---
slug: funnel-schritte-messen
title: "What is a funnel step?"
category: messung
locale: en
updated: 2026-10-17
keywords: ["funnel step","funnel","SaaS","goal","goal_key","key","order","per customer","sign-up","activation","trial"]
questions: ["How do I measure a funnel when there is no purchase?","How do I measure a SaaS funnel?","What is a goal event?","Why does a step count only once?","What is a goal_key?","How do I create a funnel step?","What does “created automatically” mean on a conversion?","Can I measure sign-up and activation as conversions?","How do I use Metrunio for SaaS?","Does Metrunio work without a shop?","Which ads bring paying customers for my software?"]
url: https://bench.metrunio.com/en/help/funnel-schritte-messen
---

# What is a funnel step?

**How do I measure a funnel when there is no purchase?**

A funnel step is a conversion a customer reaches rather than buys: signed up, set up, first payment. Each step has a key and a position and counts exactly once per customer, however often it is reported. Several steps in order make up the funnel in the “Orders & goals” report.

A shop has one completion: the purchase. An application has several, and none of them is an order: someone signs up, sets something up, pays for the first time. Each of those points is a funnel step: its own conversion definition with a key, a position and a value. A step is reported with an event of type `goal`, from the browser or from your backend; both routes are equivalent.

## An example: software with a trial

An accounting software advertises on Google and LinkedIn and offers a 14-day trial. The question behind it is not “Which ad brings sign-ups?” but “Which ad brings people who pay after the trial?”. For that it creates three steps:

| Step | When it is reached | Reported by | Value |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `registriert` | the account has been created | backend, where it creates the account | acquisition value, set in the portal |
| `eingerichtet` | the first invoice has been written | browser, at the end of the dialogue | acquisition value, set in the portal |
| `erste_zahlung` | the subscription has been paid after the trial | backend, from the payment confirmation | the amount paid, i.e. revenue |

After sign-in the application calls `metrunio.identify()` once with the customer number; the same number goes out as `user_id` with the steps from the backend. That way a sign-up on the laptop and a payment on the phone two weeks later belong to the same person and to the ad they came through, as long as the click lies within the click window.

The “Orders & goals” report then shows the funnel: how many customers reached each step and what share of the previous step moved on. Below it, each step shows which channels it is attributed to. An example, not a measurement: 200 signed up, 80 set up, 30 first payment. If sign-ups come mainly through LinkedIn but first payments through Google search, this is where you see it. On “Channels & attribution” you narrow the reports to `erste_zahlung` and get the ROAS on paid subscriptions against all ad spend.

> **Note:** In the setup assistant, the choice “Steps in an application (SaaS)” creates exactly these three steps: `registriert`, `eingerichtet`, `erste_zahlung`. You can rename, add or retire them. How to report them from the browser and the backend is in “How do I report a funnel step?”.

## The key

The key (`goal_key`) is the name your code uses to report the step: lower case, no spaces, made of letters, digits, underscore, dot and hyphen, at most 64 characters, for example `signed_up` or `shop_created`. It is an address: once events have counted against it, it can no longer be changed. If you need a different one, create a new step and retire the old one. The position, by contrast, can be changed at any time with the arrows in the portal.

If your code reports a key that does not exist yet, the definition is created on its own. In the portal it then shows as “created automatically”; you add the name and value afterwards. That has an upside and a catch: you can start with the code without defining every goal in the portal first, but a typo in the code becomes a step of its own. A retired definition no longer counts, even if events with its key keep arriving.

## Once per customer

A customer reaches a step, or does not. If your code reports the same step for the same customer a second time (because the page was reloaded or a background job ran twice), it does not count again. The figure in the report is therefore a count of customers, not of calls.

> **Caution:** “Per customer” means per customer identifier. A step needs one: `user_id`, `user_id_hash` or the pseudonymous browser ID; without one it is rejected. Only with `metrunio.identify(userId)` after sign-in is the customer the same across browsers and devices. Without identify() the step counts per browser: the same person on two devices counts twice, and two accounts in the same browser count once.

## What a funnel step is not

- Not a page funnel: Metrunio does not build a funnel from click paths or visited pages. Only steps your code reports are counted.
- Not revenue: you decide a step’s acquisition value in the portal. The report therefore calls it “set” and keeps it apart from revenue. Only an amount the event itself brings with it is revenue.
- Not exempt from the quota: every step sent is an event and counts against the event quota; the same event ID counts once.
- Not exempt from consent: `goal` is an analytics event. As with a lead, no step is stored without analytics consent, not even from your backend; the exception for orders your server reports without consent does not apply to steps.

> **Note:** If two identities merge, for example because someone signs in on a browser that was previously known only by its browser ID, and both had reached the same step, the earlier conversion is kept. A return that was already reported to an ad platform cannot be recalled.

## Also asked

- How do I measure a SaaS funnel?
- What is a goal event?
- Why does a step count only once?
- What is a goal_key?
- How do I create a funnel step?
- What does “created automatically” mean on a conversion?
- Can I measure sign-up and activation as conversions?
- How do I use Metrunio for SaaS?
- Does Metrunio work without a shop?
- Which ads bring paying customers for my software?

## Related

- https://bench.metrunio.com/en/help/funnel-schritte-einbauen
- https://bench.metrunio.com/en/help/funnel-bericht-lesen
- https://bench.metrunio.com/en/help/wert-je-schritt
- https://bench.metrunio.com/en/help/welche-kennungen
- https://bench.metrunio.com/en/help/welche-events-gibt-es
- https://bench.metrunio.com/en/help/eventkontingent