Funnel events let you track your user's progress through key stages of your experience. This includes:
- Onboarding - Where do users drop off when getting started with your experience?
- Progression - Where do users stop advancing through your experience?
- Shop - Where do users abandon purchases?
Once your experience begins tracking Funnel events, you'll unlock the Funnel page of the Analytics dashboard on the Creator Hub. You can add tabs to the dashboard for up to ten funnels.
Tracking Funnel Events
To track funnel events, first identify the most important funnels in your experience and segment them into steps. Your onboarding flow is a great place to start, as this is where you may be losing most of your users.
Tracking One-Time Funnels
A one-time funnel monitors conversion events that only occur once per user.
A common example is an onboarding funnel which is critical to understand how to improve your experience's new user retention and session time. The following example is an onboarding funnel for Plant, a tycoon experience where new users enter a farm, plant seed, water plant, and more in sequential order:
Tracking Onboarding Steps in Plant
Tracking Recurring Funnels
A recurring funnel monitors conversion events that occur multiple times per user.
A common example is a shop funnel which is critical to understand how to improve your experience's payer conversion, ARPPU, and revenue. The following example is a shop funnel where users open store, view item, add item to cart, and more.
Use funnelSessionId to distinguish between different sessions of the same user in a recurring funnel, such as opening the shop multiple times in a single session.
Tracking Shop Steps
Implementing funnelSessionId
When implementing funnels, a funnelSessionId can help you track your events but may not be required in every instance. Use the following guidelines:
- One-Time Funnels - You don't need to use funnelSessionId for one-time funnels because they only occur once per user.
- Store Funnels - Use funnelSessionId to distinguish between different sessions of the same user in a recurring funnel, such as opening the shop multiple times in a single session in the earlier example. In cases like this, where the player may open the shop multiple times in a single session, it is recommended to use a GUID as the funnelSessionId.
- Item Upgrades - Use funnelSessionId to distinguish between different item upgrade paths, generally over a longer time period than a single play session. Rather than use a GUID as in the store funnel case, you can often build a unique key based on the item being upgraded, for example: <playerId>-<itemId>.
Initial Step
Funnels start when the first step is logged. If you want to start a funnel immediately on player join, you'll need to log the first step on the PlayerAdded event.
Logging the first step in the PlayerAdded event
local AnalyticsService = game:GetService("AnalyticsService")
local Players = game:GetService("Players")
Players.PlayerAdded:Connect(function(player)
AnalyticsService:LogOnboardingFunnelStepEvent(
player,
1, -- Step number
"Player Joined" -- Step name
)
end)
Repeated Steps
If a user repeats a step in a funnel, the funnel only considers the first instance of the step. For example, if a user logs step 2 of a funnel twice, the funnel only counts the first instance of step 2.
Skipping Steps
If for some reason you skip a step in funnel, the earlier steps automatically complete.
For example, if you have a funnel with steps 1, 2, and 3. If you log step 3 without logging steps 1 or 2, the funnel will consider steps 1 and 2 as completed.
Using Funnel Filters
Roblox provides filters to help you analyze your funnel data. These include player data, device data, and you can send custom data as well. In some cases, a player's status may change during the funnel, such as when the player switches devices from mobile to desktop.
To avoid double-counting funnels, filters always only apply to the first step of the funnel. This means that if a player switches devices during the funnel, the funnel will only be attributed to their device at the time they enter the funnel.
Similarly, funnels display by cohort, meaning that if a player enters the funnel on 6/19, the funnel will be attributed to the 6/19 cohort even if they complete the funnel on 6/20.
Modifying Funnels
After you make an update to your funnel steps, it's important to set the correct date range to see the latest funnel. If the current date is 6/21 and you updated step 2 of your onboarding funnel on 6/14, you should set the date range to 6/14 – 6/21 to view the latest funnel.
If you select a date range that includes a funnel step update, a warning displays on the relevant step:
Protecting your Funnels From Exploiters
In order to keep your data clean, it is important to add some level of data validation in your server code to prevent exploiters from sending invalid data to your analytics service.
For example, if you have an Onboarding funnel with 3 steps, you can use a RemoteEvent for the client to notify the server when the player has completed each step and add a server check to ensure that the step number is valid before logging the event:
Client-side event code
local ReplicatedStorage = game:GetService("ReplicatedStorage")
local onboardingEvent = ReplicatedStorage:WaitForChild("OnboardingEvent")
local function fireOnboardingEvent(step: number)
onboardingEvent:FireServer({ step = step })
end
fireOnboardingEvent(1)
fireOnboardingEvent(2)
fireOnboardingEvent(10) -- invalid step
Server-side event code
local AnalyticsService = game:GetService("AnalyticsService")
local ReplicatedStorage = game:GetService("ReplicatedStorage")
local onboardingEvent = ReplicatedStorage:WaitForChild("OnboardingEvent")
local maxStep = 3
local function onPlayerEventFired(player: Player, args: { step: number })
local step = args.step
if(step > maxStep) then
warn(`Invalid tutorial step {step} received from client.`)
return
end
print(`{player.Name} completed step: {step}`)
AnalyticsService:LogOnboardingFunnelStepEvent(player, step)
end
onboardingEvent.OnServerEvent:Connect(onPlayerEventFired)
Using Custom Fields
Funnel events also allow breaking down on custom fields to support easier comparison between segments. For example, you can track which starter car gives players the best progression, or attach different maps to see if a certain map has a better game loop than others.
For more information, see custom fields.
Using Funnels to Grow Your Experience
One of the most important funnels to track is onboarding because many experiences struggle with new user retention and engagement.
In the onboarding funnel for Plant below, the largest drop-off is step 2 ("Plant Seed").
Based on this data, you could:
- Add contextual indicators to better direct users to plant seeds when they're getting started.
- Design a new user experience that requires users to plant seed and grow a successful plant before exploring the rest of the experience. You can improve this event creating positive feedback elements or other game design techniques.
