A conversion funnel is the sequence of stages a prospect passes through, for example visit, sign-up, trial and purchase, shown as a funnel because the number of people shrinks at each step.
Why it matters
Looking at each stage separately shows where people drop out. Fixing the biggest drop usually beats driving more traffic to a leaky process. Technical issues, such as slow pages or errors, appear in funnels as sudden drops at a particular step.
Example
1,000 visitors land on a pricing page, 200 start a trial, 60 add a payment method and 30 stay beyond the trial. Visit-to-trial is 20 percent, trial-to-paid is 15 percent and overall conversion is 3 percent.
Common mistakes
- Optimizing the final step while a larger drop sits earlier in the funnel.
- Treating the funnel as linear when users move back and forth between steps.
- Ignoring that page speed and errors can cause drops that look like lack of interest.
Related
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