What is a conversion funnel

The funnel is a sequence of steps that a group of your customers takes one by one. This group is defined by the first configured funnel step. Then the report shows how many customers have moved to the next step. The number of customers decreases with each step.

Why is a conversion funnel necessary

The funnel allows you to identify the bottlenecks in Customer Journey. If you notice that moving to a certain stage you lose an excessive number of leads, you need to figure out why this is happening. Study this step in the funnel and try to dispose of the problem.

Using the funnel you can put forward hypotheses to increase sales. For example, you see that only 20% of those who buy one product come back to you for a repeat purchase. Perhaps you should motivate your customers (e.g. offer them a promo code or ask them to give feedback on the quality of service).

How to create a conversion funnel

1) Select «Analytics» → «Funnels» in the main menu. Click «Create» in the upper panel to add a new conversion report.

2) In the main settings, enter the name and description of the new funnel. Select the database that contains information about customers you are currently interested in:

3) Select a group of customers that will be going through the funnel. The group is determined by the first step you add. Usually, you add a subscription to some resource or segment the audience as the first step.

4) Then you need to create the remaining stages of the funnel depending on your goals. The following actions can be considered a stage in the funnel:

• a subscriber’s action in your email,
• entering a segment,
• subscription to certain content,
• performing a target action.

To add a new block, click the + icon:

Funnel stages

Segment

A segment is an audience that meets certain conditions. You can segment your customers depending on their demographic characteristics (country, city, gender, age) or the actions they have performed in previous newsletters. Using this element, you can narrow down the group of subscribers in the funnel.

Campaigns

At this stage, you can check how many subscribers have performed the specified actions in a separate newsletter. These actions are usually sending out an email, successful delivery, reading an email, as well as clicking the link.

Template

The same email template can be used in different newsletters and different communication channels. Therefore, if you want to evaluate the conversion rate of a separate template, add the «Action in template» stage to the funnel.

Select a template and one of the channels in which you used it: email, SMS, push notification or another channel. Then specify the actions in your email for subscribers to get to the next funnel stage: the email is sent, delivered, opened, or the recipient clicked the link.

Goal achievement

Visiting a website or a separate page, creating a personal account, visiting a separate section in the mobile app, adding an item to the cart or any other action of the customer may be set as a goal. Goal achievement is recorded by tracking pixels.

A pixel is a special code that is inserted into the website pages and used to track user behaviour. Pixels are configured separately. You can find a detailed instruction on pixel creation here. Select pixel to sort the events:

• visiting a pixel is any event of the selected pixel.
• goal achievement is the event when a customer achieves a specific goal.

Subscriptions

At this stage, users who are not subscribed to the specified resource leave the funnel. A resource is a mechanism that limits communication with a subscriber to a single topic.

It is better to check the subscription at the beginning of the tunnel. For example, if you want to see how many customers subscribed to your promotional newsletters have purchased something after receiving an email that contains information about new products in your online store.

Example of «Store newsletter conversion» report

How to work with a purchase funnel

Since the funnel collects data from different sources, it may take a long time to process it. To optimise the work on the report, the date periods that have already been calculated are saved in the platform.

In the funnel menu, select the finished report and the date period you are interested in. You can also add a new report period or recalculate the current one:

You can also download, edit, clone or delete your current report using the buttons on the right.

Conclusion

A conversion funnel is the most valuable report if you want to track the conversion rate of your entire marketing strategy or individual campaigns (in the broadest sense). Analysing funnel dynamics, you can promptly take measures to increase your conversion rate at certain stages of marketing communication.