Funnels
Build the pages, track every step a visitor takes, and see exactly where journeys stop.
Overview
Funnels gives you:
- Real pages, built and published through the website builder.
- Tracking of each visitor's journey through your steps, not just how many hit each page.
- Where journeys came from: source, campaign, referring site, device and country.
- A value on the goal and on single steps, so the report shows money as well as counts.
- Automation on any step, through AI Workflows.
Building a funnel
There are two ways to start, depending on whether you already have the pages.
- You do not have the pages yet. Click Start from a template and pick lead magnet, tripwire offer, webinar registration or application funnel. The steps are created for you and every page is built, fully designed and ready to launch, in the AI Website Builder. You can also create the steps yourself, open the funnel and click Build the pages.
- Your pages already live on your own website. Click New funnel, list the addresses of your pages in order, and add the tracking snippet to your site.
Built pages come ready to use. Each one has tracking in it and a button to the next step, and every step is pointed at its own page, so nothing needs to be typed in by hand. If the AI Website Builder is not in your workspace yet, it is added for you when you build the pages. You need permission to add services; otherwise ask a workspace admin.
Sign-up, registration and application forms work straight away: a matching form is published in Forms and connected for you, so every submission lands there and the visitor moves on to the next page. A checkout page's pay button starts working once you connect Payments in the Website Builder. Visits to a funnel's own website only count towards that funnel.
From the funnel's page list you can Edit in Website Builder to change wording, design and images with the AI, Preview the pages, and Publish them. Each page shows Live once the website has finished publishing, with its live address. Add a step later and Build missing pages fills in only the pages that are missing, or use Add a page and choose which step it is for.
Turning tracking on
Pages built for you already carry tracking. For pages on your own website, go to Funnels → Developer → Track your website. If you have not added your website yet, type its address and click Add website. Then copy the snippet, which already holds your key, and paste it before </body> on every page. One key covers both the www. and the plain address of your site.
The same section tells you when it has seen its first visit, how many steps have been recorded and when it last heard from your site. Click Check again after adding the snippet.
The snippet counts page views, follows single-page apps that change the address without reloading, and gives you Softsolz.funnel.track() and .identify() for anything you want to record yourself. Your own site keeps counting towards a funnel even after you build pages for it.
Steps and goals
Each step is counted in one of these ways:
- Page address is - the path of the page, such as
/pricing. The domain, tracking tags and a trailing.htmlare ignored, so/pricingand/pricing.htmlcount as the same page. - Full web address is - the whole address, character for character.
- Web address contains - any address with this text in it. Useful for checkout pages with changing addresses.
- Something happens - an event your site sends, such as
Softsolz.funnel.track('added_to_basket'). Use it for a click, a form sent or anything that is not a page.
Under Advanced on a step you also get Page address starts with (a whole section, like /blog/), Web address has (a tag in the address, like plan=pro) and Matches a pattern for experts. Patterns must stay simple enough to check quickly; the editor tells you if one is too complex.
If a visit matches several steps at once, all of them are counted. So a broad first step such as "Web address contains /" never hides the goal. The editor warns you when a step would match every page or when a page address holds a whole website address, and the Test a web address box under the steps shows which steps any address would count as.
Mark one step as the goal; if none is marked, the last step is the goal. You can rename, reorder and change steps at any time without losing the journeys already counted; only a step you remove takes its counts with it.
Reading the report
Every number counts journeys: one visitor's trip through the funnel. A journey starts at the first step the visitor reaches and stays open for 30 days, even after they reach the goal, so coming back to the goal page or reloading does not start a second journey or count them twice at the same step. The same person on a phone and a laptop counts as two journeys, which is why the report says journeys rather than people.
Pick a period, or choose your own dates. The report takes the journeys that started in that period and shows how many reached each step, how many reached the goal, the conversion rate, how many gave up, how many are still in progress and the average time to reach the goal. Tick Compare with the period before to see the change against the same number of days just before.
Where journeys came from groups the same journeys by source, medium, campaign, referring site, device or country, with how many reached the goal and their value. Day by day charts the journeys that started each day. Download the step table or a list of every journey as a CSV file.
Goal values
Give the funnel a goal value, such as the price of what you sell, and every journey that reaches the goal adds it. A step can also have its own extra value under Advanced, for example an upsell page. The report then shows the total value and the value per journey, in your workspace currency. New values apply to journeys from then on.
Pausing and archiving
Pause a funnel to stop counting visits for a while, and Resume it to start again. Archive stops counting and moves it out of your list while keeping its results; tick Show archived funnels to find it and restore it. When you delete a funnel that has its own website, you can choose to delete the website and switch off its tracking key at the same time.
Automation
A journey starting, a step being reached, a goal, an abandoned journey or an identified visitor can each start a workflow. When Sales Pipelines is installed too, the AI Workflows template Turn a funnel conversion into a deal is ready to use. To chase people who gave up, start a workflow from Someone gave up on a funnel and add the Outreach step Send a message. This reaches visitors you know as a contact, for example because they filled in a form on the way.
Test it step by step
Follow these steps once from start to finish to prove Funnels works for your workspace. You need nothing outside SoftSolz: the Widget Tester has an example website to click through.
- Get access. You need the Super Admin or Admin role, or a custom role that includes the Funnels permissions (Members & access → Roles). Making a tracking key also needs permission to change workspace settings, which admins have.
- Pick where to test. To try things without touching live data, open the workspace menu and choose Switch to Sandbox mode. The sandbox has its own funnels, keys and results.
- Install Funnels. Open Marketplace, find Funnels and click Install. Funnels now appears in the sidebar.
- Create a test funnel. Go to Funnels → New funnel and name it "Tester funnel". Add four steps, each set to Web address contains:
studio=home,studio=pricing,studio=checkoutandstudio=thanks. Click Make this the goal on the last one, then Create funnel. The funnel is listed and counting. - Make a key for the Widget Tester. Go to Funnels → Developer and open Track your website. Under Public widget keys, enter
https://developer.softsolz.ukas the Allowed origin and click Generate key. Copy the key from the Save this key now window. - Walk through the funnel in the Widget Tester. Open developer.softsolz.uk/widget-tester and choose Funnels. In the Embed snippet box, replace
pk_live_REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_KEYwith your key and click Load tracker. On the example site click See our packages, choose a package, then Complete order. Each page view appears under What the tracker sent marked Counted with the step it matched. - Read the result. Back in SoftSolz, open Funnels and click the funnel. Journeys started shows 1, every step shows 1 and the journey has reached the goal. Click New visitor in the Widget Tester and walk only to the packages page to see a second journey stop after step 2.
- Put it on your own site. On Funnels → Developer → Track your website, add your own website address and copy the snippet into every page, just before
</body>. Open one of your pages, then click Check again: the panel says Tracking is working. Change the funnel's steps to your own page addresses. - Tidy up. Archive or delete the test funnel and revoke the Widget Tester key when you are done.
For developers
In the sandbox, open Funnels → Developer → Use the API, click New API key and tick Read funnels. Sandbox keys start with sk_test_. Then list your funnels from your server:
curl https://app.softsolz.uk/api/v1/services/funnels/funnels \
-H "Authorization: Bearer sk_test_your_key"
A 200 reply lists each funnel with its id, status (active, paused, draft or archived) and number of steps. Add /<funnel id>/report?days=30 to the address for the same journey counts the Results page shows. The number of days must be a whole number from 1 to 400, otherwise the reply is a 400 with days_out_of_range. To create a funnel from code, tick Create funnels on the key and send a name with 2 to 20 steps; it is active straight away, and a name over 200 characters is refused rather than shortened. See the API Reference and the Funnels API guide.
If something goes wrong
| You see | What it means |
|---|---|
Nothing is counted, and your browser's network panel shows a 403 with Public key does not exist, is revoked, or this origin is not allowed. |
The page address is not on the key's allowed origins, or the key was revoked. Make a key for the exact address the page runs on, starting https:// with no path. |
| Received, but no funnel step matches it (Widget Tester) or every step stays at 0 | No counting funnel has a step that matches that address. Use Test a web address in the step editor, and check the funnel is not paused or archived. |
| Nothing has arrived yet on Track your website | The snippet is missing from the page, sits in the wrong place, or uses a key from the other environment (a sandbox key only feeds sandbox funnels). Paste it before </body>, open a page, then click Check again. |
| Funnels is not active for this workspace. | Funnels is not installed, or the workspace's plan is not active. Install it from Marketplace or check Plan & billing. |