What is Conversion funnel?
A conversion funnel is an ordered sequence of steps — landing, pricing, signup, payment — measured for how many visitors reach each one. Its value is locating the loss. A single conversion rate says people are not converting; a funnel says where they stop, which is the only version of that fact you can act on.
Reading one
A funnel reports two things per step: how many arrived, and what share of the previous step that represents. The step-to-step rate is where the information is.
Landing page 10,000 —
Pricing page 2,500 25%
Signup start 900 36%
Signup done 610 68%
Paid 180 30%The eye goes to the biggest absolute loss, which is landing to pricing. The better question is which rate is furthest below what that step could plausibly be. A 68% completion on a form you control is fixable this week; a 25% click-through from a landing page to pricing may be perfectly normal.
Choices that change the answer
- Strict or loose ordering. Must a visitor hit the steps in exact sequence, or does any path that touches them all count? Loose ordering reports higher completion, and is usually the more honest reflection of how people browse.
- The window. Steps completed across three weeks are a different funnel from steps completed in one visit. Pick a window that matches how people actually buy your product.
- Step granularity. Too few steps and you cannot locate the loss. Too many and every step looks fine while the total stays terrible.
What a funnel cannot tell you
It shows where people stop, never why. The step with the worst rate might have a broken form, an unexpected price, a missing payment method, or a perfectly reasonable set of people deciding this is not for them.
It also flattens journeys that are not linear. People compare, leave, return, read a review, come back a week later. A funnel imposes a straight line on that, which is a useful simplification as long as you remember it is one.