Pulling Back The Curtain On Our $2.1M Webinar Launch With Samuel Onuha

Summary

Patrick Hogue describes the launch of “The Final Protocol,” a live online event with Samuel Onuha promoting an AI-assisted e-commerce offer. Hogue’s central argument is that a large, campaign-style event can outperform a recurring webinar by combining a distinctive marketing concept, a longer promotion period, cinematic creative, multiple reminder channels, and systematic follow-up.

The figures below are claims made by Hogue in the video, not independently verified.

Event and business results

• Promotion: 30 days leading up to a single live event, held on December 28, 2025.
• Registrations: About 88,000 total leads, including:
  • Approximately 72,000 paid leads
  • Approximately 16,000 organic leads
• Paid advertising: Just under or around $200,000, primarily on Meta and YouTube.
• Cost per lead: Hogue cites an average of about $2.40, with some days as low as $0.73. The spend and paid-lead totals imply a somewhat higher average, so the figures may be approximate or based on different calculations.
• Opt-in rate: About 42% across traffic sources. Hogue says other events have reached as high as 54%.
• Live attendance: About 23,000 people, or a 26% show-up rate.
• Front-end offer: A $997 purchase that included the course, while customers paid for six months of access to an AI software product.
• Revenue: Hogue reports:
  • $568,000 on the live event’s first day
  • More than $2.1 million in cash collected over roughly 28–30 days
  • Approximately $1.5 million from retargeting leads into a $5,000 offer
  • About $4–5 million later generated by the broader lead pool
• Return: Hogue characterizes the event as producing more than 10× ROAS over the launch period.

Campaign playbook

• Build an event, not just a webinar. Hogue distinguishes a recurring free class—typically promoted for one to two weeks—from a larger event promoted for three to six weeks. The event has a named concept and a specific marketing angle designed to create shared interest and anticipation.
• Anchor the campaign in a timely audience concern. “The Final Protocol” connected AI and e-commerce, drawing on concerns about AI changing work and the opportunity to use AI in business. The pitch combined urgency with a potential path forward.
• Use a 30-day promotion to build reach and momentum. Hogue says the longer runway provided time to spend the ad budget, let the audience discuss the event, and build anticipation. He recommends at least two to three weeks if the goal is to generate word of mouth.
• Create a cinematic trailer. The team produced a two-to-three-minute trailer, posted it across platforms, and ran it as an ad. Hogue says it helped make the event feel more substantial and gave registrants something to share.
• Promote through owned and paid channels. The campaign used Meta and YouTube ads, social stories, email-list sends, YouTube-video CTAs, updated YouTube descriptions, and prior WhatsApp groups. Hogue recommends using available audience assets rather than relying on paid traffic alone.
• Prioritize strong video ads and angles over sheer volume. The team used more than 70 video creatives—roughly 50 on Meta and 20 on YouTube—and around 15–20 static ads. Hogue says static creative is better suited to reminders and retargeting than lead acquisition. He argues that a smaller set of strong hooks, scripts, and edits can outperform a large pool of weak ads.
• Host the event on YouTube. Hogue’s rationale is that watch time and engagement may extend the event’s reach through recommendations, while a replay remains available to people who missed the live session. He says to remove the recording after about 7–10 days, depending on the cart-close period.
• Make the registration page reinforce the campaign. The landing page used custom visuals, animation, branded forms, and copy consistent with the event’s theme. Hogue recommends testing page elements and form imagery instead of treating the landing page as a generic template.
• Use an opt-in VSL. The short registration-page video explained the event and why visitors should register. Hogue’s proposed approach is to make the value of sharing contact information clear rather than leave visitors to assume they will simply receive unwanted marketing.
• Add a post-opt-in page with explicit next steps. After registering, leads were directed to a page encouraging them to:
  1. Join a WhatsApp group.
  2. Check their email for the ticket and reminders.
  3. Add the event to their calendar.

Hogue says these steps can improve attendance; his specific uplift estimates are his own claims.

• Use multiple reminder channels. Email, SMS, WhatsApp, and calendar reminders were used together. Hogue emphasizes telling registrants exactly what to do, including which email subject line to search for, and encouraging them to star or otherwise engage with the first email.
• Plan the offer around fulfillment capacity. The team chose a $997 self-serve offer rather than sending tens of thousands of registrants to sales calls, which would have required a much larger setter and closer operation. The offer paired course access with software access and was positioned as a way to reduce resistance to buying the course itself.
• Build the upsell into the funnel. Buyers were offered an onboarding or discovery call that could identify qualified customers for a higher-ticket program. Hogue reports a 28–35% upsell rate among qualified buyers and says the upsell and later retargeting were major contributors to revenue.
• Treat the live event as the start of follow-up, not the end. The team used 20–40 retargeting creatives for registrants who did not attend or buy, alongside email, SMS, WhatsApp, and phone outreach. Hogue says 40–50 setters called leads up to five times before moving them to another pipeline.
• Run a second, objection-focused event. About three to five days after the first event, the team held a shorter retargeting webinar for the original registrants. It addressed objections reported by the sales and setting teams, such as whether the approach would work for someone with a job, school, or family commitments.
• Use a defined cart window. The initial offer had a seven-day open-cart period, supported by daily follow-up and urgency messaging. Hogue recommends setting a clear deadline for campaigns with substantial ad spend.

Main operational takeaways

• Design the funnel as a sequence of measurable steps: ad → registration → reminders → attendance → front-end sale → onboarding/upsell → retargeting.
• Track key conversion points separately, especially opt-in rate, cost per lead, show-up rate, first-day sales, upsell rate, and revenue from post-event follow-up.
• Match the sales model to the audience and the team’s capacity. A low-ticket online checkout may be more operationally feasible than routing a very large audience to sales calls.
• Collect sales-team feedback and use it to improve follow-up content and future offers.
• The campaign’s messaging relied heavily on fear, urgency, and scarcity around AI-driven change. Those tactics should be used carefully and supported by accurate claims.

Presenters and sources

Presenter: Patrick Hogue Featured business and offer: Samuel Onuha and the AI e-commerce “Final Protocol” event

Hogue also references examples involving Iman Gadzhi, Alex Hormozi, Justin Waller, Brett Scales, and Ruben.