Conversion Funnel
The conversion funnel shows how visitors move through your business — from first touch to revenue. Apex builds the funnel automatically based on your conversion model, counting real visitors, leads, and customers at each stage.
How It Works
Your conversion model defines the stages of the funnel, and each stage has a count method that determines how Apex tallies the numbers:
| Count Method | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Visitors | Unique visitors from pageview events |
| Goal completions | Visitors who triggered the primary conversion goal |
| Contacts in stage | Contacts whose lifecycle matches a specific stage |
| Contacts with field | Contacts where a specific field is populated |
| Revenue sum | Total revenue attributed to contacts |
| Custom event count | Visitors who triggered a specific custom event |
This means the funnel isn't just a static picture — it's computed from real event and contact data over a configurable time window.
Funnel by Business Type
Each conversion model defines a different funnel shape:
Sales-Assisted (SLG)
Visitors → Leads → MQL → SQL → Opportunity → Customer
Stages align with CRM lifecycle stages. Great for B2B businesses with a sales team qualifying and closing deals.
Self-Serve (PLG)
Visitors → Sign-ups → Activated → Converted → Expanded
Stages track product adoption milestones. Great for products where users sign up and convert without talking to sales.
Transaction (E-commerce)
Visitors → Product Views → Add to Cart → Checkout Started → Purchase
Stages follow the shopping journey via custom events.
Two-Sided (Marketplace)
Visitors → Supply Sign-ups / Demand Sign-ups → First Transaction → GMV
Tracks both sides of the marketplace through to completed transactions.
Hybrid
Visitors → Sign-ups → Activated → PQL → Customer
Combines PLG activation signals with a sales-assisted close.
Funnel Metrics
For each stage, the funnel dashboard shows:
- Count — How many visitors, leads, or customers are at this stage
- Conversion rate — Percentage that advanced from the previous stage
- By source — Breakdown by marketing channel (using UTM source from events and attributed source from contacts)
- By experiment — How active experiments affect each stage
Attribution Through the Funnel
Attribution flows through the funnel at two levels:
- Top of funnel (visitors, goal completions) — Uses event-level UTM parameters from pageviews and goal events
- Bottom of funnel (leads, customers, revenue) — Uses the attributed source stored on each contact, which is determined by your attribution model
This means you can see which channels drive traffic (top) and which channels drive revenue (bottom) — they're often different.
Unit Economics
The funnel feeds directly into unit economics calculations:
- CAC = Total ad spend ÷ Customers in the period
- LTV = Total revenue ÷ Customers in the period
- ROAS = Revenue ÷ Ad spend
These are computed per-channel using the funnel's source breakdowns, so you can compare the efficiency of Google Ads vs. Meta Ads vs. organic.
Next Steps
- Choose your conversion model — this determines your funnel shape
- Set up goals — goals power the "goal completions" funnel stage
- Connect ad platforms — spend data enables CAC and ROAS calculations
- View unit economics — see the financial metrics derived from funnel data