We all use ecommerce conversion funnels and we all use them (or we like to think so), but how well does everyone really understand them? It can be very hard, especially for businesses that are just starting to implement a funnel that really performs the way they want it to perform.
This simple guide will look at some common ecommerce funnels. The first one is concerned with your paid traffic. This one in specific you really want to adjust well as you throw money at it continuously. The second one is about your inbound marketing activities (SEO, Content Marketing, etc.).
At the end, we will also briefly talk about what is known as the shortest funnel out there: Social shopping/commerce (shopping on social/buy buttons on social).
Why do you need to have several funnels?
Well, believe it or not, your website can bring in conversions in many different ways. You might have only 1 product or might have hundreds, it does not matter. Your customers will vary.
Potential new buyers or existing ones come to your site for different reasons. They also respond to your promotion in different ways. That’s why you must figure out how to lead them all to the end goal, and you must do it in a smooth and comfortable for them way. To lead them all to the same goal is not easy, after all, we just talked about how much they could differ from each other.
Quick example, you could be selling football boots. The same football boots can be bought by young professionals seeking quality and long term value, but on the other hand, the same boots can be purchased by that one friend who wants to have the shiniest stuff and brag about it on each Sunday game.
The point is, the two customers are very different and so are their shopping habits. This is where the need for multiple sales funnels comes into the whole picture. You need to prepare different shopping journeys for your diverse shoppers.
eCommerce Conversion Funnels
Let’s look at some of the examples we have prepared for you. Remember, you can always get as creative as you like with your funnels, but the ones we will look into now, are fit for almost any online store.
Funnel 1: Paid Traffic
Let’s start with this funnel, the one you pay for. It would be structured like this:
The best use of this funnel is: when you need an instant boost to your sales and ROI. It’s also perfect for promoting new products/collections and getting them out there.
Facebook Ads Traffic (Acquisition)
Now, this is not really a part of your funnel, but including it will help us draw a better picture of the whole thing. Assuming that you’ve got your targeting right, you must bring in highly qualified traffic. (the same will structure will be applied later for the other funnels too)
To find out if your message is being well-digested by your target keep an eye on CTR (Click-through-rate). To find out whether or not this channel is worth investing in, look at the campaign’s conversion rate.
Read: 50 ecommerce conversion rate optimisation tips
Tailored Landing Page
Each ad you run must have a landing page specially tailored for it. This way you won’t mislead the traffic that your ads just brought it. They clicked your ad because they were curious about your offerings, so feed that curiosity and don’t just throw them in different directions. Misleading people would lead YOU to see huge bounce rates.
Usually, your landing page must repeat the message people got from the ad. This will serve as validation, people won’t feel like they are in the wrong place. Now, that you’ve gained some credibility and people trust your ad, include a call to action in there. The main goal of your landing page is to make visitors complete the desired action.
The action might vary from ad to ad. If you are advertising something new (a product, collection or similar) a view event would be fine. If you are advertising a specific product, a conversion might be your end goal. In such cases, you would look to add a message that encourages people to complete the purchase (add to cart, etc.), and thus you would look to measure the rate of completions (orders completed).
Bonus tip
It might be a good idea to look at Time Spent on Page. You are not looking for a specific number here as it varies a lot from product to product (also different page designs can affect it). What you are interested in here is to find out how long does it take the visitor to move to the next step or how long does it take them to lose interest (if they don’t end up completing the desired action).
Remarketing
Unless you’ve had a 100% conversion rate out of this (and if you did, please tell us how!), you would need to do some remarketing. There were surely people who abandoned their carts without making a purchase, in fact, the cart abandonment rate is estimated at around 71%. That must not worry you as research show that 26% of the abandoners can come back if you use remarketing effectively.
In your remarketing efforts you would like to focus on and target visitors who started an or completion event, but did not fully complete it. According to AdEspesso your CTR can see a rise of up to 10 times the rate you previously had!
Finally, a look at your conversion rate will tell you whether or not this was a successful campaign. With well-targeted remarketing, your conversion rates can be around 2.5 times higher!
Funnel 2: Inbound Marketing
Here’s what it would look like:
The best use of this funnel is: when you want to install an image of your brand into people’s minds. Also great to continuously generate brand awareness.
Organic Traffic
Now, this is where you acquire your traffic, which is again outside of your funnel, but it will be included for clarity.
Here, you need to bring in qualified traffic, which is harder than it is with the paid ads. In this case, you need to be ranking on relevant for your business keywords. You want to catch people who are looking for something (you have to offer) on the Internet. If you don’t know what keywords are ideal for your business, then it’s time to figure it out if you are to use this funnel!
Value Page
This page could literally be anything: article, e-book, infographic, guide. Whatever it is, make sure it provides value for the customer. The page must be resourceful and helpful. The topics must be relatively close to your product and its usage.
For instance, if you sell beard oils, it could be a piece with interesting health facts about beards or easy ways to trim your beard in different styles (with great visuals!). By consuming such content, visitors (the right ones) would naturally care more about their beards (in this case) and will be more likely to purchase your beard oil.
To measure your content’s performance, keep an eye on the following:
Traffic – will show you if people are actually able to find you
Bounce rate – will tell you if people find it interesting or they just bounce off
Average time per session – could be misleading sometimes, but it should show you how much attention people pay to your content
Pages per session – will show you if people like your work and want more of it.
However, this is a long term strategy so don’t lose your mind if the numbers don’t look too good in the beginning.
Pop-ups & Subscribe forms
Many people say content is king and when it comes to this funnel at least they are absolutely right! You can’t just create content, publish and just hope people will magically land on it. It sure will happen a lot, but you want to capture those who really like it and hopefully, over time, convert them into customers and fans of your brand.
This is why you need pop-ups and subscription forms. By converting people from readers to subscribers you can reach them with your new content at any time! So the action you want them to complete here is a subscription to your blog/mailing list.
More Content
Seeing that people consume and like your content is great. It’s a clear indicator of interest. Keep feeding them quality content by sending occasional newsletters with valuable pieces and keep them thinking about your brand!
When it comes to your newsletters you would like to follow the following rates:
Open rate
Clicks or click-through rate
unsubscribe rate
You will see that in no time your content “lovers” will start browsing your product pages, meaning that they now really trust you, like you and are considering whether or not they should buy from you.
Don’t forget that your content was key in transforming those people from readers to customers. You have to continue feeding them what they like and value in your brand: quality content! It’s a long-term and never-ending cycle. It’s demanding, but worth it, because you not only sell to people, you make them love your brand and if they love your brand they will tell people about it!
Funnels & Google Analytics
When setting up your goals in GA keep in mind that goals do not give as many insights as funnels do. Goals can be seen as crucial KPIs you need to keep an eye on. What they lack is the ability to serve as a starting point and that’s what you need if you are to set up a funnel.
However, when you set up your funnels in Google Analytics, you will need to start by defining your goal.
Log in → Admin → Goals tab → Enter Goal Name → Enter Goal URL → Goal Value
Note: leaving Match Type option as Exact Match or not is situational and depends on your use case. What you’ll see next is pictured below.
Set up Funnels
Funnel Checkbox (ON) → URLs & Names for funnel steps → Select Required Step for the first funnel step.
You can potentially leave the Required Step unchecked if you want GA to count entries below the first funnel step.
Funnel Conversion Rates
So you have your funnel all set and ready to go and your Google Analytics account also had some time to collect data. Now it’s time to check the Funnel Visualization report. It will neatly show you the definitive Conversion rate for this funnel.
However, it can get a bit tricky. Let’s say you have checked Required Step 1 on your funnel, if that’s the case then Google Analytics will calculate the percentage of visits that included a pageview of your first Required Step and at least one goal (thank you) page.
Note: People don’t have to visit your middle pages for a Funnel match to happen.
So if your steps are set up like this for example:
Catalog page → Running shoes brands → brand → product description page → Checkout
If people skip one of the middle pages, you will still have a Funnel Match.
Additional Funnel Ideas
Reverse Goal Path Report can be very useful if you want to generate some new funnel ideas. The report might show you that visitor reach your goal page through paths you did not expect them to take.
So if there’s a certain pattern you manage to identify, you could set up a corresponding funnel and track it step by step.
Start Early
You need to set your funnels early on as Google Analytics won’t fetch any data before you’ve activated your funnel. So if you want to make the best decision you possibly can and provide an ultimate end customer experience configure your funnels as early as possible.
Bonus tip: You can use different software than Google Analytics. There are other analytical tools for you to use out there depending on your needs. Some tools are a bit more sophisticated than GA, but are paid.
To help you make a decision, you can read more about what eCommerce metrics to track.
Bonus Funnel: Social Shopping
Also known as the shortest funnel in the game or social buy buttons (people have given it lots of names), let’s look at some facts about this relatively new phenomenon.
I’m sure most online retailers already use it or plan to use it. After all, it’s the shortest way from product discovery to order. One click!
It’s no secret that we, humans, are social animals. That’s also why we hang around social medias so much. It’s also true that many people make their buying decisions by scrolling around social sites first. They need some verification that whatever it is they are buying is legit.
Many social medias have been trying to change eCommerce and provide better and shorter shopping experiences for customers by letting them shop directly from their sites. However, not all of them really picked up as well as others.
As we can see in terms of Average Order Value, there are a few surprises
When it comes to conversion rates, though, things look like this:
So have you already implemented or are you planning to implement the shortest conversion funnel? Do you think direct “Buy” options on Social are some phenomenon or is it just a process that is already part of a funnel.
Whatever label you put on it, it’s a nice way for you to capitalize on potential impulse buys. It’s also a great way for people you target with ads to complete a purchase directly on Social.
Now stop wondering what to do and start configuring your funnels. If you need an instant boost to sales go back to the first funnel we’ve covered in this post and if you want to start building some brand awareness and turn customers into brand advocates, go for the second one.
Remember it’s a good idea to keep fueling both engines!
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