This article will help you:
- Understand how Amplitude computes funnels based on of the order of events, segmentation, and filters
Order of events
Unlike other charts, a Funnel Analysis requires you to specify the order of the events you include in the Events Module. Your options are:
- Any order;
- This order; or
- Exact order.
Any order is exactly what it sounds like: as long as a user completes all the steps listed, Amplitude will consider them converted. Users who fire the later events without firing the first event are not considered to be part of the funnel; they have to fire the first event for that to happen.
This order requires users fire the events you selected in the order you specified before Amplitude will consider them to be converted. However, users may fire other events in between the ones you're interested in, and Amplitude will still count them among the converted.
NOTE: When using this order, you can repeat events in your funnel. If you have defined a funnel as Event A -> Event A -> Event B, a user will be counted as converted if they fired Event A at least twice, and then fired Event B later. There are no limits to the number of times an event can appear in the funnel definition.
Exact order is a stricter version of this order, in that users will not be counted as converted if they fire other events in between the ones listed. If a user deviates from the steps listed in the Events Module in any way, Amplitude will consider them to have dropped off.
NOTE: In ordered funnels, each event is included in exactly one conversion path. For example, imagine you have an ordered funnel with just two events: search -> add to cart. If a user searches four times and then adds a product to their cart after that last search—search, search, search, search, add to cart—Amplitude will record one conversion, even though there were four occurrences of the funnel's first step.
Segmentation
When you segment the data on a user property, Amplitude will apply the segmentation to the first step of your funnel.
For example, suppose Event A is the first step of your funnel, and a user triggered:
- Event B with the user property
[Amplitude] Country=Canada; and then - Event A with the user property
[Amplitude] Country=United States
If you were to segment "...by Active country(s)," Amplitude will show this user in the [Amplitude] Country = United States segment in the Event A step.
Filters
There are certain nuances to applying filters in a funnel analysis:
Applying filters in the Segmentation Module
In a funnel chart, any filters applied via the Segmentation Module apply only to the first event. You can, however, add filters to individual steps directly in the Events module.
NOTE: Only users who have triggered an event that meets the conditions of the filters applied to the first event will be counted by Amplitude as entering the funnel.
Applying group-by filters
You can apply a group-by filter in the Segmentation Module, for up to two properties. The group-by filter will apply only to the first event, similar to the other filters in the Segmentation Module.
If you are looking at the Unique Users metric and users can complete the steps of your funnel multiple times, the group-by filter will take the first occurrence of the event and bucket the user for the value on that event.
NOTE: If “holding property constant” is applied at the same time, Amplitude counts each property value / user pair as a separate user, so the user is included once for each property value they have.
You can also use the group-by filter for an event (limit of one event group-by per funnel). The results will show how users with a certain event or user property converted through the other steps in the funnel. This helps you understand what property value potentially has the greatest or smallest impact on conversion.
For example, look at this Funnel Analysis chart:
The Group-by here looks at users' property values for Genre_Type at the time their Favorite Song or Video events are triggered, and shows how they converted through the remaining events of the funnel.
For example, a user that has a Pop property value for Genre_Type at the time their Favorite Song or Video event was triggered will show up under the Pop property bar for the Play Song or Video event as well.
NOTE: If users in your funnel can complete the steps multiple times, this method will take the first occurrence of each event and bucket the user for the value on that event.
This three-step funnel is grouped by Step 2's event property, item_id:
The graph shows the conversion distribution of users who triggered Step 2 (Add Item to Cart) event, broken out by each item_id value.
If you choose to group by a step other than the first, you will also see a segment of users who did not reach that segmented step (the blue-shaded segment for did
not reach step in this example).