Reading the user-flow funnel
GA4 funnel visualization. Step definitions, conversion attribution, demographic breakdowns.
The user-flow funnel visualizes the path users take from landing page to conversion. Faster and more flexible than GA4's built-in funnels. This page documents how to read it and how to define your steps.
Prerequisites
- Google Analytics 4 connected.
- At least one conversion event defined.
- Enough historical traffic – funnels with under 100 sessions/day are noisy.
Default funnel
For sites without custom configuration we generate a default funnel: Landing page → 2nd pageview → 3+ pageviews → engagement event → conversion. Useful for at-a-glance retention reading.
Define custom steps
- Analytics → Funnels → New funnel.
- Add steps. Each step is one of: page match (URL pattern), event match (GA4 event name + optional parameters), or "any of" combination.
- Set entry condition (where the funnel starts) – usually a landing-page pattern.
- Set exit condition – usually a conversion event.
- Save.
Step types
| Page match | URL path regex. E.g. ^/pricing/?$ matches just the pricing page. |
| Event match | GA4 event name. Optional event_param filters (e.g. event = scroll, percent_scrolled ≥ 50). |
| Time-on-page | User stayed on a page for at least N seconds. |
| Combined | Any of (OR) or all of (AND) the above. |
Reading the chart
Each step shows: users in, users out, conversion rate from previous step, average time-to-next-step. The widest drop-off is your highest-impact fix point.
Breakdowns
Click any step to break down by:
- Source / medium (organic vs paid vs direct vs referral).
- Device (mobile / desktop / tablet).
- Country.
- Landing page URL.
- New vs returning user.
Breakdowns are how you find that, e.g., the pricing-page drop-off is 80% on mobile vs 35% on desktop – that's a mobile UX bug, not a positioning problem.
Step-detail view
Clicking a step opens a deep-dive: the top exit pages (where users went instead of converting), top exit events, time-on-step distribution, and a sample of session replays where applicable.
Conversion attribution
Funnels use the same last-non-direct-organic-click model as our rank-tracking conversion attribution. See "Configuring conversion events" for details.
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