A worked example
A small software product wants people to start a trial. The path it expects has four steps.
| Step | Visitors | Of the step before |
|---|---|---|
| Visited the site | 5,000 | |
| Viewed pricing | 1,500 | 30% |
| Opened the sign-up form | 600 | 40% |
| Finished sign-up | 240 | 40% |
The overall conversion rate is 240 ÷ 5,000 = 4.8%. The funnel says more than that: the largest relative loss is the first step, where only 30% of visitors look at pricing. Lifting that to 40% adds more sign-ups than any change to the form could, because every later step builds on it.
The numbers are made up to show the arithmetic. Your own steps will look different, and that difference is the point.
How to define one
- Start from the goal. Write the action that counts, such as a paid plan, and walk backwards through what must happen before it.
- Keep it short. Three to six steps. A long funnel hides the leak behind its own length.
- Make each step observable. A step is a page view or an event you can count: a pageview of
/pricing, a click, a form submit. If you cannot count it, it is not yet a step. - Decide on order. In a strict funnel a person must do the steps in sequence. In a loose one the steps may come in any order within the visit. Strict is clearer, loose is kinder to real behaviour.
- Decide the time window. A purchase may take a day, a week or a month. Without a window, a click today and a purchase next month are one trip.
How to read it
- Look for the step with the biggest drop relative to the step before, not the biggest absolute number.
- Compare funnels by source. People from a search for your product name usually go further than people from a casual social post, so one blended funnel can hide a good channel and a poor page.
- Compare devices. A form that works on a laptop and is a chore on a phone shows up as a mobile cliff.
- Compare before and after a change, over the same length of time.
What to fix
Fix the earliest big leak first, because everything below it is smaller by that factor. Then look for friction rather than persuasion: a field that is not needed, a page that loads slowly, a price shown late. Remember that a funnel is only as complete as your tracking: people who leave and return on another device appear to drop out and then re-enter as new visitors.
Keep in mind that a funnel counts what happened, not why. Pair it with a few conversations with real users, and it will tell you where to look, and they will tell you what you find there.
Try it in trckable
Set up goals for the steps you care about, and the funnel report shows how many people reach each one and where they stop. Count goals and events
Related terms
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