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Funnel Report Guide

Customers start checkout, but some never complete their purchase. A funnel report follows their progress through a sequence of actions so you can see where they stop and decide what to investigate next.

This walkthrough uses Checkout → Payment → Purchase. You will build the report, read its results, investigate the largest loss, and save the definition for your team. For other controls and counting rules, use the Funnel Settings Reference.

Before you begin​

You need access to Audience Management → Funnel Reports in the workspace you want to analyse, and tracked events for checkout, payment, and purchase. Confirm their names with your tracking owner: a familiar-looking label may record a different action.

Choose a report period with known checkout activity. If the report or required events are unavailable, ask your workspace administrator to check your access and data setup.

Define the business question​

Start with: “Where do customers stop between starting checkout and purchasing?”

We will count customers who start at Checkout, rather than every repeated checkout attempt. That gives this report one clear starting population. A purchase is the final milestone; this report measures purchases reached through the selected path, not every purchase in the workspace.

Build the checkout funnel​

  1. In Audience Management, open Funnel Reports and choose Create Funnel. Name it Checkout to purchase conversion.
  2. Under Funnel Settings, choose User so repeat entries do not automatically count as additional customers. Leave Open Funnel off so every selected journey begins at Checkout.
  3. Set Conversion Window to 24 Hours for this example. This allows up to 24 hours between consecutive steps, provided the events are within your report period. Choose a different window if your buying cycle requires it.
  4. Under Funnel Steps, select your tracked Checkout, Payment, and Purchase events in that order. Choose Indirect for the transitions so browsing actions between milestones do not exclude a journey. Leave filters empty for this first overall view.
  5. Under Report Defaults, choose Standard and Conversion. Leave Breakdown Dimensions empty while you establish the overall result.
  6. Choose your report dates and timezone, then select Generate Funnel Report.

:::tip Keep a shared starting point A closed funnel lets you compare everyone against Checkout. Open funnels allow later entry and have counter limitations; see Open Funnel before using them to interpret rates. :::

For control explanations and an alternative Add To Cart → Purchase configuration, see the Funnel Settings Reference. That open, Total Entries configuration measures a different population from this walkthrough.

If no rows appear, follow the ordered troubleshooting checks before interpreting the report.

Interpret the results​

Suppose the report returns the following results. These numbers are illustrative, not live workspace data.

StepReached customersDroppedConversion %Drop Rate
Checkout1,000400100%40%
Payment60042060%70%
Purchase180018%—
  • Entry-to-purchase conversion: 180 ÷ 1,000 × 100 = 18%.
  • Payment-to-purchase progression: 180 ÷ 600 × 100 = 30%. This is a separate calculation from the table's Conversion %.
  • Largest loss: 420 customers reach Payment but do not reach Purchase, compared with 400 who stop after Checkout.

The table's Conversion % compares each step with Checkout. Drop Rate measures how many customers at that step went no further. At Purchase, no further step is required, so the table shows a dash for the zero drop rate. See the metric definitions for detailed rules and missing-value handling.

Investigate the largest loss​

In this example, 420 customers reach Payment but do not reach Purchase. That is the largest observed loss in both count and rate.

The report tells you where progress stops; it does not establish why. Start by checking payment errors, payment-method availability, and whether purchase tracking is complete.

Next, add Device Type under Breakdown Dimensions and generate the report again. Compare mobile and desktop within the same dates, timezone, and settings. Check the size of each group before acting: a small group can produce an unstable percentage. Do not add distinct customer counts across groups to create a unique total.

A conclusion you can share is: “18% of selected checkout starters purchased. The largest observed loss is after Payment; we will check payment failures and compare device groups next.”

If the numbers differ from another purchase report, use the purchase-report comparison guidance.

Save and share the definition​

Use Notes to record the question and why you chose the settings. For example: “Checkout to purchase; User counting; closed funnel; 24-hour wait between steps; Indirect transitions.”

Choose Save Draft while you are preparing the definition. Choose Publish when it is ready for reuse. Rerun after changing settings so the displayed results reflect the current definition.

Before sharing your findings, record the report dates, timezone, event names, counting entity, conversion window, filters, and breakdowns. Confirm that the data is fresh. Your team should be able to reproduce the report and distinguish the observed drop-off from your proposed explanation.

Continue exploring​