One of the coolest things in Universal Analytics is Funnel Visualisation.
I say ‘is’… but I guess it’s ‘was’. Now we’ve got Google Analytics 4 there will be no more funnel visualisation as we knew it in Universal.
It was great, you could see how people were moving through your sales process and where they were dropping out. It could help you optimise your user experience and get you more sales. It was a pretty graphic.
Universal Analytics is going away, will we lose access to this feature? Is there a version of this in GA4?
😀In good news, yes, you can set up something similar.
😢In bad news, it’s a bit more complicated than it used to be.
😀In good news (again), I’m going to show you exactly how to do it in this post.
Before you create your funnel visualisation in GA4…
You need to map out the path that your visitor takes through your website to convert to a customer, fill in your quotation form, or download your lead magnet.
I’m going to use a lead magnet as an example. For this, the process is a simple 2 steps.
Step 1: View the lead magnet page
Step 2: Triggers the GA4 conversion event for that lead magnet.
**Don’t worry if you haven’t set up a conversion event in GA4 yet. If you have a thank you page, you can use this as a step in the funnel instead. **
To make it more complicated, taking those steps isn’t the only way to sign up for this lead magnet. I have a sign-up form embedded on every blog post on my site.
See 👇👇👇
Get a headstart on Google Analytics 4 & understand the lingo with the GA4 phrase book
Because of that, I want to make my funnel an ‘open funnel’. That means I’ll be able to see what blog posts are driving lead magnet conversions.
How to set up a funnel exploration in the GA4 dashboard
Now you have your steps mapped out. It’s time to open your Google Analytics 4 dashboard and set up the funnel. I’ll take you through that step by step below.
From your Google Analytics dashboard, go to the explore tab and click on ‘Free form’
Give the exploration a name
Under ‘Technique’ click ‘Funnel Exploration’ from the drop-down menu
Now you can add steps. Click on the pencil icon next to ‘steps’
Name each step.
There are two steps in my funnel. I’m naming the first one ‘ROI Primer Page’. That’s the dedicated page I have for the lead magnet.
The second step is a triggered conversion event, so I’m calling it ‘ROI conversion’.
Now you need to configure each step.
At the first stage of the funnel, it needs to register that people have visited the ROI Primer page.
To do that, click ‘add new condition’
Click into the search bar and type in ‘page view’. It will appear in the drop-down menu as you type.
Click on it.
Now click on ‘Add Parameter’
Choose ‘Other’
And page_location
This will open up a window.
Leave ‘Contains’ in the condition box
Underneath, add the last part of your page URL. That’s the bit after ‘yourbusiness.com’ starting with a ‘/’
Click ‘Apply’
Now for step 2
Because there is an ROI Primer conversion event set up, instead of choosing ‘page view’ as a condition, choose the conversion event.
To do this click
‘Add new condition’ under step 2
Search for ‘event’
Select the conversion event from the list.
Click Apply
If you haven’t set up conversion events yet, provided you have a thank you page for your lead magnet or product, you can use the ‘page view’ condition just like we did in step 1.
Click apply and then you will see your funnel.
Making an open funnel
If people can reach the final stage in the funnel without visiting the first stage (like in my example) toggle on the ‘open funnel’ button on the left-hand side.
Finally, you can get rid of the default breakdown that GA4 adds (it’s usually city) by clicking x next to it in the breakdown column.
What happens next?
Now you know how well your funnel is converting and where people are dropping out. You can find the parts that aren’t working well and fix them.
For example, let’s look at the funnel I just created
Only one of my blog posts drove a conversion in the last 28 days. Yet I get lots of blog readers on hundreds of posts.
Do I need to make the CTA more prominent on the blog? Or do I need it to integrate better into the content?
The only way to find out is to test it.
What can you test as a result of what you find out from your funnel visualisations?
Let me know how you get on setting up your own funnel visualisations.
