How to Add Tooltip in Power BI Funnel

A Power BI funnel chart is fantastic for telling a high-level story about your conversion process, whether it's for sales, marketing leads, or user sign-ups. The problem is, that high-level view often raises more questions than it answers. To get real answers and understand why users are dropping off at a certain stage, you need to add more context. This guide will walk you through exactly how to add custom tooltips to your Power BI funnel charts to transform them from static visuals into interactive analytical tools.

First, Why Do Standard Funnel Charts Fall Short?

Imagine you have a straightforward marketing funnel chart showing these stages: Website Visits > Leads > Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) > Customers. You see a huge drop-off between "Leads" and "MQLs." The default funnel chart tells you the what (you lost 70% of your leads) but not the why.

Was it due to a specific traffic source sending low-quality leads? Were leads from a certain country failing to qualify? Is one ad campaign responsible for most of the drop-off? Without more data, you're just guessing.

The standard tooltip in Power BI is a good starting point. If you hover over a funnel stage, it will show you the stage name and its value. It might also show you the conversion rate from the previous stage. This is useful, but it’s still just echoing the numbers that are already visible on the chart.

To make truly informed decisions, you need to be able to hover over that "Leads" stage and instantly see a breakdown of where those leads came from. That’s where custom report page tooltips come into play.

Step-by-Step Guide: Creating a Power BI Funnel Chart with Custom Tooltips

We’ll break this down into three main parts: building the basic funnel chart, designing our custom tooltip page, and then linking them together.

Part 1: Setting Up Your Basic Funnel Chart

Before we can customize a tooltip, we need a funnel to work with. If you already have one, you can skip to Part 2. For this example, let's assume our data has two important columns: Stage (e.g., "Visits," "Leads," "MQLs") and Value (the count of people in each stage).

1. Select the Funnel Chart Visual: In the Visualizations pane on the right, click the Funnel chart icon. This will add an empty funnel visual to your report canvas.
2. Add Your Data: Drag your Stage field into the "Category" well and your Value field into the "Values" well. Voila! Power BI will generate a basic funnel chart.
3. Sort Your Stages: Funnels only work if the stages are in the correct order. Power BI often sorts them alphabetically or by value. To fix this, you'll need a separate column in your data model that assigns a numerical order (e.g., Visits = 1, Leads = 2). Go to the Data view, select your Stage column, go to the Column Tools tab in the ribbon, click Sort by Column, and choose your numerical order column. Now your funnel will display logically.

At this point, you have a functional funnel. If you hover over a stage, you'll see the default tooltip. Now, let’s go build something much more powerful.

Part 2: Designing Your Custom Report Tooltip Page

This is where we build the small pop-up window that will appear when you hover. The beauty of this feature is that the tooltip is just another report page that you can design with whatever visuals you like.

Step 1: Create a New Page

In the Power BI interface, click the yellow '+' sign at the bottom to add a new report page. It's a good practice to rename it immediately so you can find it later. Right-click the page tab and rename it something clear, like "Funnel Stage Tooltip Detail."

Step 2: Configure the Page for Tooltip Use

This is a crucial step. We need to tell Power BI that this isn't a standard, full-sized report page. With the new page selected (and no visuals selected), go to the Format pane.

• Open the Page Information card and toggle the Allow use as a tooltip switch to On.
• Next, open the Canvas Settings card. In the Type dropdown, change it from the default "16:9" to Tooltip.

You'll see the report canvas immediately shrink to a small rectangle. This is the canvas for your tooltip design. To make designing easier, navigate to the View tab in the top ribbon, go to Page View, and select Actual Size. This will zoom in so you can work comfortably.

Step 3: Add Visuals to Your Tooltip Page

What should you put on this canvas? Anything that adds valuable context! Let’s build an informative tooltip for our marketing funnel.

For example, let’s say we want our tooltip to show us a breakdown of leads by their original source (e.g., Organic Search, Paid Ads, Social Media).

1. Add a Card Visual for the Stage Name: Select the Card visual from the Visualizations pane and add it to your tooltip canvas. Drag the Stage field into the Card's data field. This will act as a header for your tooltip, dynamically showing which stage you're hovering over.
2. Add another Card for the Value: Add a second Card visual and add the Value field to it. This will show the precise number for that stage, which can be beneficial for clarity.
3. Add a Donut Chart for the Breakdown: This is the heart of the tooltip. Select the Donut Chart visual and add it to your canvas. Drag the Source field into the Legend field, and the Value field into the Values field. This will create a chart that breaks down the total value of the stage by its lead source.

One last but imperative step for your tooltip to work correctly: You need to teach Power BI to filter these visuals based on which funnel stage you're hovering over.

To achieve this, drag the Stage field from your Data pane into the tooltips well of the Format pane for each visual on your tooltip page. This ensures that when you hover over "Leads" on the main chart, the tooltip page knows to show you the breakdown for the "Leads" stage only.

Part 3: Activating the Custom Tooltip in the Funnel Chart

Now that we have built the tooltip, the next step is to link it to our funnel chart.

1. Navigate to Your Main Report Page: Click on the tab that takes you to the report page with the funnel chart.
2. Select your Funnel Chart: Click on the funnel chart to activate it and bring up the formatting options.
3. Navigate to the Tooltip Settings: In the Visualizations pane while the funnel is selected, locate the Format section, then General, and open the Tooltips section.
4. Configure the Tooltip: By default, the Type will be set to Default. Click on the dropdown and change it to Report page. Once you do, another option will appear letting you select a report page from the dropdown list. Select the page you created earlier, "Funnel Stage Tooltip Detail."

It's that simple! Go ahead and hover your mouse over different stages of your funnel chart, and you should see the new custom tooltip in action. As you hover, the visuals on the tooltip page should reflect the correct data.

Best Practices for Designing Effective Tooltips

Now that you know how to create them, here are some tips to ensure your tooltips are not just functional but truly insightful:

• Keep It Simple and Focused: A tooltip is not the place for an entire dashboard. Its purpose is to provide quick, contextual information. Resist the urge to overcrowd your tooltip with too many charts or numbers. Aim to strike the right balance of enough detail to be useful, without too much information to become overwhelming.
• Use Charts that Tell a Story: Consider the type of chart you use for your tooltip. Don't use pie charts for tiny parts of the whole, a simple bar chart or line breakdown could convey more over time in a tooltip. Line Charts in certain selections like this can help illustrate trends.
• Choose Fonts for Readability: Remember that tooltips are small and usually appear over other data. Use clear fonts with good contrast and legible font sizes that allow users to read quickly. Avoid clutter with background colors to make it difficult to see the information.
• Don't Repeat Data from Your Main Chart: Avoid adding a card that just shows the same value that's already on the funnel stage, ensure it's providing new context. The goal of the tooltip is to add information you couldn't get otherwise.

Final Thoughts

You've now gone beyond the limitations of a default Power BI funnel chart by building custom report tooltip pages. This technique allows you to provide in-depth insights to your analysis using a simple visual in an interactive way that answers the 'why' behind the data. By mastering this skill, you can empower users to make more informed decisions without navigating multiple dashboards or reports.

Graphed can assist in maintaining the integrity of your data and visual elements, by allowing users to see their integrated data and developed dashboards, providing a seamless experience of clicking through menus and presenting your stories efficiently and visually with clarity.