Intro to Funnels

What are Funnels?

Suppose your game has a tutorial, and you’re wondering whether players get all the way through it. How would you test this? This is what funnels are for. A funnel is a visual interpretation of how players move through a series of events (steps). Funnels help you identify where drop offs happen in your game (ie: how many people you lose between steps). If you see a large drop-off in your funnel, it might indicate a problem. Perhaps there's a bug that crashes the game, or the level is too hard and people give up. Funnels help to assess pain points in your game so you can implement fixes and encourage your players to experience the game the way you want them to. Ultimately, you want your players to complete the funnel. This is known as increasing your overall funnel conversion rate.

Funnels are based on custom events. Custom events allow you to define a set of actions that a player takes to reach a goal. Custom events can be any specific in-game action your player takes. For example, “Social media button clicked”, “Level completed”, and “In App purchase made.” Parameters describe attributes or details of an Event or the player performing it. Continuing with the above examples for events the related parameters are: “Twitter/Facebook”, “Level 1, 2, 3…”, and “HP Potion/MP Elixir”.


FAQs

1. How does a Funnel work?
Funnels are linear - this means that a player must complete the funnel steps in the exact order that you have set-up your funnel.

As a simple example, let's say you have a game with distinct numeric levels (i.e, Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3) that are linear (i.e., you must complete Level 2 before completing Level 3 and so on).

If you create a funnel with the following funnel steps:

Step 1 = Level 1
Step 2 = Level 3
Step 3 = Level 2
Step 4 = Level 4

The above funnel will show players in Step 1 and Step 2, however there will be no players in Step 3 and Step 4. What happened? This is because no players have completed the event Level 3, prior to completing the event Level 2. We’ve got Level 2 and Level 3 in the wrong order. A player must be a member of the preceding funnel step in order to fall into the next step of the funnel.

2. When will my Funnel be live?
Your funnel should be live 4-6 hours after creating it, as we receive the custom events generated by your game. Make sure you complete custom event integration first!

3. Why is my Funnel empty?
Typically, the main reason is that a player has yet to meet the criteria necessary in order to enter the funnel.

However, to confirm your funnel is set up correctly you can:

1. Check that events are sent correctly.
2. Enter the funnel yourself and check that the appropriate events are logged in the validator.
3. Check that enough time has elapsed. Funnels are live after 4-6 hours - subject to Unity Analytics receiving the custom event data.

If you still require assistance please complete a support ticket so we may examine your funnel closely or help you create a funnel.

4. How many times can a player complete a funnel?
All conversions are based on unique users, not total events sent (each user can convert only once for each step).

5. How long does a player have to complete a funnel?
There is no time limit.

6. What happens if a parameter changes across a funnel?
If the value of a parameter changes over the course of a funnel, Unity Analytics records the most recent value of the parameter and attributes the conversion to that value.

7. What are some examples of funnels I can create?

• How many players complete the levels in my game. Where are they getting stuck?
• How effective is my promotion leading to an in-app purchase in my store?

 

Hello,

I have a question regarding funnel.
Suppose our game already live since last month, and we are implementing new funnel today.
Assume by now we have, say, 1,000 players who have quit.

Would the new funnel include those players who have quit, and their progress before they quit?
If yes, how long the data of players who have quit be kept for next funnel, I think I read somewhere that player data is kept until 90 days of inactivity ?

Thanks !

 

Please refer to http://unity3d.com/learn-topic/analytics for additional information.