By Jenna Clark, Account Associate
A customer acquisition funnel allows business owners to understand how users click through the site, leading to a conversion (or not). The funnel can be extremely helpful in learning more about a site and how the customers interact with it. Many companies design their site around their vision but forget to consider the user and their experience.
To get a better understanding of your customer acquisition funnel, think about how users are going to flow through your site. Research and test the customer’s buying process to figure out what works and what does not. The acquisition funnel gives you the data and insights you need to improve your design, optimize for SEM, and create a better customer experience. Here are some insights the funnel can give you:
- When people are leaving your site.
- Number of pages throughout the funnel and how long they were on each page.
- What page did they arrive at on your site?
This kind of data is important when analyzing your user flow and the quality of your ecommerce site. The funnel gives you the data that allows you to better optimize landing pages, adjust call to action buttons, and get an overall better understanding of your site. We’ll explore each, starting with…
1. When people are leaving your site
Ecommerce sites are complex. We can learn and adjust a few things from this insight. The first thing to do is to ask yourself “Why are people leaving my site?” This insight is important because if we can find out why people are leaving the site and instead keep them interested and traveling through to the funnel, they will make a purchase. The data from this insight can help you constantly improve your website if you know what to look for in your numbers. Take a look at this on larger scale. You can’t always explain why someone left, but if large amounts of people are bouncing at the same spot, then it might be an issue. Here are questions to ask yourself:
-Do you have any broken links on this page?
-Is the design poor?
-Is your call to action too small or too big?
-Do you have irrelevant products or services listed here?
2. Number of pages throughout the funnel and how long users were on each page
When running an ecommerce site, you should know what your funnels are and how many steps are included to get a conversion. If you can minimize the number of pages it takes to reach a conversion while still providing a quality user experience, then do it. Simplicity is important.
Designing an ecommerce site for a successful funnel requires easy navigation, clear content, and easy check-out options. Viewing how long people are on a certain page and whether or not they are bouncing lets you look into certain aspects of a page. For example, if the check-out on your site takes too long and people are bouncing, then you know you need to reduce check-out time. The form that people fill out their information needs to be simple and straight to the point. Of course you want all the information you can get out of them, but consumers today do not have the attention span for that.
Here are questions to ask yourself:
-Where do you want people to go to make a purchase?
-How quickly are people flowing through your site?
-How many pages are they going through to finally get a conversion?
3. Where (on what pages) users are entering your site
Being able to recognize where viewers arrived at your site can give you opportunities to begin marketing your site online. If viewers are landing on a certain page that is leading them through the funnel, then those pages can be used as landing pages for your online ads. The data also zeros in on the landing page through which people are entering your site. This knowledge enables you to optimize promotions, call to actions, and demos on these popular entry pages. These will make an impact on the user’s journey through the funnel, so optimize to help guide the user in the right direction.
Questions to ask yourself about this insight are:
-What can I do to better optimize the main landing page?
-What is my call to action on this page; where does it lead and why?
-Where is all the traffic coming from?
These insights can open up new opportunities and improve user flow for more conversions. These are just a few of the many insights the customer acquisition funnel can give you to improve your ecommerce site.
