Funnel analysis is the practice of mapping a series of steps a customer takes toward a defined goal, such as a purchase, and measuring the drop-off rate at each individual step to find where the process is losing the most people.
Where the Name Actually Comes From
What is funnel analysis modeled on is literally a kitchen funnel, wide at the top, narrow at the bottom, since a large number of people enter at the first step and a much smaller number make it all the way through to the goal. The value of the analysis isn’t the shape itself, it’s identifying which specific step causes the steepest drop, since that’s the point where fixing something has the most leverage on the final outcome.
What This Looks Like Applied to Email
Email funnel analysis typically maps a sequence like:
- Email delivered
- Email opened
- Link clicked
- Landing page viewed
- Purchase completed
Looking only at the final conversion rate hides which specific step is actually the problem. A funnel showing strong opens and clicks but a sharp drop-off between landing page view and purchase points to a checkout or landing page issue, not an email content issue, even though the email itself is where the customer’s journey started.
A Funnel Analysis Example Worth Walking Through
Imagine a single campaign with these numbers:
- 10,000 emails delivered
- 3,500 opened
- 700 clicked through to the site
- 400 viewed the product page
- 80 completed a purchase
Written as a simple email funnel, the steepest percentage drop is between click and product page view, not between open and click, which is a genuinely useful finding, since it redirects attention toward the landing experience rather than the email’s subject line or content, which actually performed reasonably well by comparison.
How to Do a Funnel Analysis Without Overcomplicating It
How to do a funnel analysis for a specific campaign or automation starts with defining the steps clearly, sent, opened, clicked, converted, at minimum, then calculating the percentage that makes it from each step to the next rather than only the total conversion rate.
The step with the largest percentage drop, not necessarily the smallest raw number, usually deserves the first round of attention, since a large percentage drop at an early, high-volume step often represents more total lost opportunity than a smaller percentage drop later in the funnel.
Related terms:
Adflipr’s analytics dashboard tracks performance from delivery through checkout, making it possible to see exactly where a campaign’s funnel loses the most people.
