An upsell is an extra offer you show right after someone buys. Their order has already gone through and their payment details are saved, so all they do is click Yes or No. For example, after someone buys a fitness program, you could offer a vitamin pack.
An order bump is a checkbox offer right on the order form. An upsell comes after the purchase, on its own page or pop-up. You can never put an upsell on the same page as your order form.
A few rules first. Your upsell must use the same payment gateway as the original order form, and standard PayPal can't be used. It also has to be on the same domain as the original order form, and that domain must use SSL, so the address starts with https. If you embed the upsell on your own website, the Ontraport tracking script has to be on both the order form page and the upsell page. Ontraport Pages, and WordPress pages that use the PilotPress plugin, add it for you.
You can build an upsell as a pop-up Ontraform or as an Ontraport Page. Both come with ready-made templates.
For a pop-up, go to Automations, then Forms, and click New Form, then Ontraform. If you've turned on other objects, like Companies or Deals, you'll find Forms under Contacts instead. Add an upsell block, then set its product and payment gateway. Click Form Settings to set your confirmation pages, then name the form and click Save. Last, edit your original order form and set its thank-you page to this upsell form.
For a page, click Pages in the top navigation, then New page. Add the Upsell Button element, which gives you the Yes and No buttons. Hover over the block, click the gear icon, and in Payment Settings, add your product and choose the gateway. You can change the button text in the element's Settings tab.
Then open Form settings to set your confirmation pages. Name the page and publish it on the same domain as your order form. Finally, open your original order form's form settings and choose the upsell page under "Send contacts here."
Every upsell has three confirmation pages. The Yes page is where people go when they click Yes, usually a thank-you page. The No page is for people who click No, so you could use it for a different offer. The Timeout/No Credit Card page shows if someone takes too long to click either button, or if something other than a card decline goes wrong. For security, upsells time out after five minutes by default. To change that, email Ontraport support.
Next, choose how upsell charges are processed. In your Sales settings, open Upsell Settings, pick an option, and click Save. If you offer more than one upsell after a purchase, choose "Bundle multiple upsells into a single transaction." Everything your customer says yes to is combined into one charge, and the "product is purchased" automation runs when the upsell timeout ends. If you offer just one upsell, choose "Process each upsell as an individual transaction." Each upsell gets its own charge and invoice, and the automation runs right after the purchase.
Upsell purchases don't process instantly. They go into a queue that runs every 15 minutes. So a customer can reach your Yes page before their card is charged, and the upsell can't tell them right away if it fails. Use an automation to catch both outcomes. Add a trigger or goal with "Contact submits a form," and pick your upsell form. In the "& clicks" dropdown, choose "'Yes' with a successful payment." Then add a second one with "'Yes' but payment fails." Add actions to each path, like delivering the product, or emailing a link to an order form so they can try again. New upsell purchases can take up to 14 minutes to show up on the map.
So: build your upsell as a pop-up or a page on the same gateway and domain, set its three confirmation pages, choose bundled or individual charges, and automate both payment outcomes. Next up: following up with abandoned carts.