Funnel Direction

The Funnel tool allows you to create many different versions of a user journey. Among these analyses is the Reverse Funnel. The difference between a forward funnel and a reverse funnel is as follows:

• A forward funnel measures user activity and drop off in a chronological order. The percentage of users who complete each subsequent event is displayed in the webbing in between the two events. All new queries default to Forward.
• A reverse funnel measures each events’ contribution to its immediately preceding event. The percentage of users who completed the preceding event is displayed in the webbing between the two events.

To enable the reverse funnel setting, select the “Settings” dropdown within the menu bar beneath the query builder. Then, in the “Funnel Direction” line, select “reverse.”

Creating a reverse funnel

There are two ways to create a reverse funnel. The first, and the most common, is to create a forward funnel in the query builder, and then reverse it in the Settings dropdown within the menu bar. Once you change the funnel direction to reverse, notice that the change is reflected in the query builder. Each step after step A now begins with “and preceded by.”

While in reverse funnel mode, date ranges will still apply to Row A, or the left-most donut in the Funnel visualization.

In the following example, PetBox is trying to measure the influence of their email marketing campaign on who eventually purchased their product sales.

A forward funnel measures how many people who clicked their email and then went on to purchase the product. However, the more relevant journey here is a reverse funnel. Once PetBox changes the funnel direction to reverse, they can now calculate the amount of users that came through their email campaign as a percentage of the total users who purchased their product.