Setting goals (5)

About goals

Use goals to measure how often users complete specific actions. Goals measure how well your site or app fulfills your target objectives. A goal represents a completed activity, called a conversion, that contributes to the success of your business. Examples of goals include making a purchase (for an ecommerce site), completing a game level (for a mobile gaming app), or submitting a contact information form (for a marketing or lead generation site). Defining goals is a fundamental component of any digital analytics measurement plan. Having properly configured goals allows Analytics to provide you with critical information, such as the number of conversions and the conversion rate for your site or app. Without this information, it’s almost impossible to evaluate the effectiveness of your online business and marketing campaigns.

Create, edit, and share goals

To create a new goal navigate to your goals:

• Sign in to Google Analytics.
• Click Admin, and navigate to the desired view.

• In the VIEW column, click Goals.
• Click + NEW GOAL or Import from Gallery to create a new goal, or click an existing goal to edit its configuration.

Note: If + NEW GOAL and Import from Gallery are not visible, then you have already created the maximum of 20 goals for the current view.

You have 3 basic options for creating goals:

• using a goal template – Select a Template from the list. Click Next step to continue setting up your goal. Goal templates are designed to help you set actionable goals that meet standard business objectives. You can edit any template field before saving a goal. The goal categories (Revenue, Acquisition, Inquiry, Engagement) are the larger business objectives that motivate the goal templates. Use them as an organization tool to help you think about the purpose of your goals. Try to create at least one goal for each category to get a better understanding of how users interact with your content. These categories don’t affect any data or your reports.
• creating custom goals – Follow the steps to create a new goal (above), then select Custom from the list of options. Click Next step, then select a goal Type. Click Next step again to continue setting up your goal. See the Goal types section below for more information about setting up custom goals.
• creating Smart Goals – If your account meets the prerequisites, you will have the option to select Smart Goals. Follow the steps to create a new goal (above), then select Smart Goals (if available). Click Next step to continue setting up your goal. Smart Goals require no additional set up. If your account meets the prerequisites, all you need to do is select Smart Goals from the goal Types list and then give your goal a name. (That’s why we called them “Smart Goals!”)

Goal types

As described in About goals, there are a number of different goal types, each used for a different kind of action you can measure. If you use a template, the best fit will be suggested for you. If you set up a custom goal, select the type that best fits the action you need to track.

• Destination goal – Use destination goals to treat a pageview or screenview as a conversion. Enter the screen name or page URL in the Destination field. Specify the match type as Equals to, Begins with, or Regular expression. A funnel refers to the path your users take to reach a particular destination. You can specify the screens or pages the user must visit prior to the final destination goal by turning on the Funnel option. For each step in the funnel, click +Add another Step, then enter a page name or an app screen name, as you did in the Destination field.
• Duration goal – Measure user engagement by treating minimum session duration as a conversion. The Hours, Minutes and Seconds fields specify the minimum session time that qualifies as a goal conversion. Any session longer than this amount of time will generate a conversion.
• Event goal – Treat user interactions with your site or app as a conversion. You must first set up at least one Event to use Event goals. Use the Event conditions to configure the event components.
• Pages/Screens per session goal – Measure user engagement by treating the number of pages or screens per session as a goal. Users who view more than the specified number of pages or screens will generate a conversion.

Goal value

Assigning a monetary value to a goal gives you a way to compare conversions and measure changes and improvements to your site or app. All goal types except Smart Goals let you assign a value during the setup process. There are special considerations when setting up an Event goal or a goal that involves Ecommerce Tracking. Expand the sections below to see these considerations.

There are two ways to set the goal value for an Event type goal:

• Use the Event value as the goal value. This will be whatever is defined in your Event tracking code as the value. Depending on your setup, this might not be a monetary amount. If you haven’t defined an Event value, the goal value will be empty. Change the goal value option to YES in the setup for this configuration.
• Use a goal value. This works like setting a value for other types of goals. Keep the goal value option to NO in the setup for this configuration, and manually set the value.

Verify your goal

Click Verify this goal to test your goal setup. This will calculate a conversion rate for this goal based on your data from the past 7 days.

This test is based on data in your account, and not actual conversion data. It is not a projection of how well your goal will perform.

Revise or Edit a goal

You can revise a goal you are in the process of defining by clicking the Edit link next to a previous step. To edit an existing goal, navigate to the goals list and click the goal name to follow the step by step flow again.

Navigate to your goals:

• Sign in to Google Analytics.
• Click Admin, and navigate to the desired view.
• In the VIEW column, click Goals.
• Click an existing goal’s name to edit its configuration.

Recording status

As soon as you create a goal, it starts recording data. You can pause a goal by changing the recording status to OFF. No data is recorded for a goal when turned off.

To change a goal’s recording status:

Because goal conversions are calculated and applied as your data is processed, it is not possible to delete a goal. If one of your goals becomes obsolete or irrelevant, turn off recording instead.

• Navigate to your goals.
• Locate the goal you wish to change.
• Turn the Recording toggle ON or OFF.

Share and import goals

After you have created and saved a goal, you can share it with other Analytics users, just as you can other assets, such as Dashboards, Segments, Channel Groupings, etc. To share a goal:

When you share assets, only the configuration information is shared. Your data remains private.

Importing goals from the Solutions Gallery

Instead of creating your own goals, you can import them from the Solutions Gallery. When you import an goal from the Solutions Gallery, only the template is imported into your account. You can use that goal to track the conversions in your Analytics account, not the conversion data from the person that created the goal.