Quick answer: Goals in Google Analytics record when a visitor completes an action you care about, such as sending an enquiry, signing up or buying. You set them up per view under Admin, then Goals. The most useful types are destination goals, which fire when someone reaches a page such as a thank you page, and event goals, which fire when a tracked event happens, such as a form submission or phone number click. Add a value where you can, build a funnel for important processes, and test each goal before relying on it.
Without goals, Google Analytics tells you how many people visited and what they looked at. With goals, it tells you which pages, campaigns and traffic sources lead to enquiries and sales. That is the difference between a report that describes traffic and one that helps you decide where to spend time and money.
Types of goals
Universal Analytics offers four goal types.
Destination
Fires when a visitor reaches a specific page. This is the most common type, usually a “thank you” or confirmation page shown after a form is sent or an order is placed. You can match the URL exactly, by the beginning of the URL, or with a regular expression.
Duration
Fires when a session lasts longer than a set time. It can be useful for content sites, but time on site is a weak measure of real value for most businesses.
Pages or screens per session
Fires when a visitor views a set number of pages. Like duration, it is a rough engagement signal rather than a business result.
Event
Fires when a specific event is recorded. Events are sent by your tracking code when something happens that does not load a new page, such as clicking a button, playing a video, downloading a file or submitting a form that stays on the same page.
For leads and sales, destination and event goals are the ones that matter.
Choosing what to track
Start with actions that are directly tied to revenue:
- Contact and quote request forms.
- Phone number clicks on mobile.
- Email address clicks.
- Booking or appointment confirmations.
- Account or trial sign ups.
- Completed purchases, if you do not use Ecommerce tracking.
Then add secondary actions that indicate interest:
- Newsletter sign ups.
- Brochure or price list downloads.
- Visits to the pricing page.
Each view can have up to 20 goals, organised in four sets of five. Keep the list focused. If everything is a goal, nothing stands out.
Setting up a destination goal
- Make sure your form sends visitors to a unique thank you page, such as
/thank-you/. - In Google Analytics, go to Admin, choose the right view, then Goals and New Goal.
- Choose Custom (or a template), then give the goal a clear name, such as “Contact form sent”.
- Choose Destination as the type.
- Enter the page path. “Equals to” is the strictest match; “Begins with” is useful if the URL has parameters.
- Optionally add a value and a funnel.
- Click Verify this Goal to see how often it would have fired over the last seven days, then save.
Make sure the thank you page cannot be found by other routes. If it appears in your menu, sitemap or search results, visitors who never sent a form will trigger the goal. Set it to noindex and keep it out of navigation.
Setting up an event goal
When a form does not redirect to a new page, or when you want to track clicks, use events.
Sending the event
Events need a little extra tracking code, or a tag in Google Tag Manager. An event has:
- Category, such as “Form”.
- Action, such as “Submit”.
- Label, such as “Contact page”.
- An optional value.
For phone links, a click on a link starting with tel: can send an event with category “Contact” and action “Phone click”. Google Tag Manager’s built in click triggers make this possible without editing the site’s code for each link.
Many WordPress form plugins can send events on submission, either built in or through an add on.
Creating the goal
In the goal setup, choose Event, then enter the category, action and label to match. You can match one, two or all three. Leave a field blank to match any value.
Test by triggering the event yourself and checking the Real Time reports, under Events and then Conversions.
Goal values
Giving each goal a value lets Analytics calculate the value of pages and traffic sources. Even a rough value is better than none.
A simple method for leads:
- Estimate how many enquiries become customers.
- Estimate the average value of a new customer.
- Multiply the two to get an approximate value per enquiry.
Use your own figures, and revise them as you learn more. If you sell online, use Ecommerce tracking for actual revenue instead of fixed goal values.
Funnels
For destination goals, you can define a funnel: the steps a visitor should go through before reaching the goal page. For example:
- Cart.
- Checkout details.
- Payment.
- Confirmation (the goal).
The Funnel Visualization report then shows how many people drop out at each step. This is one of the most useful reports for finding where a checkout or sign up process loses people. Mark the first step as required if you only want to count visitors who started at the beginning.
Reading goal reports
Once goals are running, you will find them throughout Analytics:
- Conversions, then Goals, Overview for totals and conversion rates.
- Acquisition reports with the goal selected, to compare traffic sources.
- Landing Pages report with a goal selected, to see which pages start sessions that convert.
- Reverse Goal Path, to see the last few pages visitors viewed before converting.
The Multi Channel Funnels reports show conversions where several visits played a part, which is helpful when people visit more than once before getting in touch.
If you are linking organic search data from Search Console, our guide to connecting Search Console to Google Analytics explains how.
Common mistakes
Counting the same conversion twice
If a visitor refreshes the thank you page, a destination goal still only counts once per session. But setting up both a destination goal and an event goal for the same form will double your figures. Use one.
Thank you pages reachable from search
As mentioned above, keep them out of search and navigation.
Spam traffic
Referral spam and ghost traffic can trigger goals or distort conversion rates. Filter it out with view filters and check the Referrals report regularly.
No test after site changes
A redesign or form plugin update can break goals without warning. Check goal numbers after every significant change, and set up a custom alert in Analytics to warn you if conversions drop to zero.
Goals in the wrong view
Goals apply to the view they are created in, and only from the moment they are saved. They do not apply to past data. Create them in your main reporting view, and keep an unfiltered view as a backup.
Single page sites and apps
If parts of your site load content without new page views, such as a booking widget or an app style interface, destination goals may not work. Use virtual page views or events instead. Our article on tracking single page applications covers this in detail.
FAQ
How many goals should I set up?
Usually between three and ten. Enough to cover your main business actions without cluttering the reports.
Do goals work on past data?
No. Goals only record conversions from the date they are created.
Should I use goals or Ecommerce tracking for an online shop?
Use Ecommerce tracking for sales, as it records revenue, products and transactions. Use goals for other actions, such as account sign ups or enquiries.
Want to know what is actually bringing in business?
We set up goals, events and reports so you can see which pages and channels bring leads and sales. See how we help businesses know what’s working.
