Funnel Counting Method

The funnel counting method decides whether each step counts distinct users or the total number of event occurrences; that choice changes the numbers and the meaning of the conversion rate.

Unique counting counts each user once per step, even if they repeated it ten times; total counting counts every event occurrence separately. For most conversion questions unique counting is correct because a funnel is about “how many people passed” not “how many times it happened”; if you count total events, a user who added a product to the cart five times appears five times at that step and the conversion rate loses its meaning. But total counting has its place, for instance when you want the volume of an action rather than the share of people. The big trap is ignoring this setting and then wondering why the funnel number does not match the event report; those are two different questions. Like the other funnel settings, two reports are comparable only when their counting method is the same.