No matter what your industry is – whether it’s healthcare, automotive, travel or anything else – analytics can help you better understand your clients and improve your ROI. Many websites that have Google Analytics installed do not have Goals configured.
This article will explain the different goals that Google Analytics offers and how you can use them. We are excited to teach you all you need to about GA Goals to help you improve your online business using data-driven decision. Let’s get started!
First, what are Google Analytics goals?
Google Analytics’ goals allow you to track different actions that users perform on your site. This includes visiting a webpage, submitting an online form, purchasing a product, and so on. The conversion rate of your goals is also measured.
You can measure your marketing success and profitability by tracking website goals that align with your business objectives.
You must first determine what actions you would like your visitors to take before you can measure the success of your goals. You want them to buy something? To view a video? You may also want to ask for a quote.
You can track these goals in Analytics. They can be used to determine how many pages a user views during a session, which pages they visit or what events they cause while on your site. Learn which goals Google Analytics offers.
How to Set up your Google Analytics Goals
1. Google Analytics Standard Reports
2. Click the “Admin” icon in the upper right corner.
3. Click on “Goals”.
4. Click “+New Goal” or Import From Gallery to create your new Goal Sets. Click on an existing goal to edit its configuration.
Three basic options for creating goals in Google Analytics
Create Custom Goals
Smart Goals
Use a goal template
If you choose option 3, then select the template that best suits your needs from the list, and click on “Next Step”. You can now continue to set up your goal. Google Analytics templates will help you create goals that are actionable and follow standard business objectives. You can edit any field in the template before saving a goal. This includes Engagement, Inquiry or Acquisition.
Here is a breakdown of all the Google Analytics Goals you should set up to track the metrics that lead to your business’s success!
Google Analytics goal types that are important to your business
1. Destination Goals
You can track your users’ actions when they arrive on a particular page of your website. Enter the URL of any webpage as your goal, and GA will track that as a conversion every time someone visits that particular page! Simple, isn’t it?
How can you use this destination goal? This is a great way to track how many people land on your thank-you pages, order confirmation pages or add-to cart pages.
You can have a Thank You Page on your website. This is the page a visitor will see after signing up for your newsletter. You can count the number of page views if you create a destination goal.
Set the Destination Goal
You can make changes to the settings as you create your destination goal. Select the URL type first and then select the options below.
Use Begins With to track your links if you have multiple pages to track. It is best to use this if you’ve set up custom URLs for your campaigns with UTM codes or tags.
Equals to – If you have a specific page to track, then you can select Equals to then add the web address (www.example.com/order-completed or /order-completed, for tracking.
Regular expressions – These provide more flexibility in defining URLs. They are ideal for specifying segments, filters and UTM codes.
Case Sensitive
Check the box if uppercase and lowercase characters are used in your URL to link to more than one webpage. It is usually best to leave the box unchecked.
Goal Funnels
This part of URL Destination Goals is very useful, as it lets you see how many people have moved through each step in the marketing process. You’ll know which pages need to be fixed, how many people leave the funnel at certain steps, and more.
A funnel is an arrangement of web pages leading to a specific destination. It may, for example, include the steps of your eCommerce website checkout process which lead to a Thank You page. Be careful when using goal funnels. This is because they are only useful when your visitors need to navigate through several web pages.
Remember that website visitors rarely follow a straight path. A goal funnel will not necessarily help you understand how your visitors move from one page into another. Google Analytics also tracks visitors to the funnel even if they jump in the middle.
You’re done! You can also add a value to the conversion once you’ve selected your URL match. This can be done in the Value section. This works best on eCommerce sites so that you can easily track purchases.
2. Duration Goals
Duration goals will help you determine the amount of time that visitors spend on your site. These goals can be useful for tracking user engagement. You can, for example, see how many people actually read your content, do various activities and stay on the website longer than a few moments.
You can set a specific time limit for your duration goal. If you are unsure of how many minutes, hours or seconds to set your duration goal, you can look at the average amount of time that each user spends on websites. Choose a realistic time limit or duration for your site.
3. Visit Goals/ Pages per Session
Google Analytics allows you to easily set up a goal called Pages per Visit or Visit Goals. This goal tracks how many pages a person visits before they leave. This goal is similar to the Duration goal in that it helps you track user engagement on your site and identify sections where improvements may be needed.
Google Analytics will show you the number of screens/pages per session under the Goal slot ID. You can click on that link to specify the number of screens or pages that users must view in order for it to be considered a conversion. You can set your Visit goal as greater than five screens or pages per session to track highly engaged users. You can then have a more meaningful and personal conversation with your clients because you know what they need.
Are you ready to discover the last goal available in Google Analytics now?
4. Event Goals
Website owners can track visitors’ actions by using event goals. Google Analytics events can be useful when you want to track the number of visitors who have filled out a web form, downloaded files, or watched videos, for instance.
You must create these goals because they are not tracked automatically if you do not have them set up in Google Analytics Goals. Sign in to Google Analytics, navigate to your view, click on Reports and select Behavior.
You will typically set an action parameter that names the type of event or interaction you wish to measure on a web object. This parameter can be used to analyze events for a specific “Videos” category.
Clicking the “Pause button”
Clicking the “Play” button
Clicking the “Stop” button
It is entirely up to you to decide what name to give the action. Keep in mind that each action is listed independently from its parent category and that an event’s uniqueness is determined by the name of that specific action. Although you can duplicate the action names within categories, this could impact how Google Analytics calculates unique events. Google Support has free Google Analytics resources and tips.
You can also add GA to your WordPress website without having to hire a developer. HubSpot is one of the options. Others include Google Analytics WD and Google Analytics GA.
5. Goals of Inquiry
Inquiry goals are used to track the actions taken by visitors who show an interest in your product, your service, or business. These actions include viewing information such as your phone number, email address, or other contact details.
This Goal can be set up to track people who read reviews about your company, use live chat on your website (if it is enabled), request a service and more! Inquiry goals can be important for service-based businesses and B2B companies, as their clients cannot make purchases on their website. Contacting these businesses to get more information is the best way for them to gain a paying client.
Takeaway
Google Analytics can be used to analyse your company’s data and decide if you are spending your marketing budget wisely.
Setting up Google Analytics Goals that are important is also a very simple process. We hope that you will start setting up the Google Analytics Goals we have shared to better understand their impact on marketing campaigns and your online business.