Multi-Channel Funnels for Google Analytics

Google released a new feature in Google Analytics yesterday called Multi-Channel Funnels, allowing users to understand which sources of traffic are responsible and effective at driving conversions.

This is an exciting development for tracking ecommerce transactions and goals as up until now all conversions were attributed to the last channel the visitor used before converting. This meant it was difficult to understand what involvement other channels were playing at driving conversions. For example, knowing that direct traffic (where the user enters a URL or uses a bookmark) is responsible for £X amount of revenue is useful, but it doesn’t tell us what steps were taken on the user journey to the site. This new feature helps us understand this process by tracking the interactions from 30 days leading up to each conversion. The data includes interactions with channels such as paid and organic search, referral sites, social networks, email, display ads, affiliates and custom campaigns.

How it works

Google describes the new service similar to a basketball match, but we prefer to think of it as a football match (sorry haters, replace with your favourite sport!), previously Google Analytics conversions were a bit like seeing the results on a website: England won 2-0 and Rooney scored twice. This is simple and effective reporting and the findings would suggest playing ‘Rooney’ more often. However, that’s only part of the story as the manager and fans watching the game would see the build up play and understand that the players worked as a team, setting up the move that lead to the two goals that the striker ‘tapped in’. In terms of ecommerce, the goal scorer is the last channel before the conversion or goal and this new feature will help us understand that not all of the credit should go to this last touch, but value can be assigned to ‘team’ of channels involved . For example, direct traffic might be your best converting traffic source so discovering whether it is more effective when visitors have previously clicked through a PPC link or found your site via a social networking site can be an important insight.

We particularly love the ‘Assisted Conversion Value’ report because it is very useful in determining the monetary value of each channels contribution towards creating the conversion. If the channel appears in the path, excluding the final interaction, it is considered an assist and therefore is given a higher value because of the important role it plays in creating the conversion. By analysing these reports we can discover the best user journeys to the site and focus resources towards these with the aim of improving conversion rates.

The bottom line

This information helps us discover the most effective marketing channels and campaigns for your projects and allows us to optimise your ecommerce conversion rate.

For more information on Google Analytics and to see how Lightmaker can help you with Multi-Channel Funnels, get in touch with our analysis ninjas.

Resources Links:

Google Analytics Blog: http://analytics.blogspot.com/2011/08/introducing-multi-channel-funnels.html

Google Analytics YouTube Multi-Channel Funnels: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz4yHOKE5j8&feature=player_embedded