ClickFunnels Attribution : Track Real Funnel ROI

Written by Scott Desgrosseilliers | Mar 7, 2017 9:36:53 PM

CLICKFUNNELS ATTRIBUTION : HOW TO TRACK REAL ROI FROM YOUR FUNNELS


ClickFunnels is brilliant at building funnels and capturing optins. What it was never built to do is tell you which ad actually created the customer on the other end of that funnel. Its own reporting sees the optin and the sale it can directly observe but it cannot see the weeks-long multi-channel journey that led there. If you are running paid traffic into ClickFunnels and judging performance on what the funnel or the ad platform reports you are almost certainly misreading what works. Here is how to track the real ROI of your ClickFunnels funnels.

A NOTE FOR ANYONE COMING FROM OLDER GUIDES
If you have read older articles about integrating Wicked Reports with ClickFunnels through Actionetics or Follow-Up Funnels those features no longer exist. ClickFunnels rebuilt the platform as ClickFunnels 2.0 and retired Actionetics entirely. The integration described here reflects the current ClickFunnels 2.0 reality not the classic setup.

WHY CLICKFUNNELS CANNOT SHOW YOU TRUE ROI ON ITS OWN

ClickFunnels 2.0 is a capable all-in-one platform with funnels a page builder email and a built-in CRM. But like every single tool in your stack it only sees its own slice of the customer journey. A ClickFunnels funnel knows someone opted in and it knows if they bought inside that funnel. What it does not know is which Facebook ad three weeks earlier first brought that person in which email nudged them back or whether they first arrived through Google and came back later direct.

Course info-product and membership businesses live on exactly this kind of long multi-touch journey. Buyers optin cold get nurtured over days or weeks and buy later often after touching several channels. Judge your funnel on last-click or on what the ad platform claims and your demand-generating campaigns look weak while your bottom-of-funnel and branded search look like heroes. Cut the wrong campaigns on that misreading and you starve the top of your funnel.

THE METRICS THAT ACTUALLY MATTER FOR FUNNEL BUSINESSES

Stop judging ClickFunnels performance on optin counts and platform ROAS alone. The numbers that tell the truth are these.

Cost per optin by true source.

Which channel actually generated the optins that went on to buy not just the cheapest optins.

Optin-to-sale conversion and lag.

What share of optins become buyers and how long they take. This is your buying cycle and it dictates how long to run a campaign before judging it.

True new customer acquisition cost.

What you genuinely paid to acquire a net-new customer credited across every touch in the funnel rather than assigned to the last click.

Customer lifetime value by source.

What a funnel customer is worth across repeat purchases upsells and subscriptions. This is where funnel economics are won because a buyer worth several purchases justifies an acquisition cost that looks reckless on the first sale.

HOW WICKED REPORTS TRACKS CLICKFUNNELS 2.0

Wicked Reports connects your ClickFunnels 2.0 optin conversions to your real orders and ad data across every channel so your funnels get accurate attribution over the entire customer journey. It tracks top middle and bottom of funnel conversions from ClickFunnels 2.0 optins alongside your Shopify ReCharge or other revenue then continuously updates revenue and ROI as sales occur and recur. Because it ties every click to a real person and a real order it can show which ads created the optin that became a high-value customer rather than merely which ad was last.

This matters most for the cold traffic problem. Facebook Google and Microsoft do not attribute or report cold-traffic ROI correctly for funnel businesses because they merge cold and warm traffic together in their results. High-LTV customers often optin through your ClickFunnels funnel then convert later by email or SMS which the ad platforms miss entirely. Wicked Reports connects those dots so you can find and scale the campaigns that actually bring in profitable new customers.

You can see the full setup on the ClickFunnels v2 integration page. And if you want proof it works at scale, ClickFunnels the company uses Wicked Reports itself and used its custom attribution windows to track subscription customers who took far longer than the typical 28-day window to convert.

THE BOTTOM LINE

ClickFunnels builds the funnel. It cannot be your source of revenue truth across a multi-channel journey because it only sees its own slice. Pair it with accurate multi-touch measurement and you stop guessing at funnel ROI and start knowing which marketing actually fills your funnels with buyers. See how it works in the platform overview or book a demo to see it on your own funnels.

FAQ

DOES CLICKFUNNELS TRACK MARKETING ROI ACCURATELY ON ITS OWN?

ClickFunnels 2.0 tracks optins and the sales it can directly see inside a funnel. It cannot accurately measure full ROI on its own because it only sees its own touchpoints and misses the multi-channel journey that led to the optin and the delayed or recurring sales that happen afterward. Accurate ROI requires connecting ClickFunnels data to your real orders across every channel.

WHAT HAPPENED TO ACTIONETICS AND FOLLOW-UP FUNNELS?

ClickFunnels retired Actionetics and Follow-Up Funnels when it rebuilt the platform as ClickFunnels 2.0. Older integration guides that reference those features are out of date. The current integration tracks ClickFunnels 2.0 optin conversions directly rather than exporting Actionetics contacts.

HOW DOES WICKED REPORTS INTEGRATE WITH CLICKFUNNELS 2.0?

It connects your ClickFunnels 2.0 optin conversions to your ad platforms CRM and real sales data then attributes revenue across the full customer journey. It tracks top middle and bottom of funnel conversions and continuously updates revenue and ROI as sales occur and recur so you see which campaigns drive profitable customers rather than just cheap optins.

WHY IS ATTRIBUTION SO IMPORTANT FOR FUNNEL AND INFO-PRODUCT BUSINESSES?

Because these businesses depend on long multi-touch journeys where buyers optin cold and purchase later often across several channels. Single-platform and last-click reporting undercredit the demand-generating campaigns that start those journeys. Multi-touch attribution reveals the true source and lifetime value of each customer so you can scale what actually works.