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The four stages

FunnelFizz has exactly four stages, in a fixed order:

AWARENESS  →  CONSIDERATION  →  TRIAL  →  CUSTOMER

You can't rename, reorder, or add to them — the model is opinionated by design. Between each stage sits a conversion: a measurable transition from one state to the next. That gives you three conversions (positions 0, 1, 2), which map to the numbers you care about most: how much of my traffic turns into paying customers?

:::info Why four, not seven or twelve? We spent a long time looking at how solo founders and small SaaS teams actually think about their funnel. Most over-segment (twelve imaginary stages that never get measured), and some under-segment (a single "conversion rate" that hides everything). Four works: it's enough to see where things break, small enough to remember. :::

Every funnel you create in FunnelFizz has these four stages by default. You can:

  • Connect data sources to each stage (social providers to AWARENESS, Stripe to TRIAL and CUSTOMER, etc.).
  • Split traffic at any stage (see splitting).
  • Add extensions after CUSTOMER to track upsells (see extensions).
  • Send emails and run automations scoped to any stage (see email).

AWARENESS — "Eyeballs"​

What it measures: how many people saw you exist.

Data sources that feed AWARENESS:

  • Social impressions from connected providers (X, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit).
  • Brand mentions from Mentions monitoring (PRO).
  • Google Search Console impressions (planned — currently demo-only).
  • Paid ads impressions from Google Ads.
  • Manual entries for anything you can't connect.

AWARENESS isn't about who clicked — it's about eyeballs, reach. Someone scrolling past your post on the timeline counts. This is the widest part of the funnel.

Typical sources of truth:

  • X post impressions from your @handle over the last 7 / 30 / 90 days.
  • YouTube video views.
  • LinkedIn post impressions.
  • Any mention of your brand name on HackerNews, Reddit, ProductHunt, DEV.to.

CONSIDERATION — "Visitors"​

What it measures: how many unique people actually reached your site.

Data source: your tracking script. Every unique visitor (identified by a _fn_vid cookie) shows up here at least once per measurement window.

CONSIDERATION is where your marketing site lives. This is the stage where:

  • You split by traffic source — did your reddit post or your YouTube video drive more visits?
  • You watch bounce rate — are people landing and leaving immediately?
  • You test hero copy with A/B variants.
  • You notice the painful truth that 95% of your impressions never clicked.

The conversion from AWARENESS → CONSIDERATION is, essentially, your click-through rate from the wild web into your actual website.

TRIAL — "Active users"​

What it measures: how many visitors gave you their email, signed up, started a trial, or did whatever you define as "showed real intent."

Default conversion method: Stripe trial subscription (status = "trialing"). You can also configure it as:

  • Email signup form — any form that posts an email.
  • Custom event — call funnelfizz('event', 'signup') from your app.
  • App store download (HOBBY+) — with a referral parameter.

TRIAL is usually the most under-measured stage — founders tend to only track Stripe trials, but a lot of SaaS products have self-serve signup without billing-side tracking. Use custom events to surface the real number.

CUSTOMER — "Paying customers"​

What it measures: how many of your trials turned into paying customers.

Default conversion method: Stripe paid subscription (status = "active" or "past_due" within grace).

Unlike the other stages, CUSTOMER doesn't just show a flat count. It shows a trichotomy:

  • Retained — still actively paying at your anchor product tier.
  • Upgraded — moved to a higher tier (paying more than before).
  • Churned — no active paid subscription anywhere in the workspace.

That distinction matters: a customer who upgrades isn't lost — they're more valuable. The classic "canceled = churned" model can't tell the two apart. FunnelFizz can.

Conversion positions between stages​

Three conversions sit between the four stages:

  • Position 0: AWARENESS → CONSIDERATION — default method: site visit (tracking code).
  • Position 1: CONSIDERATION → TRIAL — default method: Stripe trial.
  • Position 2: TRIAL → CUSTOMER — default method: Stripe paid.

Each position can be configured independently per funnel. Mix and match — e.g., if you don't have Stripe trials (you use paid-only), map position 1 to a custom signup event and position 2 to Stripe paid.

See Concepts → Conversion for the full configuration reference.

What you see on the canvas​

On the funnel canvas, stages appear as rectangular cards left to right in this order. Between them sit circular conversion bubbles showing the rate + raw count. The default layout:

┌──────────┐  ●   ┌───────────────┐  ●   ┌───────┐  ●   ┌──────────┐
│AWARENESS │──%──▶│ CONSIDERATION │──%──▶│ TRIAL │──%──▶│ CUSTOMER │
└──────────┘      └───────────────┘      └───────┘      └──────────┘
 128k imps       11,245 visitors      892 signups      213 paying
                  8.8% CTR            7.9% conv        23.9% conv

Split nodes (diamond shapes) appear between stages when you filter traffic. Extension stages appear after CUSTOMER for tracking upsells.

Where to next​