Kevin Anchi

GA4 Path Exploration allows you to explore your user journeys in a tree graph.

With Path Exploration, you can do things like finding the top pages that new users open after opening the home page, discovering what actions users take after an app exception, uncovering looping behavior which may indicate users becoming stuck, and determining the effects of an event on subsequent users actions.

You can create a Path Exploration by signing in to Google Analytics, clicking on Explore on the left, and selecting the Path Exploration template at the top of the screen. You can then select the starting point or ending point of the exploration and choose the kind of data to use as the starting point or ending point of your exploration.

Your new Path Exploration will appear with the starting point you selected on the left and STEP +1 to the right, which shows the top 5 screens that your users viewed or events they triggered after that starting point. You can also view more screens if available and see your users’ next steps by clicking on a data point in the graph. Path Exploration uses a tree graph to illustrate the event stream, which is the collection of events users triggered and the screens they viewed.

Path Exploration vs Funnel Analysis

Both features in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) that provide insight into a customer’s journey throughout your website. However, there are some key differences between the two reports and times when it’s better to use one over the other.

Funnel Analysis, is a feature that allows you to visualize and analyze how users progress through a series of steps towards a conversion or other desired action. With Funnel Analysis, you can do things like quantifying drop-offs in a multi-step process by pulling metrics such as abandonment rate and completion rate, understanding how drop-off in a multi-step process differs between session campaigns or sources, seeing the time elapsed between each step in a multi-step process, and timeboxing your desired actions.

In summary, Path Exploration is useful when you want to learn more about the customer journey in general and see the wide variety of paths someone took to complete a desired action. Funnel Analysis is useful when you have a specific list of actions you want a user to complete in a specific order and want to quantify drop-offs in a multi-step process.

Common metrics used in Funnel Analysis

Entrances: The number of users who enter the funnel at a specific step.
Conversion rate: The percentage of users who complete a desired action or reach a specific step in the funnel.
Total sales: The total revenue generated from users who complete a desired action or reach a specific step in the funnel.
Average order value: The average value of an order placed by users who complete a desired action or reach a specific step in the funnel.
When analyzing sales funnel metrics, it’s important to look at the funnel as a whole instead of picking one or two metrics. Identifying gaps in your sales funnel can help you figure out where you need to improve in order to drive conversion.

Funnel Analysis example in GA4

Select the Funnel exploration template.
Configure your exploration using the options described below. Until you add your funnel steps, you’ll see the following notice: No data for this combination of segments, values, filters, and date range. Try editing the variables or settings or remove them.

You can select Save to create a funnel report using the data in your funnel exploration. The funnel report enables you to access the information in your funnel more quickly.

You can choose either a standard (stepped) funnel or a trended (line chart) funnel. In a trended funnel, you can see all the steps simultaneously or dive into a specific step by clicking the step names at the top of the visualization.

Funnels can be “open” or “closed,” which determines how users can enter the funnel: In an open funnel, users can enter the funnel in any step. In a closed funnel, users must enter the funnel in the first step.

For example, suppose you have 2 funnels configured as follows:

Funnel 1: Steps A, B, C (Open)
Funnel 2: Steps A, B (Closed)
4 users visit your site in the funnel timeframe and meet these step requirements:

User 1: A, B, C
User 2: B, C
User 3: A, C
User 4: C
Here’s how these users are counted in each funnel:

Funnel 1: User Counted in step
User 1: A, B, C
User 2: B, C
User 3: A
User 4: C
Funnel 2: User Counted in step
User 1: A, B
User 3: A

Since funnel 1 is open, users can enter at any step. All 4 users are counted, but since users must complete the steps in the order specified, user 3 is only counted in step A (they skipped step B and so fell out of the funnel). Since funnel 2 is closed, users must enter the funnel at the first step (A). Only users 1 and 3 are counted.

Source: support.google.com