New in Databox: Build Custom Google Analytics Multi-Channel Funnel Metrics & Understand How Your Marketing Channels Contribute to Conversions & Sales

We recently added 110 new Google Analytics multi-channel funnel metrics that allow you to dig deeper into the conversion path your prospects take before becoming eventual subscribers, leads, or customers.

Available in Query Builder, you can use multi-channel metrics to analyze the path your website visitors take in meeting the custom goal criteria you’ve set in Google Analytics.

What Are Google Analytics Multi-Channel Funnel Metrics?

Multi-Channel Funnel reports help you understand how your marketing channels work together to drive goal conversions and/or sales.

While conversions and transactions in Google Analytics are attributed to the last touch a user takes, Multi-Channel Funnel metrics analyze the entire path your users take and allows you to understand which channels initiate engagement, and which ones actually help close.

They help you answer questions like:

• Is Paid Search an initiating or a closing channel?
• How much time has passed since a user’s first and final interaction?
• How many, and which channels, did users engage in before purchase?

The Multi-Channel Funnel reports are generated from conversion paths that led up to the conversion/transaction. You can find those reports in Google Analytics under Conversions where you then select Multi-Channel Funnels.

Instead of your channels being credited only to the last touchpoint, in these reports they’re credited according to the roles they play in the entire conversion process.

• Assisted conversions include all the channels that appeared anywhere – except as the final interaction – on a conversion path.
• Top Conversion Path report shows the entire conversion path your customers take on their way to a purchase.
• Time Lag and Path Length give you insights on how long it usually takes users to become customers.

For your Multi-Channel Funnel reports to work, you need to set up goals and/or e-commerce tracking in Google Analytics.

And for the reports to help you figure out which of your advertising efforts are working effectively and in benefit of your goals and transactions you can select a specific goal/e-commerce tracking that you’d like to report on.

Which Multi-Channel Funnel Metrics Were Added to Query Builder?

We’ve added a Multi-Channel Funnel option in Query Builder, meaning you can go even deeper with your Google Analytics conversions.

Here are all the Google Analytics Multi Channel-Funnel metrics that we’ve added to Query Builder as well as the associated dimensions that you can use to dig for even deeper insights.

• First Impression Value
• Impression Assisted Conversions
• Impression Assisted Value
• Total Conversions
• Total Conversions Value
• Assisted Conversions
• Assisted Conversions Value
• First Interaction Conversions
• First Interaction Value
• Last Interaction Conversions
• Last Interaction Value

And they can be further filtered by these dimensions:

• MCF Channel Grouping
• Source
• Medium
• Source Medium
• Campaign Name
• Keyword
• Conversion Goal Number
• Conversion Type
• Path Length
• Time Lag.

In order for Multi-Channel Funnel reports having data, you must define goals and/or collect e-commerce transaction data in Google Analytics.

How to Use Multi-Channel Funnel Metrics

Conversions and/or purchases don’t always happen on the first visit to your website.

That’s why attribution is important. But, attribution isn’t as simple as assigning credit to the first or last touchpoint in a person’s journey.

To really understand how people engage with your brand and the impact your marketing and sales efforts have on new business, you need to understand how people engage across all the channels your brand is present in.

For example, while someone may purchase from your brand after seeing and clicking a popular tweet, they may have visited your website weeks ago via a blog post they found in Google.

Or, maybe they’ve been on your email list for several months and have engaged there, too.

Multi-channel funnel metrics help you analyze how all of the different touchpoints contribute to sales.

Let’s walk through how you can use multi-channel metrics to analyze your channels in Databox.

Let’s say you’re interested in seeing the involvement of all channels in your users’ path to conversion. In order to do that, you’d need to track the First, Assisted, and Last Conversion split up by MCF Channel Grouping.

The First Interaction Conversions tell us the number of sales and conversions that specific channel initiated.

With Assisted Conversions, you’ll understand how users engage in specific channels when gathering more information.

And, the Last Interaction Conversion is the channel where the user converted and/or made a purchase.

The first step to tracking the conversion path is to create custom metrics for First, Assisted, and Last conversions by MCF Channel Grouping in Query Builder.

Once all three metrics are created, you add them to an Advanced table visualization on your dashboard where they’re outlined next to the other.

That’s how you get a complete visualization of how all of your channels are working together.

Now what? The analysis.

Let’s look at the data above. For an SEO focused company, it’s no surprise that organic search is leading on all fronts. Having high ‘direct’ figures is also a good sign, as it shows that people may know the company and the brand. We can see the referral numbers rising, presenting an opportunity to leverage that channel further––run comarketing campaigns with partners, build backlinks, etc.

There’s also more that can be done on the (Other) front. You can look up what exactly is covered under that in your GA account by clicking on (Other) in your MCF Assisted Conversions report. That can be any CTA’s or Campaigns that you have Goals set up for. That way you’re able to identify exactly which projects have the potential to help you grow.

If you’re running advertising campaigns, this visualization would be extremely valuable. You can then build custom metrics (First, Assisted and Last interaction Conversion) based on the Campaign Name which would help you decide how to allocate your paid spend.

Any Multi-Channel Funnel Metric and Dimension that’s available in Query Builder helps you dig deeper and make better decisions moving forward.

Just because some may have a high last conversion rate, others might have a large assisting one, meaning they still have a big influence on the decision-making process of users.

That’s just a small part of what you can do by tracking Multi-Channel Funnel Metrics.  Dig in further to better understand how your marketing channels contribute to conversions and sales.

Getting Started

For current Databox users, log in to your Databox account to check out the additional Google Analytics metrics.  

New to Databox? Start by creating your free account. From there, you’ll be able to connect your data from more than 70 different platforms.

If you have any questions or need help getting set up, you can visit our Knowledge Base or send us a message at help@databox.com and let us know which metrics you’re looking to track.