Courses and teaching
Which launch, lesson or affiliate brought the students who stayed past the refund window.
A course sells in launches and, between them, through a free lesson, an email sequence and a sales page. Tally ties each enrolment, payment-plan instalment and refund to the visit behind it, so you can see which channels bring students rather than refunds.
14 days free, no card needed.
01How they sell
- One-offThe course paid in full, often during a launch with a deadline, so a large part of a launch's money can land in its last day.
- SubscriptionPayment plans of a few monthly instalments, and memberships that bundle all of a creator's courses.
- FreemiumA free mini-course or lesson for an email, which feeds the paid course's sales sequence.
02Payments it reads
- StripeCourses sold from the creator's own site through Stripe Checkout, with payment plans as subscriptions that end after the last instalment.
- Lemon SqueezyCreators who want a merchant of record sell the course through Lemon Squeezy, with orders, instalments and refunds read.
- PaddleLarger course businesses selling to learners in many countries use Paddle for tax; transactions, renewals and refund adjustments are read.
What Tally can't read
- Enrolments taken in Kajabi, Teachable or Podia's own checkout aren't read; only payments in your connected Stripe, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy or Polar account are.
- Affiliate commissions you pay out aren't read, and an affiliate's sales are only credited to them if their visitors arrive with a referrer or a tag.
- Progress inside the course, such as lessons watched, isn't counted unless those pages carry the snippet.
03Where buyers come from
- Email sequenceStudents who took the free lesson often buy from the third or fourth email; UTM tags on each email show which one closed the sale.
- AffiliatesPartners' links arrive with their site as referrer or their own tag, so each affiliate's revenue and refunds can be checked.
- YouTubeFree lessons on YouTube start long paths that end at the sales page weeks later.
- WebinarsA live training sends attendees to a time-limited offer, which can show as a sharp peak of sales in the hour after it ends.
04What Tally answers
When during a launch do people actually buy?
Peak hours shows sales or revenue by weekday and hour; set it to the launch window and you can see how much came on the last day and in which hours.
Peak hoursWhy are some enrolments missing a source?
Coverage gives the share of revenue linked to a visitor and the reason for every unlinked sale, such as a checkout opened without the visitor's id, with the snippet that fixes it.
CoverageHow long from the free lesson to buying the course?
Path to purchase gives the median time and visits from first visit to purchase, the share who buy on their first visit and a flow from first source to credited source.
Path to purchaseWhich channel's students finish their payment plan?
Lifetime value adds each instalment to the source of the student's first visit, so a channel whose students stop paying after the first instalment shows a lower average.
Lifetime valueDoes the free lesson sign-up lead to sales?
Count the sign-up as a goal and the goals view gives completions, conversion and the revenue of those visitors; a funnel through the sales page and checkout shows where students drop out.
Goals and funnels
05Numbers worth watching
- Refunds and chargebacks
- Refunds and chargebacks by source, which separate a channel that brings committed students from one that brings regret within the guarantee window.
- Renewals
- Instalments paid after the first, by source, which shows who completes a payment plan.
- Goal conversion
- The share of visitors who take the free lesson, by source and page.
- Coverage
- The share of revenue linked to a visitor; keep it high before ranking affiliates or launches.
06An example
Busiest on Mondays, 14:00–17:00
2.1× the visits of an average three hours. Post around Mon 13:00 to be there as they arrive.
Shades are each hour's average over the times this period holds it, so a weekday that comes round five times doesn't outshine one that comes round four. The totals beside and below are the period's actual sums, not averages.
07Setting up
- StripePass the visitor's id in the Checkout Session's metadata and in subscription_data, so every payment-plan instalment keeps the source.
- Any HTML sitePut the tag on the sales page, the free-lesson page and the checkout success page.
- Call tally('identify', { email }) when someone takes the free lesson, so a purchase from an email link weeks later links by email.
08Questions
My course runs on Teachable. Can Tally read the sales?
Not sales taken in Teachable's own checkout. Tally reads payments in your own Stripe, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy or Polar account, so courses sold through one of those from your site are covered.
How is a payment plan counted?
The first instalment is the sale, credited to the student's last visit that didn't come direct; later instalments are renewals that keep the first one's link.
A student is refunded within the guarantee. Where does it show?
Against the sale it reverses and the source credited for it, so that source's revenue and lifetime value fall.