Automations aren't set-and-forget. You get the best results by checking in on them and improving them over time. Performance Mode is how you do that. It shows your automation's results right on the map, in real time, so you can see what's working and where to focus. Here are the basics, plus a quick tour of the six reports.
Performance Mode is available on every Ontraport plan. Open a published automation map and it goes straight to the Performance tab. On any map, you can also click Performance in the top right corner.
Next, set the date range. Only contacts added to the map during that range show up in the stats, so the numbers change when you change the range. To see the full history, choose All Time Data.
Each element shows its own stats. Contacts were here is how many contacts passed through an element and have moved on. Contacts here now is how many are on it right now. Goals show your contacts' conversion rate. Email elements show sends, opens, clicks and opt-outs. On a trigger, like Page Is Visited, Total visitors shows how many visits the page has received. And the lines between elements show how many contacts took each path, as a number and a percentage.
If the numbers don't seem to add up, there are two usual reasons. First, a contact can be in more than one place on a map at once, like when several triggers add them or they reach more than one goal. Second, the "were here" stats count unique contacts. If a trigger adds the same contact again, only the first time counts.
Most numbers are clickable. Click one to open an ad hoc group of the contacts behind it. From there, you can act on them with manual actions, like sending bonus content to everyone who clicked a download link. Conversion rates, visitor counts and percentages aren't clickable.
The Report dropdown gives you six ways to look at the same map. Contact Flow shows how contacts have moved through your map and where they are now. That's where you'll find the stats we just covered. Funnel Conversion shows conversion rates from goal to goal, starting with a trigger. If a map has several triggers, like three different ebook offers, it helps you compare them.
Lifetime Value shows the total and average amount contacts have spent, across all products and all time, by the time they reach each element.
The last three reports are built around your goals. Goal Conversion Rate shows how well each element is performing and which ones work best. Goal Conversion Point shows where contacts were on the map when they converted. Click a goal to see how many contacts reached it from each element, as a number and a percentage. So if ten emails lead up to a purchase goal, you can see which email buyers were on just before they bought. Goal Conversion Time shows how long new leads took to reach each goal, as the average time from each element. That helps you forecast how long conversions take, for example by lead source.
You can also trace one contact's path. Copy their record ID from the system information tab, or from the record's URL. Open the map in Performance Mode, add "&contact_id=" and the ID to the end of the page address, and refresh. A 1 appears on every element they've passed through, and a yellow circle shows where they're waiting now. This works for other record types too, using the record's ID.
On Pro and above, there's one more tool. If your links use UTM tracking, the Tracking dropdown filters your map's results by UTM parameters, with first-click or last-click attribution. It shows you which lead sources are driving results. The Lead source tracking in Performance Mode lesson covers it step by step.
So: set your date range, read the stats on each element, click numbers to act on contacts, and switch reports to see your map from six angles. Next up: testing automations.