How to use the sales funnel calculator
- List your funnel stages from top to bottom, such as visitors, leads, qualified leads and customers, and enter how many people reached each one in the same period.
- Add or remove stages with the buttons. Two to eight stages work.
- Optionally enter the revenue per customer and a customer goal to see revenue and the top-of-funnel traffic needed.
- Read the overall conversion rate, the rate at each step, the number lost and the weakest step, then download the table as CSV if you need it.
Formula
Step conversion rate = people at a stage / people at the stage before
Overall conversion rate = people at the last stage / people at the first stage
Traffic needed = customer goal / overall conversion rate
Revenue = customers x revenue per customer
Every number comes from the counts you enter. The tool does not assume that a later stage is smaller than an earlier one, but it warns you if it is, because that usually means two stages were counted over different periods.
Worked example
A site has 10,000 visitors, 800 leads, 240 qualified leads and 60 customers. The step rates are 800 / 10,000 = 8%, 240 / 800 = 30% and 60 / 240 = 25%.
The overall conversion rate is 60 / 10,000 = 0.6%. The weakest step is visitors to leads at 8%, so that is where a small gain would help most in percentage terms.
At $50 per customer the funnel earned $3,000. To win 100 customers at the same rates, 100 / 0.006 = 16,667 visitors are needed.
Step rate versus overall rate
The overall conversion rate answers one question: of everyone who entered, how many ended up buying? The step rates show where people fall away. A funnel can have a decent overall rate with one very leaky step, and fixing that step is often the cheapest improvement.
Because the overall rate is the product of the step rates, a 10 percent gain at any step gives the same 10 percent gain overall. That is why teams often start with the step that is easiest to change, not only the weakest.
Making the counts comparable
Funnel numbers are only useful if they describe the same people over the same time.
- Count stages over the same period. A sale can lag a visit by days or weeks, so use a window long enough to catch most of them.
- Count people, not events, at each stage. Ten visits by one person are one visitor.
- Define each stage clearly in writing, for example what makes a lead qualified.
- Do not compare funnels with very different traffic sources. Paid traffic and returning customers convert very differently.
Assumptions and limits
- Every person at a later stage is also counted at the earlier stages. Funnels where people skip stages are not modeled.
- Rates are shown to two decimal places. Very small funnels give noisy rates, so use enough people for the numbers to be meaningful.
- The traffic needed to reach a goal assumes your conversion rates stay the same as volume grows, which they often do not.
- Revenue is revenue per customer times customers and ignores refunds and repeat sales.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate a conversion rate?
Divide the number of people who completed an action by the number who had the chance to, then multiply by 100. For 60 customers from 10,000 visitors, the conversion rate is 0.6%. This calculator does it for every stage at once.
What is a good conversion rate?
It depends on the product, price, traffic source and what you count as a conversion. Comparing your own rate over time and between pages is more useful than comparing against a general figure from another business.
How many visitors do I need to get 100 sales?
Divide the sales you want by your overall conversion rate. At 0.6%, 100 sales need about 16,667 visitors. Enter your own funnel and the customer goal to get the number for your rates.
Why is the weakest step not always the best place to improve?
The weakest step has the lowest percentage, but some steps are naturally low because most people are only browsing. Look at which step you can change at the lowest cost and which has the most people to gain.