorts

22 Jun 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:38

In this YouTube short, the speaker warns advertisers against allocating almost all ad spend to cold traffic, explaining that doing so ignores the cheapest buyers in the funnel. He proposes a budget split of roughly 60‑70% to cold traffic, 20‑30% to warm traffic, and about 10% to hot retargeting. The speaker defines each audience tier: cold (new prospects), warm (people who have engaged with the brand such as website visitors, video viewers, email list members), and hot (high‑intent users like landing‑page visitors or cart abandoners). He argues that as audiences become more familiar, the cost to convert should drop, and therefore creative should evolve—broad conversion ads for cold, more direct messaging for warm, and highly specific testimonials or reminder ads for hot. He also provides a diagnostic rule: if warm traffic isn’t cheaper than cold, or hot isn’t cheaper than warm, the funnel’s creative or retargeting is likely broken. The overall message is to build a full‑funnel strategy rather than pouring 100% of the budget into cold traffic.

Chapters

One mistake I see all the time is advertisers put almost all their budget into cold traffic. And when you do that, you're usually ignoring the cheapest buyers in the account. The split that tends to work a lot better is pretty simple. Around 60 to 70% goes to cold traffic, 20 to 30% goes to warm traffic, and about 10% goes to hot retargeting. The reason is straightforward. The more familiar someone already is with you, the cheaper they usually are to convert. Cold traffic still deserves most of the budget because that's where new buyers come from. But warm traffic usually converts for less, and hot retargeting is often the cheapest traffic in the whole funnel. So cold is where you're bringing new people in. Warm is everyone who already knows you a little bit, like website visitors, people who engage with your content, video viewers, or people on your email list. And hot is the group that got really close but didn't buy, like landing page visitors, cart abandoners, or people who watched your sales video and stopped there. That's why the creative should change as people move through the funnel. Cold can use your broader conversion ads. Warm can use a lot of the same messaging or even more direct ads because they already know who you are. Hot should be more specific testimonials, objection handling, simple reminder ads, things like that. And the math should reflect that. If your warm traffic is not converting cheaper than cold, something in the funnel is probably off. And if your hot traffic is not cheaper than warm, your retargeting usually needs work. That's really the point. Stop treating all traffic the same. The more warmed up the audience is, the less it should usually cost to get the sale. So don't put 100% of your budget into cold traffic and hope for the best. Build the whole funnel.