You’ve probably heard that it’s crucial to keep a full, flowing funnel for a business. But what does this mean, and how do you know when you’re on the right track?

Funnel reporting is key to understanding the inner workings of your business. With a detailed funnel report, you can see where customers are at every stage of the sales process. The funnel report can show how many leads you are generating, what deals are being negotiated, what contracts are being finalized, and, ultimately, how many sales are going through.

Knowing your funnel at all times can help ensure that funnel doesn’t dry up, leaving you without leads or consistent sales. So, let’s dive into what exactly funnel reporting is and how to create a funnel report.

What is funnel reporting?

Before you understand funnel reporting, you need to understand the funnel. The funnel is essential to mapping out the customers’ journey to purchasing, from brand awareness all the way through to a sale. Keeping a funnel full of ongoing leads is important to a thriving business.

As such, a funnel report can give insight as to how a customer discovers your brand and what leads them to either flow through the funnel all the way to purchase or drop off somewhere along the way.

The funnel report can determine how effective your marketing efforts are, the number of people coming into the funnel, and conversion rates. This report can also provide insight into ongoing lead generation and sales, so you can see just how many leads you are generating and how many are in the process of signing contracts or making purchases.

1. Awareness

As the customer first enters your funnel, it’ll be through awareness. There are many ways a potential customer can first hear about your brand, whether they hear about your product through word of mouth, see an ad on Instagram, or pass your billboard while driving to work.

2. Interest

Once the customer has found your brand, if they like what they see, they’ll likely start doing some digging. Reading reviews, checking out your FAQ section, and comparing you to competitors are all likely to happen in this stage.

3. Decision

Now, the potential customer will start really considering making a purchase. They might consult with a sales rep or ask for pricing quotes.

4. Action

As the customer moves through the funnel, they will use the information gathered from the previous steps to decide whether or not to make a purchase. That’s why investing in excellent branding, marketing, and customer service is so important, as they will each leave an impact throughout the funnel process and can ultimately be a make-it-or-break-it situation for potential clients.

Ready to start reporting? Here’s how to create a funnel report. These reports can typically be generated through tools like Google Analytics. To make it easier, consider Dashboard & Reporting Software, which will house all your analytics, reports, and dashboards in one easy-to-navigate space.

1. Input Data

First and foremost, you’ll need to input data, from the number of customers clicking on your website link to the number of sales that go through and everything in between. This is something that can be automated and pulled for you through Google Analytics or HubSpot. You’ll set the number of building blocks to differentiate the different stages as well.

2. Filter

Next, you can filter out data you don’t need. The platform you use to create your funnel report will offer basic and/or customizable filter options.

3. Organize into Groups

To better analyze the report, you can organize the funnel by different marketing methods or products being sold. For example, you might create a funnel breakdown that separates the types of marketing used.

4. Visualize

Now, the platform will display the funnel report based on your filters and breakdowns. You’ll be able to see how many people found your website, then compare it to say, how many people made an inquiry, signed up for your newsletter, and/or purchased your products or services.

5. Note Strengths and Weaknesses

With your funnel in front of you, note conversions. See where customers are dropping off and where they are coming from. Your funnel report might show a lot of people coming in from social, despite most of your efforts being on email marketing, where less people are converting into sales. Noting your observations can help you adjust your future marketing strategies.

1. Next-Step Conversions

One of the simpler funnel reports is for next-step conversions. This funnel report will show the conversion rates between steps. So if you have 500 people see your social media ad, and 100 click through to your website, the conversion for this step is 20%.

2. Cumulative Conversions

Similarly, cumulative conversion funnel reports will also visualize conversion, but they will compare each stage’s numbers to the starting stage. This is most helpful when making comparisons to competitors or previous funnel reports.

3. Trends

A funnel trend will visualize changes in conversion rates as time goes on, for better or for worse. This can help you note what marketing strategies work and which ones don’t over time.

4. Time to Convert

How long does it take for a potential customer to make a purchase from the awareness stage to the action stage? A time-to-convert funnel will show how long it takes a customer to make it through each stage of the funnel.

5. Frequency

A frequency funnel report can help you identify what stage is most successful in drawing in customers or where customers tend to drop off.

Use Funnel Reports to Improve Marketing Strategies

A funnel report is an invaluable tool to track the progression of potential clients to customers making purchases. Knowing how clients become aware of your brand and what leads to them ultimately abandoning or making a purchase can help you sharpen your marketing skills.

A funnel report will allow you to visualize the weaker parts of your marketing strategies to improve them while also spotlighting successful — sometimes surprisingly-so — components of the funnel.