Published on 2025-06-22T09:52:38Z

What is a Top Conversion Path? Examples of Top Conversion Paths

Top Conversion Path is the most common sequence of marketing touchpoints a user encounters before completing a desired action, such as a purchase or signup. It provides a holistic view of the customer journey across channels and devices. Understanding top paths is crucial for informed attribution modeling, allowing marketers to assign credit fairly to each interaction. This insight helps optimize marketing spend, improve user experience, and increase conversion rates.

Illustration of Top conversion path
Illustration of Top conversion path

Top conversion path

The most frequent sequence of user touchpoints leading to a conversion, used for attribution and optimizing marketing channels.

Definition and Importance

A Top Conversion Path is the most common sequence of marketing touchpoints that lead a user to complete a desired action, such as a purchase or signup. It provides a holistic view of the customer journey across channels and devices. Understanding top paths is crucial for informed attribution modeling, allowing marketers to assign credit fairly to each interaction. This insight helps optimize marketing spend, improve user experience, and increase conversion rates.

  • Definition

    The sequence of touchpoints a user follows before converting, ranked by frequency.

  • Why it matters

    Analyzing top paths uncovers which channels or campaigns drive conversions most effectively.

    • Marketing optimization:

      Allocate budget to channels that appear most often in top conversion paths.

    • Attribution accuracy:

      Select or adjust attribution models based on observed user journeys.

Key Components

Top conversion paths consist of several elements: individual touchpoints, the order of interactions, and the timing between them. Each component offers unique insights into user behavior, from initial discovery to final conversion.

  • Touchpoints

    Interactions such as organic search, paid ads, email clicks, or direct visits that users have with your brand.

    • Paid vs. organic:

      Distinguish interactions from paid campaigns versus organic sources.

    • Cross-device touches:

      Users may switch devices; group interactions across mobile, desktop, and tablet.

  • Sequence and timing

    The chronological order of touchpoints and the time intervals between them.

    • Path order:

      Position of each touch in the overall sequence.

    • Time lag:

      Elapsed time between the first and last interaction.

Tracking with Plainsignal and GA4

Capturing top conversion paths requires proper implementation in your analytics tools. Below are steps for using PlainSignal and Google Analytics 4 to record and analyze user journeys.

  • Plainsignal (cookie-free analytics)

    PlainSignal tracks user paths without third-party cookies, preserving privacy while providing path data.

    • Insert tracking script:

      Copy and paste the following before the closing </head> tag:

      <link rel="preconnect" href="//eu.plainsignal.com/" crossorigin />
<script defer data-do="yourwebsitedomain.com" data-id="0GQV1xmtzQQ" data-api="//eu.plainsignal.com" src="//cdn.plainsignal.com/PlainSignal-min.js"></script>
    • View path reports:

      In the PlainSignal dashboard, go to Conversion Paths to explore and filter user journeys.

  • Google analytics 4 (ga4)

    GA4 includes a Path Exploration feature for deep dives into user journeys.

    • Enable path exploration:

      Navigate to Explore > Path exploration, then set a start or end event to generate the path report.

    • Analyze nodes and flows:

      Each node represents an event or channel; use the visualization to identify dominant paths and drop-offs.

Best Practices

Use the following strategies to maximize insights from top conversion path analysis and improve marketing performance.

  • Segment your paths

    Break down conversion paths by user characteristics or traffic sources for targeted analysis.

    • Demographic segments:

      Compare paths across age groups, locations, or device types.

    • Behavioral segments:

      Analyze differences between new vs. returning users or high-value customers.

  • Review attribution models regularly

    Adjust attribution settings to reflect actual path data and business goals.

    • Test model variations:

      Experiment with first-touch, last-touch, linear, or data-driven models.

    • Measure performance impact:

      Track how model changes influence campaign ROI and budget allocation.

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