Synopsis

You run a site with a specific goal such as sign-ups, transactions, etc... For example, you are an ecommerce site that measures success by customer purchases and revenue. Visitors to your website arrive via many different channels including paid advertising, organic search, social media, direct traffic & referrals. You already know how to do basic channel performance analysis so you know how each traffic channel contributes to your ecommerce conversion rate and revenue. Common result is that you discover that direct and organic traffic results in majority of conversions, while marketing-driven channels like social, paid & referral traffic are not converting well.

Knowing this, management wants to know why they would continue spending on marketing-driven channels if they are not converting to the bottom line. As a marketer, you instinctively realize that these channels contribute towards brand awareness and introducing new potential customers to your website. Although these visitors do not immediately convert, they come back later via direct or organic to purchase. The entire visitor conversion process can be viewed as a multi-session funnel that starts from the top (introduction, brand awareness, comparison, scouting), to the bottom (final check & conversion).