How to set up the conversion goals in Google Analytics to track results
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When managing your online marketing, the most important thing is tracking your performance and results accurately. The first step to do is to set up goals for growth in google analytics.
The popular analytical tool on the market is Google Analytics, which features everything from real-time reports on how many people view your website to insights into the kind of audience you attract. However, most of the questions of companies are, “How can I use Google Analytics to track my conversions?”
What are Conversion Goals in Google Analytics?
Goal/Conversions allow some of the best insights into your digital performance by highlighting how well your site performs in a specific area. For example, according to Google, your goals will determine how effective your or website meets your targets.
You can use goal/conversions to track:
- When people lose interest in your site.
- Number of conversions.
- Which marketing campaigns achieve the best results for your business.
- Conversion rates on your website.
Why should you set up Conversion Goals in Google Analytics?
Creating your goals will help you measure and compare metrics that give directly impact your business outcomes. As helpful as it is to look at average session duration, bounce rate, and many more, the most crucial metric will always be your conversions because they impact the bottom line. Goal conversions in Google analytics:
- Allow creating in-depth reports on your conversion rates and the opportunities to determine your ROI in advertising your campaigns.
- Increase your insight into important information like which pages they visit, where your customers come from, and how long they consume on your page.
- It is easier to track specific parts of your marketing campaigns to make decisions about your future.
How do you track your goal conversions in Google analytics?
Set up the Goal in Google Analytics and Choose its 'Type'
First, you need to sign in to your Google Analytics account and choose the “Admin” account at the top of your screen. You will see a column that says “View,” select it, and choose the + New Goal button at the top of your table.
After that, you click the New Goal button, and Google will ask you to load a new template or create a custom goal. Commonly, you want to create a custom plan, as it’s more beneficial for customization. Always remember to name your goal conversions in Google Analytics, which makes it easier to track, like “Blog CTA click-through” or “Completed Landing Page.”
You’ll need to choose also the “type” of goal you want to track. These are four options:
- Destination: This goal start when someone lands on a particular page on your website. For example, when someone visits the “Thank You” page after completing a form.
- Event: Event goals are recorded when particular actions occur. For example, this could include a social share, button click, or video play.
- Duration: This goal happens when the user consumes a particular length of time on your site.
- Screens/Pages: You can track this goal when a user visits a particular number of pages.
Here’s an insight into when and how you should use each goal.
Destination Conversion Goals
Destination goals are one of the most famous goal conversions in Google analytics. When someone is visiting a particular page on your site, Google tracks that visit. Companies usually use the destination goals for newsletter signups, track the number of resource downloads, or form completions by leading users to a “Thank you” page after the conversion.
How to Use a Destination Goal
After you name the conversion goal and choose “Destination,” you need to fill out the following details: value, destination, and funnel.
The destination field is where you can define the pages that will identify a completed goal. You need to enter the URL of the page that you want to track. If you are not sure what your destination goal slug. You can go to your site, complete the goal, and check the URL. If you want to use only one URL, all you need to do is enter a single slug. If your URL changes constantly, you need to change the goal’s match type.
When the destination is set, you can assign a value to the goal. For example, you’ll need to know that every lead is worth $15 to the company. Enter this as a value so you can measure the ROI for each conversion.
The final choice for your destination goal is to create a funnel or a series of pages that your user can explore before they go to your conversion point. You can find more data on funnels at Google’s support center.
Duration Conversion Goals
Duration goals start when a user’s session lasts longer than a particular period. This option is not as common or popular as a destination goal. But, it can be helpful if you want to find out how to engage your customers with your content. If you are a publication looking for happy users or want to make sure that people are not spending too much time looking for support, you can measure the average session duration.
How to Use Duration Goals
Once you have given your goal a descriptive name and selected the “duration” as your goal type, you don’t have to fill in much data for this conversion option. All you need is the “value.” and the “duration.”
The duration is where you’ll define how long a user should be on your page before Google tracks them as being “converted.” The value dictates how much the length of time is worth of your business.
Pages/Screens per Session in Conversion Goals
Make sure that your visitors are not just coming to your website and then quickly clicking the back button and going elsewhere. Then you need the Pages/Screens per session goals. These conversions occur when visitors come to your chosen number of screens or pages in a single session. Like duration goals, publishers can measure even if readers are interested in more than just one of their stories.
How to Use Pages/Screens per Session Goal
Pages/Screens per session goal is works similarly to the duration goal. Again, you only need to enter two values – the financial impact of the conversion and the number of pages you want the visitor to look at.
When you enter the value into the field for pages/screens per session, only sessions when visitors plan to visit more than the pre-entered value will start your conversion tracking. You can set a particular value on how much an engaged customer is worth to you and then click “Save” to set your goal.
Event Conversion Goals
Event goals happen when a specific event occurs on a page.
An event on your website can cover almost anything, depending on how you choose to implement them. For example, you can track the forms that don’t necessarily redirect the visitors to another page, or they can tell you how frequently someone views a video, clicks on a button, or does something else important on your site.
Google Analytics events are clever concepts, but they are a bit complicated. It’s a good idea to check out Google’s Guide to Events before you start. The report from Google will cover everything you need to know about this category.
How to Use Event Goals
As with the goal conversion in Google Analytics, you’ll need to choose the definitive name for your goal and determine where you want to implement the tracking conditions. If you know which exactly event you wish to use as your goal, you can add the category, action, label, and value to the event conditions field offered by Google.
Most importantly, if you’re unsure about some of the details, it’s worth acknowledging that you don’t need to fill out every field. Google Analytics only tracks the events that match in all areas that you complete as a goal.
How to Track The Conversion Goals in Google Analytics
Lastly, with your type of goal set up and details entered, all that’s left is to track the completion of your goals. You can do it by signing into your Google Analytics account and going to Conversions > Goals > Overview.
From the down list, select your Goal type, and you’ll be able to view things like your Goal completions, Goal conversion rate, abandonment rate, and many more.
Finishing Thoughts
Once you set up your goals, it allows you to figure out how much each page or channel provides your bottom line, and it’s easier to determine the ROI in each campaign. When you try to make sure that your ROI is up to scratch, some things are more valuable than a reliable goal conversion strategy in Google analytics.
