Funnels

This page shows how to build a funnel and read its report. After reading it you can set up the steps of a flow such as a signup or a checkout, and see where visitors drop out of it.

What a funnel answers #

A funnel is a named list of steps in a fixed order, for example the pricing page, then the signup page, then a Signup event. Its report answers two questions: how many of the visitors who did the first step also did the last one, and at which step the others left.

A funnel needs no extra tracking. It reads the page views and custom events your site already sends. The report is worked out from recorded hits each time you open it, so a new funnel shows numbers for the past straight away, and editing one changes its whole history.

Build a funnel #

Open Funnels in the sidebar of a site and choose "New funnel". Give it a name of up to 80 characters, then set the steps. Each step is one of two things:

• Page. A path, such as /pricing. It is matched exactly, capital letters included.
• Event. The name of a custom event, exactly as your site sends it.

The field suggests pages and events seen on your site in recent weeks. The arrows move a step up or down, and the bin removes it.

The trailing star #

End a page step with a star to match every page that starts with the text before it.

Rules and limits #

• A funnel has at least 2 steps and at most 5.
• Two steps next to each other cannot be the same.
• An event step cannot use a name the script keeps for itself: pageview, 404 or a name that starts with clearsaga:.
• A page step is cleaned up the way a recorded path is. If you paste a full address, only its path is kept, and a query string is removed.
• Two funnels of a site cannot share a name. Capital letters make no difference here.
• A site can have up to 50 funnels.

If a page step is on a path your site excludes from collection, the form warns you. An excluded page is never stored, so nobody could reach that step.

Owners and Admins can create, edit, duplicate and delete funnels. Viewers of a site can read them. A shared dashboard link does not include the Funnels screen.

How a visitor is counted #

A visitor is counted at a step after doing every step before it, in order, on the same day. Other pages and events may come in between, so a detour does not break the funnel.

Two things follow from "on the same day":

• A funnel recognises a visitor for one day only, also on a site that remembers returning visitors. Someone who reads your pricing page today and signs up tomorrow enters the funnel today and does not complete it.
• For funnels a day ends at midnight UTC, whatever the time zone of the site. A journey that crosses that moment counts as two visitors.

Read the report #

Pick a funnel from the menu at the top of the screen. The date range and the comparison of the top bar apply to it.

The headline shows two figures: the visitors who completed the funnel, meaning they did every step, and the total conversion, which is their share of the visitors who did the first step. With a comparison switched on, each figure shows its change against the other period. For the total conversion the change is given in percentage points.

Below the chart, the "Step breakdown" table has one row per step:

The first step has no step before it, so both rates show a dash there. The step with the largest drop-off is where to look first.

Filters for source, location and device narrow a funnel like any other report. The page, event, property and conversion filters do not apply here, because the steps already say which pages and events count.

Try a variation #

The form saves what you build: there is no preview of unsaved steps in the dashboard. To compare two versions, use "Duplicate" in the menu of a funnel and edit the copy. The copy is named "Copy of" followed by the original name.

Funnels through the API and agents #

A program or an AI agent with an access token can list funnels and read their reports. With the Write permission it can also create, change, duplicate and delete them, and a funnel made this way appears on the Funnels screen at once.

The report operation has one thing the dashboard lacks: it accepts a list of steps in place of a saved funnel, so steps can be tried without saving anything. The funnels reference has the details, and connect an AI agent explains tokens.

Delete a funnel #

Deleting a funnel removes its name and its steps and nothing else. No visitor data is touched. Set the same steps up again later and the report shows the same numbers for every past period.

Alert rules that watch a funnel are removed together with it. Alerts and webhooks explains those rules.

Next: Conversion goals, Alerts and webhooks, Funnels in the API