How to Build and Analyse Conversion Funnels

The Funnels feature in SourceLoop answers a question the dashboards can’t: “Of the people who entered our pipeline at step A, how many actually reached step B, then C, then converted, and where exactly are we losing them?”

The Traffic dashboard tells you channel totals. The Content dashboard tells you which pages got the most visits. Funnels tell you the literal progression of visitors through a sequence of steps, and the percentage who drop out at each one.

This guide covers everything: how to build a funnel, how to read the three report views (Overview, Compare, Breakdown), the settings that change how steps are counted, and the common patterns marketers use them for.

What a funnel actually is in SourceLoop

A funnel is an ordered sequence of conditions. The classic four-step lead funnel looks like:

Step	Condition
1	Visitor lands on /pricing
2	Visitor lands on /signup
3	Visitor submits the signup form
4	Visitor reaches /dashboard/welcome (account created)

SourceLoop counts every unique visitor who matches step 1, then checks how many of them also matched step 2, then step 3, then step 4, in order. The numbers fall as you go down the steps. That falloff is the drop-off, and the percentage who reach the final step is the conversion rate.

What you’ll get from a funnel

In one screen:

• Conversion rate from step 1 to the final step, the headline metric
• Per-step drop-off counts and percentages, the diagnostic detail
• Median time from step 1 to each subsequent step (how long does each transition take?)
• A visual chart showing the funnel collapsing from step to step
• A breakdown by channel, source, country, device, etc., so you can see which segments convert better
• Period-over-period comparison, did this funnel improve or regress since last quarter?

Funnels are the right tool when:

• You suspect a specific step in your conversion journey is leaking, but you don’t know where
• You ran an A/B test on a step and want to measure its impact end-to-end
• You’re trying to compare conversion rates across channels for the same journey
• You need to show stakeholders a clear before/after when you changed a landing page or form

Step 1: Build a funnel

1. Sign in to SourceLoop.
2. Click Funnels in the left sidebar.
3. Click + New funnel at the top-right.

The funnel builder opens as a side drawer with three numbered sections.

Section 1: Name the funnel

Give it a meaningful name like “Pricing → Signup → Activated” or “Demo Request to Closed-Won”. The name is what shows up in the funnel list and at the top of the report, so make it scannable.

Section 2: Add the steps

SourceLoop supports two types of steps:

Step type	Matches	Example
Page view	A specific URL or URL pattern on your site	/pricing or /blog/*
Custom event	An event name fired by your tracker	form_submitted, signup_completed

For each step:

1. Pick the step type (Page view or Event).
2. Pick the match operator:
   • Equals — exact URL match (/pricing matches only /pricing)
   • Starts with — prefix match (/blog/ matches every URL beginning with /blog/)
   • Contains — substring match (pricing matches any URL containing the word “pricing”)
3. Type the URL or event name.
4. (Optional) Give the step a friendly name like “Lands on pricing” instead of showing the raw URL on the report.

You can add 2 to 10 steps. Most useful funnels have 3-5; beyond that, drop-off compounds in confusing ways.

Section 3: Configure the settings

Three settings control how the funnel counts visitors. The defaults work for 90% of funnels, but tweaking them is sometimes necessary.

Setting	Options	Default	When to change
Scope	Per visitor / Per session / Per identified user	Per visitor	Switch to “Per session” if you care about completing the funnel in a single visit. Switch to “Per identified user” to track funnel progression after the visitor identifies themselves (logged-in user behaviour).
Step order	Sequential / Any order	Sequential	Switch to “Any order” when the steps don’t have to happen in a specific order. Example: a research-then-buy funnel where the order of pricing-page visits vs feature-page visits doesn’t matter.
Conversion window	None / N days	None	Set a window when you want to enforce a time limit, e.g., “completes within 7 days”.

Click Save funnel. SourceLoop computes the funnel against your historical data immediately, so you’ll see results within a few seconds.

Step 2: Read the Overview report

Open the funnel from the list and you’ll land on the Overview tab by default. Three things on this page:

The three KPI cards

Card	What it means
Entered	Unique visitors who matched the first step in the chosen date range
Completed	Unique visitors who matched the final step (after matching all preceding steps, in order)
Conv. rate	Completed ÷ Entered, expressed as a percentage. The headline number.

If you set a conversion window during build, the Conv. rate card will show it like “Conv. rate (within 7d)”. If you left it open, it shows “any time in window”.

The visual chart

Below the KPI cards is a column chart. Each column is a step. The height of the column represents the count of visitors who reached that step. As you read left to right, the columns get shorter, that’s drop-off.

The first column is labeled Entry point (orange). The final column is labeled Funnel completion rate with the percentage shown in green. Intermediate columns show the drop-off count and percentage between them.

The per-step table

Below the chart, a tabular breakdown shows:

Column	What it shows
Step	Step name + position
Definition	The condition (URL, event name, operators)
Visitors	Unique count who reached this step
% of entered	Reach count ÷ entry-step count
% from previous	Reach count ÷ previous step’s reach count
Drop-off %	100% − (% from previous)
Drop-off count	How many visitors dropped at this step

The two drop-off columns are the heart of the diagnostic, the biggest drop-off percentage is your weakest step. That’s almost always where to invest UX or copy improvements first.

Step 3: Compare two periods

The Compare tab shows your funnel side by side for two time periods. Use it to answer “Did the changes we made this quarter actually improve conversion?”

1. Click the Compare tab at the top of the funnel report.
2. Pick a comparison preset: Previous day / week / month / quarter / year, or pick a custom range.
3. SourceLoop renders the same chart and table twice, one for the current period (set in the page-level date picker), one for the comparison period.

What to look for:

• Funnel conversion rate up or down — the headline number. If your conversion rate went from 12% to 18%, congratulations.
• Per-step drop-off shifts — even if the headline number didn’t move, individual steps might have changed dramatically. A step that dropped 40% better might be offset by a step that dropped 40% worse.
• Entry volume changes — sometimes higher conversion rate just means you attracted higher-quality entry traffic, not that the funnel itself improved.

Step 4: Break the funnel down by dimension

The Breakdown tab is the most powerful view for diagnosis. It splits the funnel by a dimension you pick, channel, source, country, device, browser, etc., so you can see how conversion differs across segments.

1. Click the Breakdown tab.
2. Pick a dimension from the tab strip: Channel / Source / Medium / Referrer / Country / City / Device / Browser.
3. Pick an attribution model from the model selector. The default is the workspace default (usually Last Non-Direct, matching Google Analytics).
4. SourceLoop shows a table with one row per dimension value (e.g., one row per channel), each with Entered, Completed, and Conv. rate columns.

Useful patterns:

• Channel with low Entered but high Conv. rate → small but efficient channel; consider investing more there
• Channel with high Entered but low Conv. rate → high traffic, weak fit; tighten targeting or the landing page
• Mobile rate meaningfully lower than Desktop on the same funnel → your mobile experience has friction; usually fixable with form simplification
• Conv. rate variation by country → either targeting issues, or localisation opportunities

Multi-model attribution in Breakdown

The Breakdown tab supports SourceLoop’s full set of attribution models. You can stack multiple models in the same view, so a single table can show Last Touch conversions alongside First Touch conversions alongside Linear conversions for the same channels in the same funnel.

The gap between Last Touch and First Touch credit for a channel = its assist value within this funnel. Useful for justifying top-of-funnel investment when defending budget. For more on the seven models, see 7 Types of Attribution Models.

Step 5: Manage funnels

The Funnels list page shows every funnel for the current website, with summary stats (Entered / Completed / Conv. rate) for the default date range.

For each funnel, the three-dot menu offers:

Action	What it does
Edit	Reopens the wizard to change steps, name, or settings
Archive	Hides the funnel from the list but preserves it (you can unarchive later)
Delete	Permanent removal, no undo

For funnels you might use again (seasonal campaigns, A/B tests run periodically), use Archive. For mistakes or duplicates, Delete.

Common funnel patterns

A few funnels worth setting up early in your workspace:

Funnel	Steps
Lead capture funnel	Lands on /pricing → Lands on /signup → Submits signup form
Demo to closed-won	Submits demo form → Books meeting → Converts to paid
Blog to subscriber	Lands on /blog/* → Submits newsletter form
Trial activation	Signup completed → Lands on /dashboard/onboarding → Lands on /dashboard/(any feature)
Checkout funnel (ecommerce)	Lands on product page → Adds to cart → Reaches checkout → Payment complete

Once a funnel is set up, it computes against historical data automatically, so you can immediately see the last 30, 60, or 90 days of progression.

Scope, order, and conversion window in detail

These three settings often confuse first-time funnel users. A quick reference:

Scope

Scope	Counts unique	When to use
Per visitor	Unique anonymous IDs (the default)	Almost always; tracks the same person across sessions even before they identify themselves
Per session	Unique session IDs	When you want to measure a single-visit completion, e.g., “do they finish checkout without leaving?”
Per identified user	Unique user IDs (after identify call)	When tracking post-signup behaviour (in-product funnels)

Step order

Order mode	Behaviour	When to use
Sequential	Steps must occur in temporal order (the default)	Standard linear funnels: pricing → signup → activation
Any order	Steps can occur in any order, but all must occur within the window	Research funnels where order doesn’t matter; e.g., visit pricing + visit features + book demo, in any sequence

Conversion window

Setting	Behaviour
None (default)	No time limit, the funnel counts completions within the report’s date range
N days	Enforces that the visitor completes all steps within N days of step 1

A typical pattern: set a 7-day window for trial activation funnels (the visitor needs to activate within the trial period) but leave it unbounded for B2B sales funnels that span months.

What’s next

• Pick the right attribution model for the Breakdown tab: 7 Types of Attribution Models
• See channel-level traffic data: Traffic dashboard
• See landing-page-level data: Content dashboard
• See the literal sequence of channels converters went through (instead of conditions you defined): Paths dashboard