In Google Analytics (GA), goals can also be created. Their conversion route can be visualised in goal funnels.

With goals enabled you can measure performance metrics such as:

• Total goal completions

• The number of times a particular goal was triggered

• The goal value or a cost that can be associated per action

• Total goal conversion rate

• The rate at which users/sessions are being converted

• The source/medium through which users came to the site and triggered the goals

These metrics can be seen as a scorecard (numerical values). But what if you want to see how they're performing and analyse each step as part of the bigger picture. You can do this using Google's funnels feature, Goal Funnel Visualisation.

What is goal funnel visualisation?

Goal Funnel Visualisation is an advanced feature within the Goals setting that allows you to visually analyse the journey towards a conversion (or goal).

Benefits of enabling goal funnels in GA

In the above image the visualisation on the left shows the pages the user visited before taking action or converting. The list of URLs to the right of the funnel followed by the red arrow are the number of users that dropped off from the journey at that stage and went on to exit on these URLs.

The arrow that points all the way to the end of the funnel is the number of users that have successfully progressed on to the next stage of the funnel.

The main benefit of this report is that it gives insights into the user experience or other elemental issues that a particular page in the conversion stage may be facing. For example, bad copy, bad design, confusing component placement and more. It provides enough information to delve deeper into each stage and make the necessary changes.

This is also the first step in improving the overall conversion rate. Optimising the conversion Google Analytics funnel can help uncover issues on a much bigger scale such as identifying category issues, overall sight usability issues and the general visitor experience throughout the website.

Setting up a funnel

Step 1: Create a goal

To create a goal funnel in GA, start by creating a simple goal and then add advanced features for the visualisation. This is done by clicking Admin or the Gear icon in the bottom left of the dashboard and clicking on the View section on the right.

Step 2: Configure the goal

Click the red New Goal button and choose Custom under the Goal set-up dropdown list and then click Continue.

Step 3: Goal description

Name the goal. It’s important to follow a naming conversion throughout your GA set-up. For example: PDF-Best company ever 2020 document. Make sure to leave the Goal ID/ Goal Set to whatever Google has chosen for you. Changing this may replace other goals that are present on the website.

Choose the Type of goal you want. Everything to this point is the way that you'd normally create a goal in Google Analytics. But if you want to set up a visualisation and add steps, choose Destination and click Continue.

Step 4: Goal details

Specify the destination page (the page where the actual conversion takes place). There are three ways of specifying this:

1. Equal to: The exact page the goal is set up, or a thank you page, for example: /thank-you

2. Begins with: A page that begins with a certain URL or screen name, for example: /blog

3. Regular expression: This option Is slightly more complicated than the rest. We suggest learning what regular expressions are and how they work before choosing this option

Now turn on the Funnel option and specify each step a website visitor takes before they trigger the goal. Click Save.

The 'Required' button

Selecting the Required button ensures that only users who start from the top and finish the last step are considered.

When you've successfully created a goal with a funnel visualisation, the report will be located at: Conversions > Goals > Funnel Visualisation

Working with Codehouse

Our Google certified team has helped many customers with Google Analytics. To find out more about how our Analytics service can help set up funnels ,or if you need help understanding how to get the best out of Google Analytics, like Segments and other marketing configurations, get in touch.

Source of images: Google Analytics