The Problem With Multi-Channel Funnels

We’ve been playing around with multi-channel funnels for quite some time now and, whilst we love it in the main, it does have one massive issue that you need to be aware of.

The 30-Day Lookback Period

Hidden away in Google’s documentation on this new feature is the following statement:

The Multi-Channel Funnels reports are limited to a 30-day lookback window on conversions. No lookback window exists for the other Google Analytics reports.

What does this mean? In short, it means that it’ll only capture the user path and assists that happened within the 30 days leading up to the goal conversion or transaction. This is fine for online retailers selling consumables or relatively low-ticket products, but what about the guys who sell high-ticket, high-involvement products that require large amounts of research before any interaction can be made?

Take the example of a company selling diamond rings. You don’t just rock up online and casually send over a few thousand dollars or pounds for a once-in-a-lifetime purchase. You’ll shop around, get to know your 4Cs, make a few calls, procrastinate a but longer wondering if you’re about to make the biggest mistake of your life, buy the new iPhone for yourself out of pity and then finally buy the ring. That takes more than 30 days.

It’s All Branded Searches

The problem manifests itself with Analytics showing all your conversions as coming from people who’ve searched for your brand – and all the conversion paths show repeat ‘direct’ or branded organic visits. We have a client who knows that PPC drives most business but Analytics gives it very little credit, with all assists and conversions going to direct or branded organic traffic. These people didn’t magically become aware of the brand, they were introduced to it with marketing – so it’s a shame that we can’t yet see how that introduction was really made but we live in hope that Google might allow this lookback period to be extended or at least customised.

How Have You Found Multi-Channel Funnels?

For the most part, we’re delighted with multi-channel funnels. It finally puts Analytics in a par with the more high-end platforms that make a proper stab at attribution measurement. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this and find out if you’ve got any recommendations – we’ll be speaking to Google about this in the next couple of weeks.