Insights: understand your funnel
You tried something new and it worked! Or... did it?
Maybe a post got way more views than usual. Your free membership had a great month. An invitation finally got people talking. Those are all exciting signals, but naturally, you want to know what happened next.
Did the people who found your work stick around? Did free members become paid members? Did that post you were excited about actually inspire anyone to join?
That’s where Patreon Insights comes in.
Instead of judging an idea by one number or one reaction, you can look at what fans actually did and use that information to decide what to try next.
You can keep this pretty simple, too. Two places in Insights, Path to Paid and Post Conversion, can already tell you a lot about where your funnel has room to grow and what's already working.
Start with your own numbers
If you started this collection with Converting fans to members: beyond the basics, you took a first pass at identifying where your biggest opportunity might be. That hunch came from good information. You know your audience. You know what gets them excited, what questions they ask, and which parts of your Patreon could use a little more attention.
Now you can add another perspective: what your fans are actually doing.
So look for clues. Where are people moving forward? Where does that movement slow down? Which posts inspire people to take another step? Has anything changed since you started experimenting?
Suddenly, "I want more paid members" can become a much more specific question about where your attention could make a difference.
As you look at your numbers, keep the comparison focused on your own progress. Creator examples and broader trends can give you ideas to try, but someone else's numbers can't tell you whether your funnel is moving in the direction you want. Your own numbers can. And every time you check back in, you have a little more information to help you decide where to go next.
Focus on the numbers that help you make decisions
There’s plenty to explore in Insights, but you don’t need to understand every number before you can start using them. For now, start with two views: Path to Paid and Post Conversion.
Path to Paid shows you how people are becoming paid members, including who joined your paid membership directly and who converted from free to paid. Look for patterns or spikes that make you curious. Did you have a week when more free members converted to paid? Was there a jump in people going straight to paid?
Then open Post Conversion and look at what you shared around that time.
Post Conversion lets you see whether people viewed or engaged with individual posts, or became free or paid members after seeing them. That can help you connect changes you noticed in Path to Paid with the work your fans were experiencing.
You might be surprised by what you find. A post you were sure would inspire people to join might not lead to much membership activity at all. Meanwhile, another post could be quietly bringing in new members. Aha! Now you have something worth paying attention to.
Put the two views together and you can start connecting when people are becoming paid members with what they were seeing around that time.
Turn what you learn into an experiment
After reviewing your Insights, you might have a whole list of things you want to try. Write them down. Then pick one.
Why one? Well, because as you experiment, you want to know what made the difference.
If you update your sampler shelf, rewrite your conversion invitation, change your Quip approach, and run a promotion all at once, your numbers might move. Great! But... which change did it?
Pick one opportunity that feels meaningful and manageable. Then give it enough time to work before you come back to Insights:
Maybe Post Conversion shows that a post with a poll brought in more new members than you expected. Try another poll around a different topic. Test it. Check what happened. Adjust.
The next poll gets plenty of votes but fewer new members. This time, try changing the call to action so interested fans have a clearer next step. Test it. Check what happened. Adjust.
Now the membership activity picks back up. Keep that call to action and try another topic to see if the pattern holds. Test it. Check what happened. Adjust.
Each time, you're changing one piece while keeping enough of the experiment the same to identify what’s working.
⚡ Pro Tip: Keep a simple record of what you're trying and when you changed it, like in the Patreon Conversion Strategy Workbook. A quick note like "added paid preview to recipe posts on August 1" can make your Insights much easier to interpret when you come back later.
Revisit your strategy as your funnel evolves
Your funnel won’t stay exactly the same forever. Strengthen one layer and another may become your next opportunity. Your audience might grow. Your work might change. Something you try could surprise you and send you in a whole new direction.
That’s why Insights isn’t a one-time check.
Come back every so often and see what’s changed. You could even set a monthly reminder on your phone or calendar to remember to check in. Then keep the cycle going: find an opportunity, try something, give it time, and learn from what happens.
That’s how your conversion strategy can keep evolving right alongside your Patreon.
🧭 Your next steps
In the Patreon Conversion Strategy Workbook, the Check your focus activity will help you use your own numbers to decide what to work on next
Open Path to Paid and Post Conversion in Insights. Use Path to Paid to see where movement through your funnel may be changing, then use Post Conversion to look for posts that are driving membership activity.
Compare what you find with the question you chose at the beginning of this collection. Does that still look like the right place to focus, or are your numbers pointing you somewhere else?
Choose one thing to try based on what you found. Make the change and note when you made it so you can connect it back to your Insights later.
Decide when you'll check back in. When you do, look at what changed and use that information to decide what you want to try next.
Finally, you'll put everything together from this collection and wrap up your conversion strategy!
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