Understand the funnel and milestones
Read the CRM funnel correctly and know what each milestone means.
The Funnel view turns CRM stages and CJM milestones into one journey: Lead → MQL → SQL → Opportunity → Won. Lost is a final negative outcome shown separately from the forward conversion path.
Current stage and milestone are different
A profile has one current CRM stage, but it can have several milestones it reached in the past. For example, a profile now in Won may have already reached Lead, MQL, SQL, and Opportunity.
CJM records a milestone once for each profile and pipeline. Moving a deal back and forth does not create a new first-entry milestone or repeat first-entry conversion logic.
When a contact first arrives directly in a later stage, CJM reconstructs the preceding path it can infer. A profile arriving as Opportunity therefore receives the earlier Lead, MQL, and SQL milestones as well. For historical CRM imports, CJM uses available stage-history dates; live webhook updates use the time of the event.
How the funnel is built
The Funnel view uses the pipeline selected in the page selector. Map CRM stages first, otherwise CJM cannot classify records into SQL, Opportunity, Won, or Lost.
- Lead and MQL can appear as milestones when no real CRM stage is mapped to them.
- A mapped CRM stage represents its CJM stage as the profile's current state.
- Lost is an end state and does not continue into another funnel step.
- A Custom CRM needs a manual pipeline and a linked raw stage ID before an opportunity stage update can be classified.
Read the chart and KPIs
For each funnel step, CJM can show:
| Value | What it means |
|---|---|
| Current | Profiles currently at that step, or still at or before a milestone when no CRM stage represents it. |
| Reached | Profiles that have reached the step at least once. |
| Conversion | Current count at a step compared with the previous forward step. |
| Drop-off | The share that does not continue to the next forward step. |
| Cost per stage | Advertising spend divided by the current count, when spend is available. |
| Revenue / pipeline value | Monetary value on Opportunity and Won records. |
The dashboard KPIs summarize open opportunities, their value, win rate, and average time from Lead to Won. They describe the selected pipeline and available data; an empty value does not prove that CJM failed to receive an event.
Signals and verification
Milestones can make an event eligible for a conversion signal, but do not prove delivery to Meta, Google Ads, or another destination.
- MQL sends its quality signal when qualification occurs.
- SQL sends only on its first entry.
- Opportunity and Won need a monetary value greater than zero.
- Lead and Lost do not send a signal based on this stage.
Check the destination connection, consent, identifiers, and its delivery history or receiver logs. See How conversion signals work.
Troubleshooting
- A profile is not in the expected step: check the selected pipeline, the raw
crmStageId, and the stage mapping. - An imported contact has no useful path: confirm the lead import completed and that the CRM provided stage history; unavailable history cannot be invented.
- Opportunity or Won has no value: send or import the monetary value. Without it, the stage remains visible but does not meet the value condition for its signal.
- Counts look different from the CRM: compare the same pipeline and define whether you are comparing current records or profiles that have ever reached a milestone.