Hi Jacob,

Contacts are not the same as subscribers. So that seems to indicate that those people are getting in another way, such as adding an item to cart but not completing the purchase. This results in a contact and given that you have people in your funnel, that's my best guess as to what is happening.

The funnel stats all look correct.

The 33% is the number of people advancing to the next step in the funnel.

And while I cannot comment on what others are experiencing, I can attest to the fact that this has been rigorously tested and is working as it is supposed to.

Jacob Kinniburgh said

If you want to use confirmed opt in you would just have two different steps in your funnel. So it would go:

Step 1: squeeze page

Step 2: thank you page

Step 3: confirmation page

Then you would set the confirmation page as the goal and monitor that stat for the conversion rate.

I can't work out how to do this, sorry! I thought the confirmation page for all confirmed opt ins was the system default /contact-optin-confirmed? Can you let me know how I include the default after-confirmation page in the funnel as step 3?

Sorry if that wasn't clear. Unless I'm mistaken, you had said you wanted to redirect to a custom confirmation page. To do this you would just add the confirmation page as your third step and then redirect to it. However, it could create stats problems if you have more than one confirmation page. If you want to avoid that you would need to omit the confirmation page. This will result in funnel conversion stats that don't 100% align with what you see in FB, but it would suffice for split testing purposes.

Contacts are not the same as subscribers. So that seems to indicate that those people are getting in another way, such as adding an item to cart but not completing the purchase. This results in a contact and given that you have people in your funnel, that's my best guess as to what is happening.

Thanks, I didn't realise that! Even with that in mind, all the contacts in the screenshot I sent through were tagged as having signed up via the funnel and with a creation date of Dec 6th, so I'm not sure if this is correct?

UNLESS, the 'creation' date doesn't mean the date the contact was created, but instead means the date it was last seen (entered into a checkout form, etc.)? That might be what's confusing me... If not, I'm not sure how else a contact with a creation date of Dec 6th and the 'signed up via funnel' tag could have been added to my Contacts list, other than by signing up via the funnel on Dec 6th, which would mean that they're not being accurately recorded in the stats...? 

I'm not really sure what you are doing on your end, but what you are experiencing is being caused by something in the way you have set things up or are sending people into the system All systems are working as designed. I just signed up for your list and contact is dated correctly. See screenshot.

Additionally, after reading your clarification about the Contacts list, I went through my subscriber list (via Emails & Automations > Lists & Subscribers), and narrowed it down to people first seen within the last 3 days (as a side note, the 'Signed up' filter doesn't work for me). The list generated is pretty much the same as the contacts list in my previous post:

 

It has 7 new subscribers since I reset the stats at about 8pm on Dec 6th (one was already on the list before I reset the stats).

Of those 7, 2 signed up via two forms (one on my site, and the funnel squeeze page) – I don't know if this makes a difference, but let's take them out, leaving 5.

In addition to those 5, I also did a test sign up yesterday which I have removed (but which I confirmed at the time was counted in the stats), so that makes it 6 actual new subscribers via the funnel squeeze page since I reset the stats. 

Still, the stats just now are only showing 3 subscribers (2, plus my deleted test email) for this period. Even assuming the times are a bit out somehow (maybe I'm thinking in AEST and the subscriber info is US time?), I think there should still be more than 3 subscribers showing up in the stats? At the very least, there were 3 when I sent you the screenshot yesterday, and a new subscriber is on my list tagged as having signed up via the funnel squeeze page since then...

I have looked at this from a bunch of angles and can't work out why the discrepancy – I'm not sure that it's just that I was looking at the Contacts list earlier, as you suggested?

Maybe some people had received the 'confirmation required' email and didn't click it until after 8pm on Dec 6th, so they show up in my subscriber list but didn't actually go through the funnel during this time period? 50% of subscribers during a one day period seems like a lot to do this, but maybe...?

I guess this depends on whether the subscriber creation date is based on when they submit the form, or when they confirm – if when they submit the form, that can't be the explanation. If when they confirm, maybe that's what's happening (which leads me back to trying to work out where in the stats confirmed opt ins are represented, as the numbers should show up there...)?

In addition to this, I've checked all the signup forms on my funnel and site and can't find any others that I accidentally set to apply 'ep-f1' tag on submission, so I'm pretty confident that signing up via the funnel squeeze page is the only way a subscriber can get that tag, and am pretty confident that the users with that tag have all signed up via the funnel squeeze page (despite not showing on the stats). Any more ideas? If I have to re-make the entire funnel, what's the easiest way to do this?

To be honest, I'm not following all of this. You are referencing a lot of data that I can't track with. But I just ran multiple tests with multiple accounts (including yours) and the sorting by "first seen" is working perfectly.

The 33% is the number of people advancing to the next step in the funnel.

Thanks for the clarification. I've had more of a think about the stats, and I think I understand how they work now. In thinking about it, I did come up with the following:

Given subscribers that signed up outside the funnel (ie. via the site) are sent through the same email automation sequence (which in turn sends them to the funnel, regardless of their signup location), won't this inevitably mean that the stats end up not representing only people who signed up via the funnel squeeze page?

I'm not sure if I'm understanding you correctly here, but the stats will reflect any traffic on the page. It doesn't matter where they come from.

for example, if person 1 signs up via the funnel and person 2 signs up via the site, but they're both sent the same email (as part of the same sequence) to the funnel LTO sales page, won't that make the funnel stats show that more people who signed up via the funnel are going to that page than actually are? It seems to me the only way around this would be to have a completely separate email automation sequence for the funnel, and another one for people who sign up via the site, is that correct and what you recommend?

I'm still struggling to understand what you are doing here. But it should not be your goal to have a person sign up to the same funnel from multiple places. 

And while I cannot comment on what others are experiencing, I can attest to the fact that this has been rigorously tested and is working as it is supposed to.

Thanks for confirming, I hope we can work out what's going on with my stats – it makes me feel like there's something wrong with me, although I can't work what! I think the larger issue earlier was definitely due to people making it to the 'thank you' (after confirmation page) even when they signed up outside the funnel. I really can't work out why the numbers don't add up on the current stats, so will re-make the funnel if I have to – let me know if you recommend this.

Thanks,

Jacob

If I can be honest here, it seems like you are adding a lot of unnecessary complexity to the process, right from the beginning. The system works well. The email marketing system is the newest functionality so there is the most potential for unknown issues there, especially if you are using it in a-typical ways. But I've looked at the issues you pointed out and cannot duplicate them, nor have I had any other reports of them or experienced them myself.

Complex support threads like this are very difficult to unpack since there are so many different issues in one email. Responding to this, for example, took me about 45 minutes. If possible, please try to separate out issues into single requests and for TunePipe things it is probably best to email support@tunepipe.com.

Thanks, have replied.