Common questions, tips and help with troubleshooting Funnels:
- Why is there a 100% drop off in one of my steps?
- Why is my Funnel not showing enough data?
- Can my Funnel have optional steps?
- What is a Strict Funnel and does Hotjar support it?
- Can I stop or pause my Funnel?
Why is there a 100% drop-off in one of my steps?
When looking into why your Funnel shows a 100% drop-off rate, a few factors need to be looked into. The most common issue is with page targeting.
See our Page Targeting Guide for an explanation of the different page targeting types and examples. A common issue is using Exact Match for a page that starts with http but redirects to https.
If your page targeting is correct, try looking if:
- The code installed on every step of the Funnel.
The Hotjar tracking code must be installed on every page you wish to track. You can verify the installation by using our Installation Verification Guide. - An optional step has been added.
Hotjar Funnels are designed to only show data for visitors that start their session on Step 1 and visit ALL subsequent steps, even if there are other pages in between. Any optional steps should not be included in your Funnel. For a more in-depth explanation, check out How do Hotjar Funnels Work? - A Shopify checkout page or another third-party payment gateway that doesn’t allow the Hotjar Tracking Code is added as a step.
Shopify typically does not allow any third-party JavaScript on their checkout pages, so our script cannot collect data from the checkout process. There is still a possibility to track conversions within a Funnel using the Shopify Order Confirmation page as the last step.
Why is my Funnel not showing enough data?
In the majority of cases, data is not showing enough data as expected because Hotjar is sampling your data. When your site has very high traffic levels, Hotjar will automatically use a sample of your traffic to generate your Funnel. You will see a notice if your Funnel data is being sampled. Learn more about what happens when you exceed your plan's data collection limit.
If we are not sampling your data, try looking if:
- You just made changes to your Funnel.
Any edits to your Funnel, including a name change, after setting it up will cause the Funnel to regenerate data. Hotjar will only use data from the last 90 days when regenerating the Funnel. - We have updated your Funnel data.
Once a Funnel has been set up, Hotjar will automatically update your Funnel data once every hour. Learn more.
Missing data from before May 26th, 2019, after regenerating a report?
Please note that due to an incident on May 26th, 2019, data older than this date can no longer be regenerated. You can read more about this in the incident report for this issue. We recommend cloning old reports rather than editing them.
Can my Funnel have optional steps?
No, Hotjar's Funnels don't allow steps to be set up as optional. This is because our Funnels are more focused on drop-off points rather than conversion at this point, as we want to highlight potential places of improvement rather than how well a Funnel is converting.
As an example, let's say you set up a Funnel as follows:
A > B > C > D
If Step C is a non-required step, then your Hotjar Funnel will show your visitors as dropping off in the Funnel. Even if these visitors did move on to Step D, Hotjar will not show their data in the Funnel.
Similarly, if a visitor interacts with Step B, C, and D without first visiting Step A, this visit will not be shown in the Funnel data.
This is a different approach from what Google Analytics does in Funnels. Google Analytics will automatically assume that visitors that made it to Step D completed Step C and backfills the data. Hotjar does not backfill data.
What is a strict Funnel and does Hotjar support it?
Strict Funnels are Funnels which only count sessions if they follow the exact path you specified in your Funnel, both order and pages. Currently, these types of Funnels are not supported within Hotjar.
Can I stop or pause my Funnel?
Funnels run continuously, and cannot be stopped or paused. As long as a Tracking Code was present on a page listed in the Funnel setup, your Funnel will contain data collected from the past 90 days. This is a rolling 90-day period, allowing you to always see the most recent data in your Funnel.
If you would like to see specific days/weeks of data you can use the Funnel date filter to select a smaller window of time within the last 90 days.