Set Google Analytics goals
Set Google Analytics goals
1. Create a list of success metrics for your website that you would like to measure with Google Analytics.
List actions taken by your website visitors that you consider valuable and that contribute to the success of your business. Some examples of success metrics you could measure are: product purchase, lead submission, newsletter subscription, and sent inquiry.
2. For each success metric, record the website URLs that your users visit after completing the action.
Typically, these are confirmation pages or thank you pages. Do not include the domain of your website in the list. Use /thankyou.html instead of www.example.com/thankyou.html.
3. In Google Analytics, click on admin, find the view column and click on Goals > +New goal.
Select Custom from the list and click Next. In the Name field, enter the name of a success metric you defined earlier. Choose Destination as the type. Enter the corresponding web page URL that you recorded for the success metric. Click Save.
4. Test your GA tracking by completing the action on your website, then navigating to Real-time > Conversions in GA and looking for the goal in the report.
If you see a number bigger than 0 under right now, your goal tracking is working.
5. Once you've been tracking for three months, navigate to Conversions > Goals > Overview and look for long-term trends in your goals.
Adjust the time range, select the last 90 days, and see how your goals trend over time. If you can see any negative trends, investigate further to find out which traffic sources contributed to this drop.
6. Navigate to Acquisition > All traffic > Source/Medium and compare the number of goals in the goal completions and goal conversion rate columns for each traffic source.
The goal conversion rate column indicates the percentage of visitors that complete the desired goal. Identify traffic sources with high completion and conversion rates, higher than the website average. Focus on driving traffic from these sources to boost the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
7. Go to Audience > Geo > Location and compare numbers in the Goal completions and Goal conversion rate columns for each geographic area.
Identify cities and regions with high number of goals and high conversion rate and consider making additional marketing campaigns targeting this area. Find cities or regions with a high number of users and a low conversion rate and consider excluding these areas from your marketing campaigns.
8. Go to Audience > Demographics > Age and compare numbers in the goal completions and goal conversion rate columns for each age group.
Identify age groups with high number of goals and high conversion rate and consider making additional marketing campaigns targeting this demographic. Find age groups that generate a lot of traffic and a low conversion rate and consider excluding these demographics from your marketing campaigns.