What are Multi Channel Funnels and what do they do for me?

On the bottom of Google Analytics is hidden a function named Multi Channel Funnels. Marketers often forget about this function but with a little work you can earn a goldmine of information about the buying behaviour of your customers. In this blog we will introduce you to this hidden Analytics function and we will start by showing you Google’s official video:

The difference with other Analytics reports

The difference between MCF reports and other Analytics data, is how a conversion is allocated to a channel. For example:

A visitor enters your site by a “referral”, browses through your site and leaves. After a couple of minutes this visitor returns by a “direct” and converts. In the regular Analytics reports no conversion is calculated to the “direct” and the total conversion value goes to the “referral” channel. In MCF reports the conversion value is calculated to the “direct” channel and the “referral” channel will get the so called “assisted interaction”.

Your data will now get closer to the truth and this will also give some extra insight with respect to the Analytics data. On the next page you can see all practical information.

Overview tab page

The overview tab page is a smart and very visual way to see how your marketing channels cooperate in the generation of conversions. The circles present percentages of the total amount of conversions. The overlapped circles present cooperations to get to conversions.

You can now ask yourself:

• Are the canals divided equally? Is there a dominant channel? This can tell you there is a strong marketing component behind this canal. On the other hand it can also tell you the weakness of the other channels. By digging deeper you can find chances to improve your marketing strategy!
• Is there a lot of overlap, or almost no overlap? When there is a lot of overlap, it means you will need more than one marketing canal to convert. Think about the possible consequences. If there is almost no overlap, it’s not useful to look at this.

Assisted Conversions tab page

Here you can see your marketing channels with the associated profits. Personally I believe it’s difficult to understand how these amounts arise, but there is a nice ratio in this list: “Assisted / Last Click”. You can find it all the way to the right.

This ratio shows where the channel is situated in the so-called “buyer funnel”. The lower this value, the closer this channel gets to the buy-button. A higher value means a lot of searching and comparative visitors.

Timelag tab page

In this tab page you can see the time period in which your customers convert. When a substantial part of your conversions happen after a couple of days, this means your customers needed more time to compare and orientate. Clearly there is a lot of doubt! You can anticipate on this by using remarketing. You can also enlarge your lookback window to 90 days.

All data of before 2012 is only available up and until 30 days lookback . On the next page we will continue with the “Path Length” tab page!

Path Length tab page

In this tab page you can view how often your customers get to your site and through which channels before they convert. More interactions denote a longer “sales cycle”. When only one interaction is needed before converting, you have to deal with impulse buying.