Google introduced Multi-Channel Funnels to all Google Analytics users on Wednesday, August 24, 2011 in a blog post entitled Introducing Multi-Channel Funnels: discover untapped opportunities in your conversion path. This blog post explained the five new reports: Overview, Assisted Conversions, Top Conversion Paths, Time Lag, and Path Length to eager marketers looking to track conversion paths with Google Analytics.
If you have not already taken a look at the Assisted Conversions Multi-Channel Funnels Report, we highly suggest it. The following company can see that 45 percent of their Direct traffic was first assisted by another channel. You can access this report by the following path: Standard Reporting>Conversions>Multi-Channel Funnels>Assisted Conversions.
Let’s say that the marketing manager, upon seeing this report, wants to see a breakdown of what channels are assisting Direct conversions. By navigating to the Top Conversion Paths report (Standard Reporting>Conversions>Multi-Channel Funnels>Top Conversion Paths), they can see this data, an example screen shot is included below and has been sorted to collect only paths that involve Direct traffic.
This report shows that the Basic Channel Grouping Path delivering the most conversions during this date range is Organic Search followed by a Direct Visit. The marketing manager can now show that Search Engine Optimization helps to bring people to the website who then visit the website again to convert.
Are you interested in learning more about the Multi-Channel Funnels reports? Visit our Google Analytics Consulting page to sign up for a free analytics consultation and continue reading the MoreVisibility Analytics Blog.