By understanding what users are doing, or not doing, just before your conversion event provides you with a unique opportunity to optimize your sign-up flow with data backing your every move.
Step 1: Determine what “Conversion” event you wish to monitor
Which conversion event are you hoping to monitor? Oftentimes this is a one time event, such as “sign up,” “submit order,” “request a demo,” or “learn more.” Identifying this conversion moment in your tool or on your site will help you narrow your focus and give you direction as you begin building your queries.
Step 2: Analyze your features!
| Query #1 | Get a baseline understanding of of your Conversion event |
|---|---|
| Graph | Count of Conversion Event Add Graph: Count Unique of Conversion Event |
This report allows you to see the number of times your conversion event has been interacted with compared to the number of people who have interacted with the event.
| Query #2 | Identify the conversion rate of your Conversion funnel |
|---|---|
| Funnel | Each step in your desired flow leading to Conversion Event |
What does this tell you?
From this funnel, you can identify major drop off points. If there are multiple major drop off points, first focus on the largest drop – this can help narrow your focus.
| Query #3 | Discover what users are doing instead of your desired funnel |
|---|---|
| Funnel from Step 2 – Paths | In your funnel, click onto the step that has the largest drop and click “Paths from this Step” Paths report: Raw Pageview & Defined Events from Drop off point |
What does this tell you?
Paths analysis allows you to see what users are doing from your desired step; are your users bouncing from your site, or going somewhere that was not expected? This report can also help you understand if you need to define more events.
Reading the Paths Analysis
The Paths report is all about uncovering the unknown, but can be difficult to interpret. If you see the same pageview repeated in multiple steps, you will want to define more events from that particular page to see which element users are interacting with. Check out our Heap Play, “Identify most engaged with undefined elements” for additional guidance on this.
We recommend looking at “Raw Pageviews” first if you have not defined a lot of events in your Heap instance. Check out this article for more information. This can be a jumping off point for which pages require more event definitions!
| Query #4 | Analyze a more detailed funnel |
|---|
Once you have used the Path report to discover what users are doing instead of your desired steps, and you have defined more granular events based on that path report, you will want to analyze your funnel again.
| Funnel | Each step in your desired flow leading to Conversion Event |
What does this tell you?
This report can give you a more precise understanding of how users are making it through your desired activation steps, where there might be confusion, or any other indicators of lack of interest – ultimately impacting adoption.
| Query #5 | Which content has the highest impact on my conversion event |
|---|---|
| Influence | Conversion Goal: Conversion Event – Touchpoints: Any marketing or educational efforts you wish to understand! – Lookback window: 14 – 30 days *The lookback window directly relates to exposure to your touchpoint – Model: Linear |
This allows you to see what percentage of your conversions were influenced by your touchpoint(s).
Step 3: Interpret your results and take action
The data uncovered through this series of steps can help identify your user’s specific pain point in the conversion funnel.
How often is your conversion event occurring and what is the ratio between your conversion event occurring and number of unique users completing the event? If you have just as many users completing the event as it is occurring, that indicates there is a wide range of acquisition and you can continue digging into how users are finding success in your flow via the funnel and paths reports. If you find that the same users are repeating the desired conversion event, then it is worth digging into who are those users, what are their behaviors and demographics, and setting up an action plan for your team to drive those same behaviors on your site or in your tool.
The series of funnels in this Play allow you to dig deep into the stickiness of your funnel. Zero in on what specifically is working, and what isn’t. Use segments to see how they perform among each other. Are users who are working directly with a sales representative, spend more money or log into your tool the most often more successful than other users? Segmenting your users will allow you to fully understand why your funnel is successful. Have fun and get creative here! You can create as many segments as you desire.
If you are still seeing a large drop off in the final funnel, it is important to determine a new solution to mitigate drop off, and implement it. Use this same series of steps to test your new solution!
Conclusion
Ensure customers are successful in your conversion funnel by making your conversion experience simple and seamless. We never forget a first impression!