What a funnel is A funnel is just the list of steps a person goes through from seeing your ad to paying you. At every step some people drop out. The job is not to keep everyone, it is to find the step where most are lost and fix that one. # Five steps 1. Saw the ad. 2. Clicked. 3. Left a lead. 4. Talked to you. 5. Paid. You do not need more than that at the start. # Count yours in one evening Take last month and write down five numbers: - Impressions in the ad account. - Clicks. - Leads received. - Conversations you actually had. - Payments. Now calculate the percentage between neighbours. The narrow spot will be obvious. # What a drop at each step means ## Few clicks on many impressions The ad or the audience. People see it and do not recognize themselves. A different opening promise or tighter geography usually helps. ## Many clicks, few leads The page. Most often the headline does not match the ad, there is no price, no proof, or the form is too long. ## Many leads, few conversations Speed and channel. They wrote in the evening, you called at noon, they already booked. Or you call once and never send a message. ## Many conversations, few payments The offer or the conversation itself. Maybe the price does not match the expectation the ad created. Maybe there is no clear next step after the call. # A simple example A thousand impressions, forty clicks, eight leads, three conversations, one payment. The third transition stands out: eight leads produced three conversations. No improvement to the ads will do as much as answering properly. It is also the cheapest fix, because it costs no ad money. # One change at a time Fix one step, then look at what moved. Change the ad, the page and the sales script together and you will not know what helped, so next time you will be guessing again. # What does not belong in a funnel - Steps you do not measure. If there is no number, there is nothing to improve. - Metrics for their own sake: reach, engagement, brand impressions. They do not say where the money goes. - Twenty stage diagrams. Nobody keeps those past the first month. # Where to go next Once the five steps are counted reliably, add two more that matter: repeat purchase and referral. In most industries the money is there, not in new customers. On a review call we draw your funnel from your numbers and show which step to fix first for the biggest gain at the same spend.
