Top Conversion Paths: One of the Most Slept on Reports in Google Analytics

What are Conversion Paths?

A conversion path is the series of interactions a website visitor takes to complete a conversion and become a lead. The conversion event can be set up to track a particular event such as clicking on a call to action, submitting a form or calling the tracked phone number on the website. In Google Analytics, you would see detailed information on conversion path under three ‘Multi-Channel Funnels’ reports within the Conversions tab:

Source: Google Analytics 

• Top Conversion Paths

  • This report shows all the unique conversions paths (sequence of channel interactions within the customer journey) users take before converting on the website and how many conversions resulted from each path. In addition, if a value is set for each conversion event, the value of each conversion can also be tracked.

• Time Lag

  • Time lag is a multi-channel marketing attribution report that tracks the number of days it takes users to convert from their first user interaction.
    • The more days it takes visitors to convert, the higher the likelihood that more work is required to improve on website information and ad copy to help convince users to trust the business and convert into a lead.

• Path Length

  • This data shows how many leads were acquired as a result from conversion paths that took a specific number of channel interactions.
    • This often follows a similar trend to that of the Time Lag report.

Why Is it Important?

The data records how channels interact along a conversion path and how long it takes for users to convert into a lead can be valuable for any business. It helps a business recognize the historic trends in the sales cycle, how convincing your website content is to make the user consider converting, and how much each marketing channel plays a role in bringing the right customers. These reports can bring light to repetition and patterns in user behaviours and provide valuable insight for marketers to understand how to effectively market across channels.

It is highly possible that the last-click attribution model is not telling the whole story. Perhaps your Analytics shows that all the conversions you received within a specific time period all came from Organic Search. However, Top Conversion Paths report may be able to challenge this preliminary thought. For example, the data can bring light to certain users interacting with Paid Search Ads or Social Media first before returning to the website via Organic Search to finally convert. This is the beauty of multi-channel attribution reports as they can break down the entire user journey. They can therefore provide a more in depth analysis on which marketing channel works, how they work together as well as how they play a role in user behaviours to achieve those conversions every business strives to obtain. With this data, marketers can be more confident in making decisions on whether to keep or change up certain marketing campaigns and whether or not blogs communicate value on top of being SEO-friendly.

Where to find Top Conversion Paths Report in Google Analytics

1. The Top Conversion Path report can be found nestled under the ‘Multi-Channel Funnels’ section of the Conversions tab.

Source: Google Analytics Dashboard 

2. Proceed to choose a primary dimension to sort the data and set the date range to your desired timeline of the report.

Source: Google Analytics Dashboard 

Tip: Ensure the Path Length is showing ‘2 or more’ to see the different patterns of conversion paths available. Also feel free to use the default settings or filter the data further by the type of Conversion tracked.

3. You can also take it one step further by defining the Conversion Segments to specially to show the Paid Search or Organic Search Traffic to really grasp their impact and contribution to the conversions being tracked. Other criteria's such as conversions made on mobile devices vs. desktop or new site visitors vs. returning visitors and more can help to focus data on what you want to find out.

Source: Google Analytics 

Key Takeaways

Though these multi-channel funnel reports, especially Top Conversion Paths in Google Analytics are often neglected by marketers, some would argue it is one of the most useful as well. It  displays the full journey users take to convert on the website and allows for further analysis of campaigns contributing to the success seen on other channels. In addition, it can identify opportunities where the typical last-click attribution model will miss out on. So don’t go scrapping any campaigns or blog ideas until you take a look at Top Conversion Path report because you could be in for a surprise on how much they have contributed to the success of other channels. Speak to a Digital Marketing Consultant today for a thorough analysis and expert recommendations on what marketing channels are right for your business.