People must go through certain procedures in order to make a purchase from an online company. One could argue that ad-supported businesses are an exception in terms of not having customers, as those who click on ads don’t count.
People have to go through a particular process to pay you, either when joining your online service or buying something on your website.
Funnels provide a graphic representation, making it simple to see how many people move from one step to another throughout a process (or processes). This allows us to:
- Determine what steps are causing customer confusion or trouble.
- Figure out what language or copy might be altering our customer’s emotional behavior during checkout or sign up.
- To be aware of bugs, browser issues and other technical nuisances.
This post is a comprehensive exploration of how to get started utilizing funnels with Google Analytics. Let’s dive in!
What Is a Funnel in Google Analytics?
In Google Analytics, a funnel refers to a progression of activities that you would like your visitors to undergo, ultimately culminating in those visitors becoming customers.
Converting a visitor into a purchaser is the main objective for every website proprietor. In order to accomplish this goal, you should create a detailed step-by-step process that your visitors should go through.
Google Analytics tracks the phases of a customer’s experience, collecting data on every stage of their trip. The information obtained from these documents later assists you in modifying the phases to ensure increased transformations.
This is what an ideal customer journey looks like:
- A visitor opens your website and checks out the products
- They open a specific category page and find a product that they like
- They take a look at the product details
- They add the product to the cart
- They view the cart and make the purchase which leads them to the confirmation page
The purpose of funnels is to give an understanding of what the visitors do at each step of the transformation procedure. This will inform you of the alterations you should implement in order to make your website more effective.
Funnel reports are exceptionally advantageous since they display the precise stage at which people usually abandon the website.
For instance, if the funnel report displays that people depart from the website at the ‘View Cart’ section – it could be an indication that they are having trouble maneuvering through the different steps to complete their purchase. If that is correct, you should instantly redo that certain page.
Funnels are usually made up of a few endpoints and web pages which are utilized in the funneling process (also known as steps in the funnel).
Funnels Provide Greater Insights than Goals Alone
Goals in Google Analytics provide important data which can be used as markers of success, rather than as the starting point for achieving improved conversion rates. Funnel tracking permits you to begin examining any issues in the paths taken by your visitors to reach conversions, allowing you to optimize your site better. Usually before a goal page, such as a purchase page or a signup page, there are numerous other pages that serve to guide visitors towards the goal.
Define the Lead Form Submission as Your Goal
You can’t create a funnel in Google Analytics without first setting up a goal:
- Log into Google Analytics, drill down into one of your profiles, and click Admin in the top navigation.
- Click the Goals tab.
- Enter a Goal Name, such as Bike Tour Lead.
- Enter a Goal URL, such as /thank-you.php.
- Leave the Match Type as Exact Match, unless you need to account for multiple variations of your goal or funnel URLs.
- It is often useful to enter a Goal Value even for unmonetized lead generation, since it allows Google Analytics to calculate metrics such as Page Value and Per Visit Goal Value.
Set Up Your Funnel
Before you save your goal, you have the option of adding a funnel:
- Select the Use Funnel checkbox.
- Enter URLs and names for the funnel steps:
/catalog.php – Tour Catalog
/description.php – Tour Description
/inquiry.php – Lead Form - Select the Required Step checkbox for the first funnel step.
It is not compulsory to follow Step 3 for producing easier funnel data, but it is frequently suggested. If you wish for the Funnel Visualization report and the Funnel Conversion Rate to take into consideration entries at stages below step 1, make sure that “Required Step” is not selected.
Funnel Conversion Rate
Once your goal and funnel have been configured and it has had the time to accumulate information, the Funnel Visualization report will show what is probably the most assertive funnel conversion rate in Google Analytics: the Funnel Conversion Rate. The Funnel Conversion Rate indicates the percentage of visits which included at least one pageview of the initial step (as recommended above) prior to viewing at least one pageview of the goal page, taking into account the funnel setup.
Aside from the total Funnel Conversion Rate, the report can help decide how many visitors drop off from step to step.
Multiple Pageviews Are Consolidated into Unique Pageviews
This report compresses several pageviews of the same page that take place over a single session into one pageview. In our example, if someone visited catalog.php five times in one visit before looking at description.php, inquiry.php, and thank-you.php twice each, then each step of the conversion process would be represented as one page view.
It is beneficial to note that in examination of conversion, it is usually more meaningful to know that a visitor has had exposure to the page than the amount of times they have viewed it.
Pageviews Can Occur Nonsequentially for a Funnel Match
Our example funnel and goal pages were defined above as:
catalog.php > description.php > inquiry.php > thank-you.php
The following sequences of pageviews during a visit would match the funnel definition and count towards the Funnel Visualization:
Matching visit: catalog.php > description.php > inquiry.php > thank-you.php
Matching visit: description.php > catalog.php > inquiry.php > thank-you.php
Following the sequence: catalog.php to maps.php then to description.php to inquiry.php lastly to thank-you.php
Middle Pageviews Don’t Have to Occur for a Funnel Match
Using the same example funnel as above, the following sequences of pageviews during a visit would also count towards the Funnel Visualization:
Matching visit: catalog.php > inquiry.php > thank-you.php
Matching visit: catalog.php > maps.php > inquiry.php > thank-you.php
Higher Funnel Steps Are Backfilled as Needed
According to Brian Clifton in his book Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics, if one step of a funnel has a greater amount of pageviews than another, the one with fewer pageviews will be artificially boosted.
It is true; the Funnel Visualization will display 2,679 pageviews for description.php, despite the fact that 100 of the total pageviews were not actually viewed. This is because there were 2,579 pageviews of description.php and 2,679 pageviews of inquiry.php.
Abandonment Rate Is Not Always the Inverse of Conversion Rate
If you have a Funnel Conversion Rate of 44.96%, you would anticipate the Abandonment Rate to be 55.04%, however this is not generally the situation if you have made it mandatory for visitors to complete certain steps in the funnel. The Funnel Conversion Rate in the Funnel Visualization report abides by the first step requirement, however Abandonment Rate does not, which explains the divergent outcomes.
No Advanced Segments in the Funnel Visualization Report
The Funnel Visualization report unfortunately does not have the capability of utilizing built-in or custom Advanced Segments, which is a major disadvantage since segmentation is such a basic part of effective Web analytics.
Suppose you are spending five hundred United States dollars each month for a banner advertisement on www.newenglandvacations.com with the intent of motivating people to click through to www.nebiketours.com. In your Google Analytics set-up, you can create a Special Segment which is focused on the audience coming from www.newenglandvacations.com. When you apply it, you can view information just from that particular website.
Unfortunately, it’s not possible to use Advanced Segments in the Funnel Visualization report.
For Advanced Segmentation, Create Filtered Profiles
Instead of or in addition to Advanced Segments, a separate profile could be made and limited to traffic only from www.newenglandvacations.com. Once you have configured your objective and sales process in that profile, you can observe the Funnel Visualization summary and the Funnel Conversion Rate for that single network of traffic.
You can create additional profiles using filters to review the Funnel Visualization report for any kind of traffic. In Google Analytics you can make up to 50 profiles per account, so there is no need to hesitate in making however many profiles are necessary in order to segment visitors in Funnel Visualizations or for any other analysis.
Common Issues You May Come Across When Setting Up Funnels in Google Analytics
Even experienced marketing professionals can find Google Analytics difficult to use and navigate.
We put together a compilation of some of the issues that are frequently encountered when setting up. Let’s take a look at what the issues are and what steps we can take to fix them.
Selecting the Wrong Conversion Path
Gaining familiarity with how funnel visualization reports function is essential for you to take advantage of them. Inappropriate funnels can be the source of numerous difficulties and your transformation rates won’t improve in any way.
Funnels should be employed when you have a pre-determined, sequential process that your site visitors must complete in order to accomplish your website’s goal.
If there is more than one way to reach the desired outcome, a funnel won’t be necessary.
Not Using Descriptive Names for Funnel Steps
To name the different stages of a funnel, it is helpful to come up with descriptive labels. The titles you select will appear in your funnel analysis accounts, so it is important that you are precise when selecting names.
As an illustration, labels like phase-1, step-2, or step-3 won’t suffice. Rather than random labels, it is better to label things with recognizable words like ‘Home’, ‘Product Category’, and ‘Product Details’.
The title should accurately convey the objective of the landing page.
Entering Incorrect Data While Defining Goal and Funnel Pages
Ensure that the page for the funnel is defined with the accurate information.
We mentioned this briefly in the implementation heading. When creating your funnel page, you should utilize only the Request URL. This is what comes after the domain name.
This is the illustration that we used – Rather than entering “www.business.com/productpage.html”, you should just include “enter/productpage.html”.
Using the Same Goal Page for Different Funnels
Some of you may be interested in creating multiple pathways with the same objective. In situations where you would like to assess the difference in transformation numbers between two product pages (or any other page on the website), this is advantageous.
In order to succeed at this task, it is necessary to assign different URLs to each funnel and to set two distinctive objectives in the GA account.
For example, the destination webpage of both funnels could have the URL ‘/product-page/’.
The first objective in the fitting funnel structure will be something similar to ‘/service1/’ and for the second objective, it would be ‘/service2/’.
Once you start canvasing information towards these two objectives, you will recognize that it’s exactly the same. This issue comes about because the success of achieving a goal and the rate at which conversions are made are not connected to the descending process of the funnel.
In order to fix this problem, you ought to use a different goal page link for the different objectives. For the first objective, one feasible URL may be ‘/product-page-service1/’ and for the second target, you can use ‘/product-page-service2/’.
Once this is finished, Google Analytics will start showing the accurate finalization and change numbers for each goal, allowing you to assess it with precise information.
Capitalization Issues
Capitalization problems may appear insignificant, however unless they are noticed, you could expend a lot of energy attempting to identify the real issue in the wrong places.
Many webpages feature a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters in their web addresses. It’s possible to overlook this when establishing your funnel page, resulting in a misspelling in the web address. This subsequently leads to inaccurate information and poor optimization choices.
Ensure that the URLs for your chosen goal page and funnel page are identical by ticking the “Case-Sensitive” box when you are implementing them.
Assigning a Monetary Value to Transactional Goals
It is a bad idea to assign a set goal value to transactional objectives as it could result in unimportant revenue numbers being seen in Google Analytics records.
Rather than relying on transactions, you should assess the worth of other objectives (such as newsletters, downloads, etc.) in terms of finances. This causes Google Analytics to figure out the value of the goal per visit and the return on investment in its entirety.
Here are a few things you should keep in mind:
- Goal value is a monetary value that should only be appointed to non-transactional goals. This metric calculates what you get once you achieve the set goal.
- Transactional conversions are calculated each they occur during a Google Analytics session.
- Non-transactional conversions are counted only once within a single Google Analytics session.
