Introduction
You may feel blinded to run a business without knowing how your website is performing, this might be a reason for your arrival here – To learn the process of setting up Goals in Google Analytics.
Google Analytics is a software offered by Google that helps digital marketers improve their business performance and increases their revenue.
According to trends.BuiltWith, 28,832,505 businesses are already on this platform. This should do the convincing.
In this article, we will be covering:-
- What is a “Goal” in Google Analytics?
- Learning the terms on Google Analytics
- The Types of Goals and How to Set Them?
- Best Tips for setting a Goal
What is a “Goal” in Google Analytics?
The first step to begin tracking on Google Analytics is not just signing up, it’s knowing where you’re headed.
Not sure how to set up GA? Read our comprehensive guide on Google Analytics.
“Goal” in Google Analytics is nothing but the aim of your business, in other words, what you really want to achieve from your business. Therefore, having a clear opinion on this factor will be very effective when it comes to selecting a Goal in Google Analytics.
This goal that you choose must help you with building your audience base. If you see a rise in audience engagement after you’ve fixed your goal, it’s an indication that you’ve nailed it!
Learning the Terms on Google Analytics
When you go to the Goals Page on Google Analytics, you will see a few terms with important data under them once you set your Goal.
It’s good to familiarize yourself with these terms to avoid confusion at the last moment.
Goal
‘Goal’ is the name or title you decide to give your Goal. Remember that it is different from the Goal Type on Google Analytics (what your business’s goal will be).
ID
Once you’ve attached your website to Google, you will be given a tracking ID which you will have to paste on your website’s API. This will help you retrieve performance data.
Goal Types
You will be asked to choose from Events Goal. Engagement Goal(tracks duration of usage or pages read), and Destination Goal.
Goal Value
You can assign a monetary value to your desired conversion which will help you see how profitable your idea is.
Past 7 Days Conversions
It tells you the number of times the goal you set has been achieved.
Recording
You can compare this feature to a switch. If you choose to keep it turned off, your goal won’t be tracked even if the specified action is performed. Google Analytics actively tracks for you. only if you have turned the feature on.
There isn’t just one goal option, there are a few types, as mentioned above.
Setting a goal is pretty basic if you ask me, so with no further ado, let’s learn how to set a goal for your business on Google Analytics.
The types of Goals in Google Analytics and How to set them?
Let’s start off with learning how to set a goal in Google Analytics, step by step.
- Go to the Google Analytics website and sign in to your account.
- Click on ‘Admin’, and navigate to the desired ‘view’.
- Once you’re in the ‘View’ column, click on ‘Goals’
- You could either click on the +NEW GOAL or import from the gallery to create a new goal in Google Analytics or you could click on an existing Goal to tweak a few configurations.
If you can’t see these options, it means you’ve reached the maximum number of goals on Google Analytics, You can create up to 20 goals.
After completing the following steps, you will be given 3 options to choose from:-
Creating Goal Template on Google Analytics
The template option gives you a standard set of options that any business would use. The options are – Revenue, Acquisition, Inquiry, Engagement).
– Select a template of your choice.
– Click on Next Step to continue
Using Custom Goal
You will be given a list of options when you click on Custom Goal in GA, pick the one that you think will suit your business.
– Select Custom from the list of options
– Click on Next Step to continue
Using Smart Goal
You can set a Smart Goal on Google Analytics if you want to track your Google Ads Performance. Don’t know how to set up Google Ads? Read our detailed guide here.
– Select Smart Goals
– Click on Next Step to continue
The real game starts only after you finish picking the options mentioned above. From this point, you will have to know the type of goal you want to pick.
To refresh your memory, let me mention them again.
- URL Destination
- Visit Duration
- Page/Visit
- Event
URL Destination Goal on Google Analytics
Your website may have a number of web pages that will be available for your customers to use.
Let’s be honest, not all your pages will have the same value. If you have an idea of the most valuable page on your website, you can use the URL Destination as your Goal.
Give your goal a distinct name to make it easier for other users to locate it.
There are other options that you must pick from to continue with the goal type.
Match Type
According to the match type you enter, Google will analyze and trigger your Goal.
If you pick Exact Match on Google Analytics, Google will go word by word verification to match the URL the user is on and the URL you set as your destination. If it’s identical, the visit will be recorded as a goal.
For the option of Head Match on GA, Google will be a little more lenient and will record visits regardless of the text which comes after the URL.
Regular Expressions on Google Analytics is a feature that will give you the free will to modify the conditions. You need to be seriously good with Google Analytics to nail this.
Case Sensitive
If you want to specify capital or running letters in your URL. Most people leave this box unchecked.
Goal Funnel
You are given a unique feature called Goal Funnel on GA. Using this, you can predetermine the way in which users navigate through your website by setting up something like a map.
At the end of the map must be your destination page. If you find out that most users leave after a certain page, you might need to optimize for Google Analytics to have a flawless funnel.
Is there a limit to the number of steps? Yes, 10 steps.
Visit Duration Goals on GA
Google Analytics tracks the amount of time spent by a user on your website. Google doesn’t count every minute. How this works is simple.
Every time a user visits your page, Google collects a stamp. When the user loads another page, another stamp is collected.
By comparing the duration between the two stamps, your duration is determined.
To set this goal, you need to enter the number of hours, minutes, and seconds that you think would be a suitable threshold.
You must also choose between the options – “Greater than” and “Lesser than”. If you’re looking for more engagement on Google Analytics, use the “greater than” option.
If your website is a FAQ answering one, choose the “lesser than” option.
Page/Visit Goals on Google Analytics
You can use this feature if you want to track the number of pages a user visits on your web page.
In the box where you have to fill in details, enter the number of pages that you want to set as your Goal and enter “Greater than” or “Lesser than” using the same tactics that you use for Visit Duration Goals mentioned above.
Event Goals On GA
You can set up events of different kinds that you wish to track on Google Analytics. The options are endless. You can track:-
- Downloads
- Email Submission
- Widget Usage
- Newsletter Subscription
- eBook Download
There’s so much more than this, the options vary from one business to another. Tracking Events in Google Analytics is a must if you’re looking to make gains for your business.
You will have to define the category, action, label, and value of the event in the boxes given to proceed. Remember that the event goal will be triggered only when each one of the defined conditions on the boxes above is met.
That’s all about the kinds of Goals and how to use them.
I’ve decided to give you a few tips to master goal setting in Google Analytics.
Best Tips for setting a Goal in Google Analytics
- This might be the first time that you’re using Google Analytics, at least for a few of you all. It is only natural to feel unsure about the progress of the goal you’ve newly set.
You can check the progress of your goal immediately using Real-Time Analytics. This will help you track conversions on GA and will help you check if your goals are being fired properly. To use this feature, make sure you’re working within a Google Analytics property that’s unfiltered.
- Always have an active eye on your Goal URLs and make changes immediately if you spot an error or mistake. Rectifying the problem immediately may safeguard your website from a downward spiral.
- To check if the funnel you set up for the URL destination goal on GA is working efficiently, you could try reversing the goal path and check if the users are actually making use of the path which you set up.
Conclusion
We learned all about the goal-setting process on Google Analytics. I hope you have useful takeaways from this blog. More on Marketing Tools
I hope you set valuable goals and achieve them at ease.
All the best to you and your endeavors!