How to Analyse Conversion Paths and Customer Journeys
The Paths report shows the order of channels, sources, and pages people went through before converting, how many visits it took, and which journeys convert best.
On this page
Attribution models compress a journey into credit. The Paths report shows the journey itself: the order of channels people came through before converting, how many visits it took, how many days it spanned, and which sequences convert best.
Open Reports in the left sidebar, then Paths under Acquisition.
Step 1: Pick the period
Paths uses only the date range and comparison controls. There is no model picker, because the report shows every visit in the journey rather than deciding which one gets credit.
Step 2: Read the headline figures
Five figures sum up how hard it is to win a conversion:
- Conversions: conversions in the period that have a recorded journey
- Touches to convert: the average number of visits before converting, counting the visit it happened on
- Single touch: the share of conversions that happened on someone’s first and only visit
- Days to convert: the median days from first visit to conversion
- Multi-channel: the share of conversions whose journey involved more than one channel
Multi-channel is the share a last-click report gets wrong. If it is high, compare models on the Traffic and Revenue report before cutting a channel that rarely gets the last click.
The journey length donut beside them splits conversions into 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5+ touches.
Step 3: Follow the flow
The flow chart draws every visitor’s journey touch by touch, ending at converted or not converted. Thick bands are common routes, and the split at the end shows where each route leads.
Tabs above the chart change what each step is labelled with: Channel, Source, Medium, Campaign, UTM term, UTM content, or Landing page.
Step 4: Read every journey
The table at the bottom lists each distinct journey as a row of coloured steps, for example Email, then Paid Search, then Direct. For each one you get:
- Visitors who followed it
- Converted: how many of them converted
- Conv. rate: converted as a share of visitors
- Conversions and Revenue produced
- Touches: how many steps the journey has
The tabs match the flow chart, so you can read journeys by campaign or by landing page. Search filters the list, and Export downloads it as a CSV.
How to use what you find
- A channel that keeps appearing early but rarely last is introducing people to you. Judge it by first-touch credit, not last.
- Long journeys with a high conversion rate point to a considered purchase. Retargeting and email that bring people back are worth more than they look in last-click numbers.
- High single-touch rate means most people convert on the first visit. Your landing pages and offers matter more than nurture.
What’s next
- See credit by channel under each model: Traffic and Revenue report
- Pick the model that matches your journeys: Attribution models explained
- Follow one person’s journey: Contacts
Frequently asked questions
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What is a conversion path?
The visits a person made before converting, in order, each labelled by where it came from. Paid search, then email, then direct is a three-visit path. The Paths report counts how many people followed each path and how many of them converted.
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Why is there no attribution model picker on this report?
Because Paths shows the whole journey instead of deciding who gets credit for it. Every visit in the path is visible, so there is nothing to split. Use the Traffic and Revenue report when you want credit by model.
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What does a path like Organic Search, then Organic Search mean?
Two separate visits that both came from organic search before the person converted. Repeated steps are common for research-heavy purchases, where people come back through Google several times.
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Some paths end with Direct. What does that mean?
The person's last visit had no campaign, referrer, or click ID, usually because they typed your URL or used a bookmark after finding you elsewhere. The steps before Direct show what really brought them in.
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How is this different from the Traffic and Revenue report?
Traffic and Revenue answers how much credit each channel earns. Paths answers how journeys unfold, how long they take, and which combinations convert. They complement each other.
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There are hundreds of different paths. How do I find what matters?
Start with the figures at the top, then the flow chart to see the main routes. In the table, sort by Conversions or Revenue rather than Visitors, and switch the tab from Channel to Campaign or Landing page only when you need more detail.
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