The Ultimate Funnel Metrics Playbook: What to Track and Why It Matters

Funnels make up the backbone of your business. Beyond just guiding a potential customer towards a purchase, they serve a vital role in supporting your revenue structure.

UPDATE: For an awesome conversation about funnel metrics, listen to my interview with Emily Regan on the Unicorns Unite Podcast!

Building a funnel was probably one of the first things you did when you started your online business.

Honestly, you might not have even known it was called a funnel at the time, but maybe you…

Threw up a landing page for your lead magnet…

Added an email to an automation to send it out when someone subscribed…

Then sent a weekly email to them from that point forward.

Regardless of how basic that may feel to you know, 6 or 7 figures and a whole heck of a lot learning later, that was still your first foray into funnels.

But all this time later, are you tracking your funnel metrics any better than you were back then?

Or do you just stick with views and conversion rates?

See, most online business owners don’t know what to track when it comes to their funnel beyond these standard metrics. But there is a whole slew of funnel metrics that provide greater context, more insight, and way better information to help you turn your funnels into lead-generating, money-making machines.

Why Tracking Funnel Metrics Matters

Funnels make up the backbone of your business. Beyond just guiding a potential customer towards a purchase, they serve a vital role in supporting your revenue structure. Like any critical function within your business, these funnels need to be monitored, optimized, and supported to perform at their best.

But here’s the problem: most business owners are flying in the dark when it comes to their funnels. They check a few vanity metrics—like page views or total conversions—and call it a day. While those numbers can be helpful, they only scratch the surface of what your funnel is telling you.

The True Value of Funnel Metrics

When you track the right metrics, your funnel stops being a lockbox you’ve lost the key to and starts becoming a clear vehicle for growth. Funnel metrics help you:

• Spot inefficiencies: Identify where leads are dropping off so you can make improvements.

• Optimize performance: Test and refine each stage to increase conversions and revenue.

• Make informed decisions: Stop guessing and start basing your strategies on real data.

Instead of relying on “gut feelings” or surface-level insights, you’ll have a data-driven foundation for everything—from your next ad campaign to the exact timing of your email sequences. Repeatable, replicable, and reliable.

Metrics Aren’t Just Numbers—They’re Stories

Each metric in your funnel tells a story about how your audience interacts with your business:

- Are they a “heck yes!” to your offer, or hesitating at a certain stage?

- Is your messaging resonating, or is it falling flat?

- Are you attracting qualified leads, or wasting time and money on the wrong traffic sources?

By analyzing these stories, you can understand what’s working, what’s not, and—most importantly—what to do next.

Why This Matters for Launches and Evergreen Offers

Whether you’re running live launches or relying on evergreen funnels for steady sales, the same principle applies: tracking the right metrics lets you optimize for growth. For launches, you’ll see which strategies maximize urgency and conversions. For evergreen offers, you’ll highlight long-term trends that keep revenue flowing consistently.

Deeper metrics aren’t meant to complicate things. In fact, the more complex and targeted the metric, the more straightforward and helpful the insight will be.

The Key Metrics Every Funnel Needs

Now that we’ve established why funnel metrics are essential, you might want to know what the heck you should be looking at.

These data points are meant to tell you exactly how your funnel is performing and where it needs fine-tuning, without needing to look at 40 different metrics every day.

Whether you’re analyzing a launch funnel or an evergreen offer, these metrics provide the foundation you need to take actionable steps toward higher conversions and revenue.

1. Engagement Metrics

These metrics show how your audience is interacting with your funnel at every stage. They reveal whether your content is capturing attention—or if you’re losing them before they even get to the good part.

Metrics to Track:

• Time on Page: Are visitors staying long enough to engage with your content, or bouncing after just a few seconds?

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): How effective are your calls-to-action (CTAs) at getting leads to take the next step?

• Email Open and Click Rates: Is your email sequence keeping leads interested, or are they checking out before reaching the pitch?

Why They Matter:

Engagement metrics highlight early opportunities to refine your messaging, content, or CTAs. If these numbers are low, it’s a sign that your audience isn’t connecting with your funnel—and it’s time to make some tweaks.

Notice that the funnel isn’t just the steps within the opt-in or purchase. For all of these metrics we are looking at the entire eco-system of the process, including any emails sent as part of the funnel.

2. Conversion Metrics

Conversion metrics reveal how well your funnel is guiding leads toward becoming paying customers. These are the numbers that tell you where potential buyers are saying “yes” or walking away.

Metrics to Track:

• Conversion Rate by Stage: The percentage of leads moving from one stage to the next (e.g., opt-in to purchase).

• Lead-to-Sale Ratio: How many leads are converting into paying customers. This is most often a basic percentage =(total number of unique people on your list who have made at least 1 purchase)/(total number of unique people on your list)

• Abandonment Rate: Where and why leads are dropping off before completing a purchase (most often by stage or “step” within the funnel).

Why They Matter:

By tracking conversions at each stage, you can pinpoint where your funnel needs the most attention—whether that’s reworking a landing page, streamlining the checkout process, or adjusting your offer positioning.

3. Revenue Metrics

Revenue metrics go beyond basic conversions to measure the financial performance of your funnel. They give you a clearer picture of how well your funnel is driving profitability and long-term growth. You might have a lower conversion rate on a high-ticket offer but end up with higher revenue. This is good information to know when deciding where to dedicate resources.

Metrics to Track:

• Average Order Value (AOV): The average amount customers spend per transaction.

• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): The total value a customer brings to your business over time.

• Revenue Per Funnel Stage: How much revenue is generated at each stage of the funnel.

Why They Matter:

Revenue metrics help you focus on maximizing profitability—not just sales volume. For example, a higher AOV can make a huge difference even if your conversion rate remains steady.

How to Use Your Funnel Metrics to Drive Actionable Insights

Tracking metrics is only the beginning—what truly transforms your funnel is using the data to make informed decisions. Once you’ve identified how your funnel is performing, it’s time to dig deeper into the numbers to uncover patterns, trends, and opportunities for optimization.

Here’s how to take those metrics and turn them into actionable insights that lead to real growth.

Step 1: Identify Bottlenecks and Drop-Off Points

Every funnel has weak spots—stages where potential customers lose interest or abandon the process. By analyzing metrics like Time on Page, Conversion Rates by Stage, and Abandonment Rates, you can pinpoint exactly where leads are getting stuck.

How to Fix It:

• If Time on Page is low on your landing page, revisit your copy to make sure it’s clear, engaging, and focused on solving a specific problem.

• High Abandonment Rates at checkout? Simplify your payment process, add trust signals (like guarantees), or offer incentives like free shipping to encourage completion.

Take Action: Create a heatmap using tools like Hotjar to visualize where users are dropping off or disengaging.

Step 2: Refine Your Messaging and Offers

Metrics like Click-Through Rates and Lead-to-Sale Ratios reveal how well your messaging is resonating with your audience. If engagement is low, it’s time to test and tweak.

How to Fix It:

• A/B test different CTAs to see which phrasing, placement, or design drives more clicks.

• Review your email open rates—if they’re low, try more compelling subject lines or send emails at different times of day.

• Ensure your offer matches your audience’s needs and expectations by analyzing feedback or reviewing what content resonates most.

Take Action: Run A/B tests on your email sequences or landing pages to see which version performs better and why. A/B tests are your friend, use them often.

Step 3: Optimize for Revenue Growth

Metrics like AOV, CLV, and Revenue Per Funnel Stage give you a roadmap for increasing profitability. These metrics allow you to focus not just on making more sales, but on making each transaction more valuable.

How to Fix It:

• If AOV is lower than expected, introduce upsells, cross-sells, or bundles to encourage customers to spend more. The more you strategically expand your funnel the higher this will be.

• For long-term growth, focus on CLV by creating a robust post-purchase follow-up strategy to drive repeat sales and brand loyalty.

• Analyze Revenue Per Funnel Stage to determine which parts of your funnel generate the most income—and where you might need to invest more effort.

Take Action: Add a post-purchase upsell that complements the customer’s initial purchase to immediately increase AOV.

Step 4: Segment Your Data for Deeper Insights

Once you have these deeper metrics down, it’s time to dig into your customer base. Not all leads and customers are the same. By segmenting your metrics by traffic source, customer type, or behavior, you’ll uncover nuances that generic data might hide.

How to Fix It:

• If a specific traffic source has a much lower Lead-to-Sale Ratio, reevaluate the quality of leads coming from that source. This might even result in allocating these resources elsewhere.

• Segment by customer type (e.g., new vs. returning customers) to see how engagement and conversion metrics differ between groups.

Take Action: Use tools like Google Analytics to create custom reports based on audience segments.

Step 5: Build a Data-Driven Action Plan

With insights in hand, create a prioritized list of improvements to tackle. Focus on the changes that will have the biggest impact first, such as fixing high drop-off points or optimizing the stages with the highest revenue potential.

How to Fix It:

• Start with one stage of the funnel and implement incremental changes to avoid overwhelming your team or confusing your audience. This also makes it much easier to assess the impact individual shifts make in the data.

• Regularly review your metrics after each adjustment to ensure your changes are having the desired effect.

Take Action: Use project management tools like ClickUp or Asana to track and manage your funnel optimization tasks.

Applying Metrics to Launches vs. Evergreen Funnels

Now that you’ve mastered the art of tracking and using funnel metrics, it’s time to tailor your approach based on your business model: live launching or evergreen funnels.

While the metrics may be the same, the strategies and goals for each type of funnel differ in ways that can significantly impact your success.

Launch Funnels: Leveraging Urgency and Time Sensitivity

Live launches are all about building momentum, creating urgency, and converting as many leads as possible in a short window of time. Your metrics should focus on understanding what drives action quickly and where friction might slow things down.

Metrics to Prioritize:

1. Peak Traffic Times

• Identify when your audience is most active and focus your promotions during these windows.

• Use email open rates and website traffic spikes to plan key campaign launches like webinars or flash sales.

2. Conversion Rate by Stage

• Pinpoint where leads are dropping off in real time so you can make adjustments on the fly.

• If your landing page isn’t converting as expected, A/B test headlines or offer incentives like limited-time bonuses.

3. Abandonment Rate

• Address why leads are leaving mid-funnel, especially during the purchase stage.

• Deploy cart abandonment emails with compelling offers or urgency triggers to reclaim lost sales.

Live launches thrive on urgency. Use metrics to identify where your metrics indicate you can amplify scarcity or exclusivity to nudge hesitant leads into action.

Evergreen Funnels: Driving Consistency and Scalability

Evergreen funnels are built for the long haul, designed to provide steady, predictable sales over time. The focus here is on optimizing for efficiency and maximizing lifetime customer value. Evergreen funnels often have lower conversion rates than live launches, but with care and attention can often rival them on that metric while saving significant resources.

Metrics to Prioritize:

1. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

• Focus on nurturing long-term relationships to increase revenue over time.

• Build automated follow-up sequences that encourage repeat purchases or upsells based on previous customer behavior.

2. Time on Page and Engagement Rates

• Ensure your content stays relevant and engaging over time to maintain steady conversions.

• Regularly audit your funnel content for outdated messaging or visuals and update as needed.

3. Revenue Per Funnel Stage

• Evaluate how each stage of your evergreen funnel contributes to overall profitability.

• Invest more resources into high-performing stages and simplify or eliminate underperforming ones.

Evergreen funnels rely on consistency. Use your metrics to identify trends and fine-tune your offers for long-term growth without requiring constant oversight.

What This Means for You

By understanding the unique needs of launch and evergreen funnels, you can adapt your metrics strategy to fit the situation.

Whether you’re maximizing a time-sensitive launch or creating a sustainable evergreen revenue stream, the key is using your data to guide every decision.

TL;DR: The Right Funnel Metrics Maximize Revenue Potential

Funnels are the backbone of your business, but their success can’t rely on setting them up and hoping for the best. You need to understand the data, analyze the trends, and take intentional action.

By tracking the right metrics and tailoring your strategy to your funnel type—whether it’s a high-energy live launch or a steady evergreen offer—you’re setting yourself up for success. Metrics like Conversion Rate by Stage, Customer Lifetime Value, and Revenue Per Funnel Stage are the story of your audience, your offer, and your opportunity to grow.

The difference between a funnel that works and one that holds up your business lies in how you use the data it provides. Spotting drop-off points, refining messaging, and maximizing revenue opportunities are the keys to turning your funnel into a lead-generating, money-making machine.

If you’re ready to take your funnels to the next level but feel overwhelmed by the numbers, I can help. During a Metrics That Matter VIP Day, we’ll deep dive into your data, uncover hidden opportunities, and craft a strategy tailored to your business. Together, we’ll turn your funnel into a clear, actionable roadmap for growth—whether you’re launching big or building evergreen.