Build a funnel that explains drop-off

When a funnel is the right tool

Use a funnel for an ordered process: sign-up, checkout, onboarding. It answers three questions: how many people who entered step one reached the last step inside the window, which step lost the most, and how long completion took.

If you want to know whether something happened at all, a goal in Web analytics is simpler. If you want to know which page comes next without a fixed order, use Paths. If you want to know whether people came back, use Retention. All three sit next to funnels under InsightsBehavior.

Build one

1. Add steps — at least 2, at most 20. A step is one or more event names (several names are OR) or a page path, which may use a wildcard. Each step can carry its own filters, such as plan = pro.
2. Set the conversion window. Default 7 days; minutes, hours or days; at most 180 days. The window starts when a person completes step one.
3. Pick the order rule. Ordered allows other events between steps. Strict fails the funnel if another funnel-step event appears out of order. Any order only requires that all steps happen.
4. Optional: exclusions, same session, hold property. Up to 5 exclusion events drop a conversion if they occur between steps. "Same session" requires every step in one session. A hold property requires the same value — the same product id, say — on every step.

Counting defaults to unique: a person is counted once, on their first entry. Switch to attempts to count every session entry.

Read the result

Each step shows the count, the rate versus step one, the rate versus the previous step, the drop-off and the median time from the previous step. The largest drop is highlighted. A typical checkout funnel reads 2,400 → 1,248 → 674 → 508: a 46% loss between the first two steps points at the cart page, not at payment.

Click a step to list the people who reached it, or the people who dropped there, and open any of them to see what they did instead. The trend chart below plots the conversion rate by entry date, so a release that broke a step shows up as a cliff.

Break it down

Breakdown splits every step by one property — source, device, country, plan — and keeps the 10 groups with the most entries. This is where the useful answers hide: a 46% drop overall may be 20% on desktop and 70% on mobile. Breakdown uses the first property only; there is no compare-period view for funnels.

Combine with a saved segment to ask narrower questions, such as "people from paid search who saw the pricing page".

Limits to know

• The query extends the end of the date range by one window so a last step just after the range still counts.
• Timing uses up to 20,000 completed samples; very large funnels are sampled for the time distribution only — counts are exact.
• Strict order blocks other funnel-step events, not unrelated events.
• People who never finish are absent from the time distribution by definition.

Plan limits: 3 saved funnels on Free, 20 on Pro, unlimited on VIP. See Plans and limits.