Google analytics - Funnels

Am I correct that funnels allow you to see what activity generated what action?

Is this easy to set up in Google Analytics? I dont want my developers to charge me for something that is essentially something I could do myself.

For instance I know you can drop a piece of code on one page of your site and then analytics will show you how and which users from which marketing source followed through to that page?

I suppose correct me if I am wrong but a bounce rate might also be useful for this? IE if traffic comes from site A and the bounce rate is 78% then you can assume that the traffic from Site A is S&^t?

A Funnel is a path you setup to reach a Goal... like a shopping cart checkout. It might go something like

Page 1 your name and email
Page 2 your billing & shipping information
page 3 your cart confirmation
page 4 order confirmation (Goal)

You look at your funnel stats to see where there is friction. If you are getting 80% dropout on Page 2, maybe your form is overly complicated, or there is a technical problem.

See What is a funnel
What you are looking to do... track where your traffic is coming from, is done automatically. Or for more complicated marketing sources, like Twitter, through link tagging.

See How Do I Tag My Links
You might be surprised at some of the advanced segmentation you do

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu8YzF0AM14

DebbieSprules said:

I suppose correct me if I am wrong but a bounce rate might also be useful for this? IE if traffic comes from site A and the bounce rate is 78% then you can assume that the traffic from Site A is S&^t?

Click to expand...

Either that or they are finding what they are looking for on your landing page.

But if that 22% converts then the traffic isn't S&^t. It all comes down to ROI... what did you pay (are you paying) for the traffic from that source and how much revenue is it generating.

Didn't know Google Analytics was this complex and advanced.

WOW you helpful darling...... Well yes Bmatthews its amazing...

Yes perhaps funnels had me confused....

I wanted to find a way, I think it might be targets, that allows me to view traffic like this...

1/ Notes 14 visits from a keyword source.
2/ Notes a new member joined the site.
3/ Is able to see from which source the member joined.

So for example

User A visits the site using keywords " x y z" they visit x number of pages and then end up at the join final page.

Surely then I can see which marketing efforts convert?

MY developers may need to do this as I think it might mean placing code on that page but I am trying to get some intell incase I can do it myslef, or so that they dont over charge me for it.

Once this is in place, you are correct I can work out a cost per acquistion and measuer which methods are shit and which are not.

Twitter for instance generates a bucket load of traffic but a bounce rate of 67%!

Tell me about your site?