Funnels

Track conversion paths and identify where visitors drop off.

Overview

Funnels let you define a series of steps visitors should take toward a conversion, then visualize how many complete each step. This reveals where people drop off in your conversion process, helping you identify and fix problems.

Funnel reports live under Funnels in the left reporting menu — you’ll see an Overview plus a dedicated report for each funnel you create. Funnels are calculated from the pageviews, events, and goals you already track, so no changes to your tracking code are needed.

How Funnels Work

A funnel tracks visitors through a defined sequence:

1. Entry — Visitors enter the funnel
2. Progression — Some continue to step 2, then step 3, etc.
3. Conversion — Visitors who complete the funnel
4. Drop-off — Visitors who leave at each step

The funnel visualization shows exactly how many visitors make it through each stage — and where the ones who left went instead.

Two Ways to Create a Funnel

Standalone Funnels

1. Navigate to Funnels → Manage Funnels in the reporting menu
2. Click Add a New Funnel
3. Enter a descriptive funnel name
4. Add and configure your steps
5. Save the funnel

Standalone funnels don’t need to be attached to a goal — useful for analyzing any multi-step journey.

Goal-Linked Funnels

You can also attach a funnel directly to a goal:

1. Navigate to Goals → Manage Goals
2. Create or edit a goal
3. Check Enable Funnel and define the steps leading to the goal
4. Save

Goal-linked funnels add a funnel summary to that goal’s report, so you see the path and the conversion together. A goal can also be used as a step inside any funnel.

Defining Steps

Each step matches visitor activity using one of these conditions:

• URL — equals, contains, starts with, ends with, or matches a regular expression. Matches the full URL including query parameters.
• Path — equals, contains, starts with, or ends with. Use path patterns without query parameters (e.g., /services/cardiology). Tip: to match your homepage, use Path equals /.
• Page Title — equals, contains, starts with, or ends with
• Search query — contains (matches internal site searches)
• Event Category / Event Action / Event Name — equals, contains, starts with, or ends with (see Event Tracking)
• Goal — a goal conversion counts as completing the step

Required Steps

Each step has a Required checkbox. Visitors must pass required steps to be counted further in the funnel; non-required steps can be skipped without breaking the visitor’s progression — the report shows these as skipped steps. The most common setup marks only the first step as required, which defines who “enters” the funnel.

Validate Steps Before Saving

The funnel editor includes a validation panel: paste a real URL (or page title, etc.) and it highlights which of your steps match it — green for a match, red for no match. Use this to catch pattern mistakes before any data is collected.

Historical Data

You don’t have to wait for new traffic: when you create or update a funnel, reports are automatically generated for up to the past 6 months of existing data during the next processing run. Note that when you edit a funnel’s steps, its existing reports are regenerated to match the new definition.

Reading Funnel Reports

The Funnel Visualization

Each funnel’s report shows:

• Step labels — Each step in your funnel
• Visitor counts — How many visitors reached each step
• Percentages — Conversion rate between steps
• Drop-off — How many left at each step, and where they went instead
• Entries — Where visitors entered the funnel, including referrer details (search, websites, campaigns, direct) for visitors who entered on their first pageview

Key Metrics

The Funnels → Overview page summarizes all your funnels, with quick actions to open each funnel’s entries/exits detail or a visits log filtered to that funnel.

Drill into Individual Visits

From any funnel report you can open the visits log filtered to visitors who participated in the funnel — or in a specific step — to see exactly what those sessions did. You can also use funnel participation as a segment on any other report, and apply your existing segments to funnel reports.

Analyzing Drop-Offs

When you identify a problem step:

1. Quantify the Issue

• How many visitors drop off?
• What’s the revenue/lead impact?
• Is this consistent over time?

2. Investigate the Cause

Use other Ghost Metrics features:

• Heatmaps — See how visitors interact with the page
• Session recordings — Watch visitors at the drop-off point
• Form analytics — If a form is involved, see field-level data

3. Form Hypotheses

Common causes of drop-off:

• Page is confusing or unclear
• Too much information required
• Technical errors or slow loading
• Unexpected costs or requirements
• Poor mobile experience

4. Test Solutions

Use A/B testing to validate improvements.

Funnel Comparison

You can compare up to 2 date periods and up to 6 segments at once (a maximum of 12 compared datasets):

Compare Time Periods

• Before and after website changes
• Seasonal patterns
• Campaign impacts

Compare Segments

• Mobile vs desktop
• Different traffic sources
• New vs returning visitors

Best Practices

Keep Funnels Focused

• 3–5 steps is usually ideal
• Too many steps makes analysis difficult
• Focus on the critical path to conversion

Use Required Steps Deliberately

• Mark the first step required to define a clean entry point
• Leave optional detours (e.g., an FAQ page) unrequired so they don’t exclude real converters

Create Multiple Funnels

There’s no limit on the number of funnels or steps. Different goals need different funnels:

• One for appointment requests
• One for contact form completions
• One for specific campaign landing pages

Review Regularly

Funnel performance changes over time. Schedule regular reviews to:

• Spot new problems early
• Measure improvement efforts
• Identify seasonal patterns

You can also add the Funnels Overview widget to a dashboard, receive funnel reports by scheduled email, and set up alerts on funnel metrics.

Funnel Examples by Industry

Hospital/Health System

Primary Care Appointment Funnel:

1. Primary care landing page
2. Provider directory
3. Individual provider page
4. Appointment request form
5. Thank you page

Medical Practice

New Patient Funnel:

1. Homepage or landing page
2. Services page
3. About/team page
4. Contact page
5. Form submission

Healthcare Marketing

Content-to-Lead Funnel:

1. Blog article (entry)
2. Service page visit
3. Contact page view
4. Form submission

Limitations

• Funnels track progression within sessions, not individual users across multiple sessions
• Only required steps gate progression — but a funnel with many required steps will naturally show low completion
• Editing a funnel’s steps regenerates its reports to match the new definition
• Some visitor paths don’t fit a linear funnel model — consider Users Flow for open-ended path analysis

Next Steps

• Goals — Track the conversions your funnels lead to
• Session Recordings — Watch visitors at drop-off points
• Heatmaps — Analyze pages with high drop-off
• A/B Testing — Test improvements to problem steps