A funnel measures how many visitors complete a sequence of steps in order. Use it to find the largest drop-off in a conversion path: that is usually the place where better copy, design or speed pays off most.
When to use a funnel vs a goal
- Goal: one result you want to count ("visitor signed up"). It tells you the conversion rate.
- Funnel: a sequence of 2 to 10 steps ("landed on pricing, clicked checkout, sent the form, reached the welcome page"). It tells you where people drop off.
Build the goal first. Build the funnel once you want to know why the goal doesn't convert better. See Goal or funnel?
Creating a funnel
- Open your website from Domains and select the Journeys tab.
- Open the Funnels sub-tab and click New funnel.
- Give the funnel a clear name (for example "Free trial sign-up").
- Click Add step for each step. Each step is one of:
- Page: an address like
/pricingor/checkout, with a match type (Is exactly, Starts with, Contains, Ends with, Matches a pattern or Regular expression). The Pick button lets you choose from your real pages. - Event: a custom event your site sends with
zenovay('track', 'event_name'), for examplecta_clicked. - Goal: one of your existing goals.
- Page: an address like
- Put the steps in order with Move up and Move down. A funnel needs between 2 and 10 steps.
- Choose the time window: Same visit (default), Within 1 day, Within 7 days or Within 30 days.
- Check the live preview, then click Create funnel.
The funnel is calculated from the data you already collected, so it shows results for the past right away.
Reading the funnel
At the top you see Started, Finished, Conversion and Median time to finish, each compared with the period before.
Below them, a ribbon chart shows your steps as bars with ribbons flowing from one step to the next. Hover a step to see how many reached it, the drop-off, the conversion, how long it usually takes after the previous step, and its top channels and countries. On phones the chart runs from top to bottom.
Click the chart, or Show steps and drop-offs under it, to open the step list. For each step you see:
- How many visits reached the step (or visitors, if the time window is longer than the same visit)
- The share of the start
- The share of the previous step
Between two steps, a line shows how many stopped there, how long the next step usually takes, and a See why link. It opens a panel that shows where those visitors went instead, who stops most often, and the latest visits that stopped. See Funnel drop-off analysis.
Use the period selector at the top to change the time range: Last 24 hours, Last 7, 14, 30 or 90 days, Last 6 months or Last 12 months, depending on your plan. Goals and Funnels share this selector. With many funnels, click Show all N funnels above the report to pick from every one.
Common pitfalls
- Step order: steps count only in your order. If a visitor reaches step 3 before step 2, that visit does not count as passing step 2 first.
- The same page twice: one page view never fills two steps in a row. A funnel "pricing, then pricing" needs two separate views.
- Query parameters: they are ignored unless your address contains a
?./checkoutalso counts/checkout?step=2. Upper and lower case, trailing slashes,www.and anchors never matter either. - Multi-day windows on cookieless sites: without cookies, a returning visitor gets a new anonymous ID every day, so 7-day and 30-day windows count fewer finishers than really happened.
Plan limits
| Plan | Funnels | Steps per funnel |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Not available | Not available |
| Pro | 5 | 2 to 10 |
| Scale | Unlimited | 2 to 10 |
| Enterprise | Unlimited | 2 to 10 |
Funnels and the Journeys tab are part of the Pro plan and above.