What is a Funnel?

A funnel represents the staged journey from a prospect's first brand contact to a purchase. At each stage some users drop out — the surviving group shrinks, hence the inverted-funnel shape. Each stage's conversion rate is tracked separately to find where the bottleneck lives.

// classic funnel: AIDA

• Awareness — user learns the brand exists.
• Interest — engages with what the brand does.
• Desire — wants the product, compares alternatives.
• Action — purchase, signup, download.

// modern funnel: TOFU / MOFU / BOFU

• TOFU (Top of Funnel) — broad audience, education content. Metrics: reach, CPM, video views.
• MOFU (Middle of Funnel) — interested users, comparison content, lead magnets. Metrics: CPL, ebook downloads, demo signups.
• BOFU (Bottom of Funnel) — purchase-ready users, pricing, demos, free trial. Metrics: CPA, conversion rate, revenue.

// how to do funnel analysis

1. Define stages — e.g. homepage → product page → cart → checkout → order complete.
2. Measure user count at each stage (GA4, Mixpanel, Amplitude, d-lens).
3. Compute stage-to-stage conversion rate.
4. Find the biggest drop ("the bottleneck").
5. Hypothesize, A/B test, measure.

// e-commerce CR benchmarks

• Homepage → product: 30-50%.
• Product → cart: 8-15%.
• Cart → checkout: 50-65%.
• Checkout → order: 70-85%.
• Total homepage → order: 1.5-3.5%.

// common pitfalls

• Linear assumption — real journeys zigzag; same user returns 3-4 times across devices.
• TOFU-only investment — traffic without conversion.
• BOFU-only investment — short-term sales but no new audience growth.
• Last-click attribution — TOFU value invisible; data-driven attribution fixes this.