Funnel Reporting: How to Build, Use and Interpret Data from Funnel Reports

Reporting Jan 7, 2022 18 minutes read

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    Peter Caputa

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    If you want to understand any aspect of a business, you need good-quality data. But just having access to data is not enough. You also need to be able to interpret it, derive actionable insights, and ensure others understand it as well.

    Marketing and sales funnels are no exception. The information in a funnel report lets you understand trends over time for defined funnels. Alternatively, you can drill down into the contacts that entered a given stage in the specific time period. Or, you can do both at once to develop a truly comprehensive report that covers all the relevant information.

    The quality of the report will depend on specific metrics chosen and how you choose to present them. Fortunately, modern reporting tools allow for the complete customization of dashboards and reports, providing you and your clients with an invaluable insight into the customer journey and highlighting any pain points that need to be fixed.

    This article will help you build high-quality funnel reports by covering the following:

    What Is a Funnel Report? 

    Put simply, a funnel report can tell you how a prospective customer discovered your brand and what led them to either go through the entire funnel to conversion or abandon it somewhere along the way.

    With funnel reporting, you can achieve valuable insight into the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, the number and demographic of people coming into the funnel, and conversion rates. It can also help you gain a better understanding of lead generation and sales. That way, you’ll be able to discover how many leads you’re actually generating and how many have reached the end of the funnel (i.e., they’re in the process of subscribing, signing contracts, or making purchases).

    Overall, a well-made funnel report allows you to develop a better contact-to-conversion pipeline. With the insight provided, you’ll be able to build better systems and iron out any flaws in the existing structure.

    Reporting for the Inbound Marketing Funnel

    An inbound report covers any kind of marketing-related program, from search engine optimization (SEO), social media, content marketing, paid advertising, CTAs, webinars, sponsorships, and so on.

    In order to build a report for the inbound marketing funnel, you need to identify the right metrics. For that, you should go through the entire process and compare the inbound marketing budget with the number of acquired leads and conversions.

    It’s likely you’ll need the total budget, number of leads (of all types), cost per lead, cost per MQL and SQL, customer acquisition cost, revenue per customer, etc.

    Figuring out the cost per lead is simple; all you have to do is divide the marketing budget with the number of leads acquired over the course of a campaign. Continue through the steps of the funnel to get the number of Marketing Qualified Leads and Sales Qualified Leads. Do note that the cost is increasing progressively.

    Reporting for the Outbound Sales Funnel

    Outbound reports cover activities related to sales processes like the sales team outreach to the target audience or all types of sales prospecting. Building one looks a bit different from building a report for inbound marketing. 

    Normally, you start by building a list of prospects. You can make them yourself, purchase them, or generate them automatically using specialized software. In addition to the cost of the list, you need to factor in the outbound sales budget. With these items, you can check the number of positive replies, CVR, and SQLs — they can’t really be called MQLs because they didn’t come from marketing programs but sales effort.

    CPO and SQL costs are a lot higher in this case, as is the cost of customer acquisition. However, if you’re still getting the same amount of money and have the same long-term value, the ratios should be fine. Beaking even during year one is fine, as you can expect to make it back in the following years.

    Interpreting Your Marketing Funnel Metrics

    The return on investment and the cost per opportunity are your most important metrics. The costs can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars, and your model will ultimately depend on how costly your service or product is and how long you can retain your customers.

    On average, you should try to go for at least 5X ROI on any marketing spend. Minimizing marketing expenses makes sense, as you have more room for quality improvement and can increase profits.

    When looking at your funnel metrics, you should consider the following questions:

    • Why is the ROI this high/low?
    • Why is CPO this high/low?
    • Is it possible to get a better conversion rate for MQL to SQL?
    • Which channels are top performers?
    • Which channels should you invest more in?

    Answering these questions will help you understand how to optimize the funnel and provide material for further research on making the metrics look even better in the next report. Additionally, visualizing the data can make interpreting data much easier. When you can compare graphs and charts and see exact spots that are performing well or need extra attention, you’ll be able to formulate ideas and draw conclusions much more quickly.

    Funnel Reporting in HubSpot

    HubSpot is an excellent reporting tool and can be used to create funnel reports that allow you to monitor the progress of your marketing and sales teams. They can also be used to aid you in the analysis of conversion rates between stages, no matter if it’s lifecycle or a deal pipeline or in a custom event funnel.

    You can build two different report types, depending on how you want to measure data and what you want to focus on. These can be either contacts that have gone through all stages or contacts that have gone through any stage(s). 

    The former shows the number of contacts or deals in each stage that moved through each stage of the funnel in the designated order during a specific time period. You can use it to track a specific progression of lifecycle and deal stages.

    The latter displays the number of contacts or deals that have completed any of the lifecycle or deal stages during the designated time period. This type of report is useful if you want to have a general idea about how various stages of your funnel are performing.

    When Should You Use HubSpot Funnel Reports? 

    This depends on the type of funnel report. Ideally, you should use HubSpot funnel reports when you want more information about the funnel as a whole or some specific stage of the funnel.

    How to Build a Funnel Report in HubSpot

    HubSpot is fairly simple to use and creating a funnel report is a relatively simple procedure.

    • First, you need to navigate to ’Reports > Reports’ and click on ’Create custom report.’
    • Select ’Funnels’ from the left panel.
    • Then you can select ’Contacts’ or ’Deals’ and click ’Next’ in the top right.
    • You can name the report by clicking the pencil icon.

    This covers the creation itself. Next, we need to set up filters and customize the metrics and the appearance of the report.

    • Click ’Filters’ on the upper left and select properties that will narrow down your dataset.
    • Specify the date range for your report.
    • NOTE: You can set up multiple filters using AND logic to narrow down records.
    • Select a chart type. This can be Column, Table, or Funnel bar.
    • Under ’Configure funnel,’ click the ’Add stage’ dropdown menu and select stages you want in your report. You can reorder them by dragging and dropping them and remove them by clicking x to the right.
    • Pick the type of funnel report by clicking the all dropdown menu.
    • Click ’Run report.’
    • If you want to get a file with all the data, click ’Export’ to start the export process. 
      • Select the ’File type.’
      • Enter the email address that will receive the file.
      • Click ’Export.’
    • Click ’Save’ to add the report to your list of saved reports.

    How to Interpret Data from a HubSpot Funnel Report 

    Comparing metrics from the HubSpot funnel report will allow you to see how your funnel is performing and which stages (if any) need to be modified. You’ll be able to make the whole process more efficient and cost-effective, and allow sales reps to focus on what they do best — sales.

    Funnel Reporting in Google Analytics

    Google Analytics also allows you to check how your funnel is doing. With it, you’ll be able to understand task completion and abandonment by looking at the most important behavioral metrics: Bounce Rate, Goal Conversion Rate, and Click-through-rate.

    A custom funnel report will help you track and analyze customer journey in Google Analytics. Like with every funnel, the journey consists of one or more stages, and each stage has one or more steps.

    When Should You Use Google Analytics Funnel Reports? 

    No matter the stage your business or project is in, you’ll want to track its performance. Using Google Analytics funnel reports will allow you to improve your website’s performance and minimize inefficient or abandoned customer journeys.

    How to Build a Funnel Report in Google Analytics

    To build your own custom funnel, you need to navigate to your view first.

    • Open ’Reports.’
    • Click Customization and then ’+New Custom Report.’
    • Select the ’Funnel’ tab.
    • Enter a ’Title.’
    • Choose the ‘Analysis Type’
      • This is where you choose whether different stages need to occur in a single session or if they can occur in different sessions. The latter is the default, and since the funnel will be user-based, you’ll be able to track that user behavior across different GA sessions.
    • Choose funnel type — ’Open’ or ’Closed.’
      • A closed funnel only considers users that entered at the first stage of the funnel while an open one includes users who joined at any stage.
    • Define dimension and metrics.
    • NOTE: You can click ’+add filter’ to limit the report to specific dimensions.
    • Save the report.

    One downside of “old” Universal Analytics is that it only shows the information based on data after the report has been created. If you’re using Google Analytics 4, however, you can create funnel reports based on historical data.

    Here’s how to do it:

    • Open your GA4 account.
    • Select ’Explore’ on the left-hand panel.
    • Click ’Blank’ to start building your report.
    • Name the report.
    • Change the technique to ’Funnel exploration.’
    • Click the pencil icon next to ’Steps’ to define the steps in your funnel
      • Here, you can set up filters, name steps, and define if steps directly or indirectly follow each other.
    • Click ’Apply’ to save your report.

    How to Interpret Data from a Google Analytics Funnel Report

    Google Analytics will show you a clear visual breakdown of information accompanied by numerical data. You’ll be able to see customer dropoff at each stage of the funnel, completion rate, abandonments, and any other factor you decide to include that concerns funnel performance.

    In addition, Google Analytics offers two ways to act on the provided information.

    • First, you can create segments based on stage criteria and then apply them throughout Analytics to gain a better understanding of what led to the behavior shown in that stage.
    • Second, you can create remarketing audiences — this allows you to pick users who did not complete a specified stage and automatically run a Remarketing Campaign in Google Ads to target them.

    Funnel Reporting in Mixpanel

    Mixpanel’s Funnels allow you to explore how users perform events in a series. You can use this function to calculate how many users convert from one stage to another with a specific timeframe. That way, you can identify where users drop off, which steps have the highest conversion rate, and other important factors related to the customer journey.

    When Should You Use Mixpanel Funnel Reports?

    As a rule, you should use Mixpanel Funnel reporting if you want to answer some important questions about your business and how your funnel is performing. Questions like:

    • What departments complete the payment funnel most often?
    • At what step of the funnel did most users drop off?
    • How did the A/B test impact conversions in the funnel?
    • What percent of users converted through your signup funnel within seven days?
    • How long does it take for the majority of users to complete your payment funnel?

    How to Build a Funnel Report in Mixpanel

    Mixpanel uses loose ordering to calculate conversions. That means that a customer must complete all the steps designated in the funnel. They can complete them in any order and can take actions in between, and it will count as a conversion. But if they miss a single step (even if they do make a purchase in the end) it will not be counted as a conversion.

    In order to build a report in Mixpanel first, you need to choose events. They are the basic elements of a Funnels report.

    • Within the ’Steps’ section, add one event for each step in the funnel
    • Set up ’Filters’ to exclude unwanted data
    • Choose ’Breakdowns’ to segment data into groups

    How to Interpret Data from a Mixpanel Funnel Report

    Mixpanel can provide multiple visualizations that can help you interpret the data. The information will be segmented depending on your choices when creating the report.

    The Funnel Steps chart displays the percentage of customers converted to the following step of the funnel.

    • The Funnel Trend chart will show you changes in the conversion rate over time [while]
    • Time to Convert will allow you to view how long it takes for a user to convert.
    • The Frequency chart will display how many times users complete a stage before abandoning the funnel or converting.

    Free Funnel Report Templates

    Do you want free funnel report templates that will make the whole process much easier? Databox has your back. We created a wide range of sales funnel dashboards that track a variety of metrics and allow for one-click integration with some of the most popular sales and marketing tools.

    In addition, lead generation dashboards will help you track the most common lead generation metrics and KPIs. With just a few clicks, you’ll be able to analyze your lead generation performance and gather information that will help you improve your process. 

    With these dashboards, you’ll have no trouble generating actionable reports, leading to better ROI and increased overall efficiency.

    Here are some useful free funnel report templates from Databox:

    Basic HubSpot Marketing Funnel Dashboard

    You can use this HubSpot Marketing Funnel dashboard to get a holistic overview of your marketing funnel and gain insight into what happens at each stage. It covers the most important metrics like new contacts, new MQLs, new customers, and many more. It will allow you to monitor the progress of your prospects through the funnel and help you understand how the funnel is performing.

    HubSpot Marketing Funnel Dashboard

    HubSpot Full Funnel Analysis Dashboard

    This is funnel analysis dashboard provides full information drawn from HubSpot metrics. You can easily understand how your marketing and sales teams are working together, check which stages of the funnel aren’t performing well, and develop an actionable plan to help your leads along. 

    It allows for one-click integration with both HubSpot Marketing and HubSpot CRM and provides information about new contacts, new leads, sessions, deals created, new SQLs and MQLs, etc. The dashboard will help you figure out where you should focus your effort and provide a starting point on how to fix any existing issues.

    HubSpot Full Funnel Analysis Dashboard

    Ecommerce Full Funnel Dashboard

    Here’s a free ecommerce full funnel dashboard template that will help you learn how each stage of your funnel is performing. You’ll get unique insights into your funnel data, and key metrics will inform you which parts of the conversion funnel need to be optimized.

    If you connect your Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Mailchimp account, you’ll understand how effective your campaigns are when it comes to moving prospects through the funnel and how to optimize costs at each stage and channel.

    Ecommerce Full Funnel Dashboard

    Top of Funnel Website Performance Dashboard

    With this customizable top of funnel website performance dashboard, you can gain valuable insight and a full understanding of user acquisition and behavior on your website. 

    The data is pulled from Google Analytics and HubSpot Marketing platforms allowing you to learn what pages on your site received the most page views, the average amount of time users spend on any given webpage, what devices are they browsing from, and how to access key information about website’s visitors.

    Top of Funnel Website Performance Dashboard

    HubSpot CRM Sales Funnel Overview Dashboard

    Using this HubSpot CRM sales funnel overview dashboard will allow you to track the overall health of your sales campaigns. You’ll be able to quickly measure your sales pipeline, deals won vs. lost, top sales performers, funnel revenue, and more.

    Thanks to Databox’s deep integration with HubSpot CRM, you’ll be able to pull even more metrics and learn almost anything about leads, sales, and revenue.

    HubSpot CRM Sales Funnel Overview Dashboard

    HubSpot Marketing & Sales Basics Dashboard

    If you want to ensure your marketing and sales funnels are operating at their peak, you need actionable information from reliable sources. This HubSpot marketing and sales basics dashboard template will give you all that information and more. It directly integrates with HubSpot Marketing and HubSpot CRM, and you’ll be able to quickly measure marketing’s impact on sales and the efficiency of your sales funnel.

    HubSpot Marketing & Sales Basics Dashboard

    HubSpot Marketing Funnel Report

    You can use this HubSpot Marketing Funnel dashboard to provide information to marketing and sales teams about their conversion rates. In addition, it will provide you with a clear view of the full funnel and a detailed analysis of day-to-day information based on the time contacts enter different funnel stages.

    HubSpot Marketing Funnel Report

    Take Your Marketing and Sales Funnel Reports to the Next Level

    Understanding how your funnels are performing is essential if you want to improve performance in both the long and short term. In order to get the information you need, you need to be able to extract data from data sources and then collect it into a useful report.

    Fortunately, there are tools that can significantly speed up the whole process. With Databox, you’ll be able to build high-quality reports in just a few clicks. 

    And it gets even better than that.

    Thanks to over 70 integration options, you’ll be able to pull data from practically any source. Pre-built, customizable templates allow you to tailor your reports in any way you see fit. Bring focus to your top metrics and collect dashboards into comprehensive reports about how your funnel is doing, which stages are performing well, and which need to be optimized for better conversion.

    Sign up for Databox now and start building informative and actionable funnel reports that will help your business develop in the best way possible.

    Article by
    Davor Štefanović

    Davor is an English literature graduate and an avid reader with a passion for languages. Working as a translator, editor, and writer has allowed him to learn about a wide range of topics — making him something of a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to content. In his spare time, he reads, plays video games and boardgames, and runs/plays tabletop RPGs.

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