Build funnel Charts
Funnel charts show how many people make it through each step, with conversion rates, the biggest drop called out, and side-by-side comparisons by channel or segment.
A funnel chart shows how many people make it through each step of a process, and where they fall off. Golden draws the funnel, works out the conversion between every pair of stages, and calls out the biggest drop for you.
When to use a funnel
- The weekly growth review. Your growth lead wants to know how many site visitors become paying customers, and which step leaks the most. One funnel answers both: 2.1% overall, and the big leak is between pricing and trial.
- A sales pipeline. Leads, qualified, demo, proposal, closed won. The sales manager sees how many deals each stage loses.
- Comparing channels. Marketing splits the same funnel by Channel and sees Email converts at 4.8% while Paid Search converts at 1.5%.
- An onboarding checklist. Product tracks signed up, invited a teammate, connected data, built a dashboard, and finds the step where new users stall.
If your question is "where are we losing people?", it's time for a funnel.
Make a funnel
Your data needs one row (or many rows) per stage: a column that names the stage, and a number for how many people reached it.
- Add a chart to your dashboard (on a blank one, choose Begin in the fields).
- Open the More charts menu (the … at the end of the chart types) and choose Funnel.
- Drag your stage column onto Stages and the count onto Values.
| Shelf | What goes there |
|---|---|
| Stages | The dimension that names each step (Stage, Pipeline step). |
| Values | The count at each step (Users, Deals). Leave it empty to count records. |
| Compare By | A second dimension to split the funnel into one per value (see below). |
| Target | A goal measure to compare against. |
| Tooltip | Extra fields to show on hover. |
From chat:
Show users by stage as a funnelPut the stages in order
A funnel only makes sense in the order people move through it. By default, Golden looks for a pattern: if every stage name starts with a number ("1. Visited site", "2. Viewed pricing"), it uses that order. Otherwise it may not guess your process.
Here's the same data before it was ordered. Started trial sits above Viewed pricing, and the conversion rates read like nonsense ("4.7×").
To fix it, click Stages on the shelf to open Stage options, set Sort stages by to Custom order, and drag the stages into place.
Sort stages by offers Auto (detect pattern), Value (high → low), Value (low → high), Stage name (A → Z), Stage name (Z → A), Original order and Custom order.
The rest of Stage options:
- Overall % measured to picks the stage the headline "Overall" rate counts to. Auto picks one for you; set it to your real goal ("Became customer").
- Treat as outcome marks a stage people can reach from any earlier step. It stays on the chart but leaves the conversion chain, so it doesn't distort the step-to-step rates.
- Show conversion rates and Show metrics panel turn the rates column and the summary header on or off.
Read the funnel
- The metrics panel across the top: Overall (how many of the first stage reach your goal stage) and Biggest drop (the step that loses the most).
- Conversion rates on the right: the share of each stage that makes it to the next one. The weakest steps are colored so they stand out.
- Hover a stage for its details in the tooltip.
Funnel options
Select the funnel, open Options, and expand Chart Options. Everything below lives under Funnel options.
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Variant | Standard (centered bars) or Step (bars aligned left on a track). |
| Label shows | Any mix of Value, % of first stage and % of previous. |
| Orientation | Horizontal (stages top to bottom) or Vertical (stages left to right). |
| Sort stages | The same choices as Stage options. |
| Overall % to | The goal stage for the overall rate. |
| Taper | Tapered sizes each bar by its value; Full width makes every bar the same width and shades the share inside it. |
| Neck width | How narrow the smallest stages can get, so tiny stages stay readable. |
| Stage gap | Space between stages. |
| Bar ends | Square or Rounded. |
| Labels | Inside, Outside or Hidden. |
| Conversion rates | The step-to-step rates beside the bars. |
| Drop-off % | Adds the drop-off to each stage's tooltip. |
| Drop-off breakdown | A table under the funnel, one row per step, with the percentage and the count lost. |
| Connectors | Lines that join each stage to the next. |
| Metrics panel | The Overall and Biggest drop header. |
Styles
Standard reads like a classic funnel. Step works well when stage names are long. Vertical fits a wide, short tile at the top of a dashboard.
Percentages and the drop-off breakdown
Turn on % of first stage under Label shows and each bar says how much of the starting audience is left ("Started trial • 43.3K · 8.9%"). Turn on Drop-off breakdown for the exact losses under the chart.
Compare By
Drag a dimension onto Compare By and you get one funnel per value, each with its own conversion rate in the corner and a summary row on top ("Email (5%), Organic (2%), Paid Search (1%)").
Click Compare By on the shelf to open Compare by layout:
- Layout: Vertical (stacked), Horizontal (side by side) or Grid.
- Sort segments by: for example Conversion (high → low), so the best performer comes first.
- Show segment summary header: the row of segment chips at the top.
- Reset to defaults puts it all back.
Do it from chat
Chat can build funnels and change every option above.
Build
Show users by stage as a funnelPut the funnel stages in order: Visited site, Viewed pricing, Started trial, Activated, Became customerCompare the funnel by channelStyle
Make it a step funnelUse the pyramid styleFlip the funnel verticalLabels and numbers
Show conversion percentages on the funnelLabel each stage with the count and the % of the first stageAdd a drop-off breakdown under the funnelHide the metrics panelA few things chat does on purpose:
- Named styles are presets. "Funnel", "Pyramid", "Step bars" and "Conversion" each set a few options together, and leave every option they don't name alone.
- It never leaves a stage without a label. Ask to hide labels and chat sets Labels to Hidden instead of emptying Label shows.
- Stages you leave out of an order go last, in their current order.
Sharing, publishing and viewers
- Viewers see the funnel as you set it, including order, labels, the metrics panel and Compare By layout.
- Dashboard filters apply. Filter to one region and every stage, rate and the biggest drop recalculate.
FAQ
Why are my stages in the wrong order? Golden can't always guess your process from the names. Open Stage options, choose Custom order and drag them, or number the stage names in your data.
Why does a conversion rate show "×" instead of "%"? A later stage is bigger than the one before it, usually because the stages are out of order. Fix the order and the rates make sense again.
What's the difference between "Overall" and the rates on the right? Overall compares your goal stage to the very first one. The rates on the right compare each stage to the one right before it.
Can I count records instead of summing a column? Yes. Leave Values empty and the funnel counts rows per stage.