Overview
In this lesson, you'll learn how to identify how users move through your app with Funnel analysis. Determine what behaviors cause users to convert vs. abandon your app.
Why it matters
Funnels let you analyze a collection of Events, such as a user sharing their first article or successfully changing options on a settings screen. Funnels give you insight into key processes within an application. All apps have at least one conversion goal, such as getting a user to make a purchase or upgrade to a paid subscription; these often involve multiple Events.
The simplest way to think of a Funnel is a single starting line, checkpoints to be reached, and the finish line (conversion). Funnels come in handy by enabling you to analyze any collection of Events and how users move from each step to the conversion goal.
With properly tagged Events in your app, you can track which steps lead to success or failure on various Conversion Events. Once you know where users are falling off, use in-app messages or adjust your UI to redirect users to conversion.
How-to guide
The following steps will first walk you through how to create useful Funnels to successfully drive desired behaviors.
Step 1: Create a Funnel for a specific Conversion Event
For this Project to be insightful, you must already have Events tagged that would define a conversion process. As a use case, a news & media application may have a simple Funnel to track users who perform the follow Events: App Launch → Article Read → Share. This Funnel allows you to hone in on users who are sharing content to social media outlets.
To create a Funnel, navigate to the green plus icon in the top right corner of the Funnels screen.
Click Add Step to create the desired number of steps for your Funnel. In this case, we will simulate an ecommerce application with a checkout process.
Step 2: Understand the user flow
Any number of Events may occur in between Funnel steps, yet all steps must occur to complete the Funnel. Each Funnel includes an overview of different metrics: Users Started, Conversion Rate, and Users Completed. This will give you a snapshot of the current health of your Funnel.
For further insight, click on any Event (after the first Event) of the Funnel to open a detailed report. This detailed report displays filtered information on completion of each Event as well as 'Events before this step' for converted users and 'Events after previous step' for lost users. For those who converted, understand what actions lead to conversion and drive more users to those actions. For lost users, identify what users did instead and determine how to get users back on track.
Step 3: Use Funnel insights to drive more conversions
Now that you know how users are moving through the steps of your Funnel, use these insights to modify your app UI or engagement strategy to encourage users to complete the Funnel. This could be an in-app message with a coupon or incentive at a point where users frequently drop-off, the elimination of a confusing screen in your UI, or a push notification reminding users to come back and complete an action like share a photo. As you begin making changes, create new Funnels reflecting these and compare your conversion rates.
Create Funnels not only where a “positive” conversion is achieved, but also where a “negative” conversion is performed (e.g. an abandoned shopping cart). Pinpoint these user “drop-offs” for targeted messaging. If, for example, users abandon the app before sharing an article, you could display an in-app message offering five additional free articles for sharing this one. Similarly, with an ecommerce app, you can target users who did not perform Event “checkout” with a discount code.
Step 4: Use findings from previous steps to tailor the onboarding process
Use this wealth of information to tailor your onboarding process for new users. By defining the most common methods of navigating the app, you can do deeper analysis of behaviors that lead to conversion. A sports news app may begin with an onboarding process that asks users to choose their favorite teams and preferred content types (e.g. videos, articles, scores); then use these preferences for a more tailored app experience, giving users the most value from your app.
Key takeaways
- Funnels aren’t just about measuring conversion rates; the numbers need context to provide meaning. Drill into the details of each stage in the Funnel to provide that context when analyzing campaigns.
- Be sure to compare not only where converted users are going, but lost users as well. Use these insights to find gaps or issues preventing user conversion.
- Set up multiple Funnels based on different goals you are looking to achieve. Adopt the “Starting line, Checkpoints, and Finish Line” methodology to target key Events you wish to track along the users’ flow.