Google Analytics Goal Tracking

What Four Types Of Goals Are Available In Google Analytics?

Gordon Choi
Gordon Choi
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A typical ecommerce website needs to track purchases or registrations as conversions. Such conversions can be defined in Google Analytics as goals (or goal conversions).

Setting up goals to track either purchases or registrations is similar in Google Analytics. Let’s consider a case to set up goal conversions to track purchases on your site.

Types of Goal Conversions

Google Analytics has four goal types available.

  • Destination goals: They are specific URLs’ page views that were predefined as goals. For example, when a user completes a transaction on your site, he / she is then taken to a purchase completion page. When Google Analytics records a page view that happens on this purchase completion page’s URL, a goal conversion is also recorded.
  • Event goals: They are events that are triggered by non page view interactions on your site.
  • Pages per session goals: For example, a goal conversion is recorded if a user has viewed more than 3 pages on your site.
  • Session duration goals: For example, a goal conversion is recorded if a user has spent more than 10 minutes on your site.

Create a Destination Goal

Under your Google Analytics properties, go to:

View -> Goals -> +New Goal
  • Enter a goal name in Name field.
  • Choose a Goal Slot ID that is available.
  • Select Destination as Type.
  • Click Continue.
  • Enter a web page URL. If your goal conversion is purchase completion, then enter the purchase completion page’s URL.

Google Analytics requires one of the three ways to match your goal destination URL.

Equals to:

  • The URL has to match exactly what is entered, and should only include the path but not the hostname.
  • Enter /booking-completed/thank-you.html to exactly match /booking-completed/thank-you.html

Begins with:

  • The URL must begin with the string entered. It can continue with additional text at the end of the URL and should only include the path but not the hostname.
  • Enter /booking-completed/thank-you.html to match /booking-completed/thank-you.html?orderid=12345

Regular expression:

  • The URL has to match the regular expression pattern, and should only include the path but not the hostname.
  • Enter /thankyou.(html|aspx) to match /thankyou.html or /thankyou.aspx

Then you are given options to:

  • Assign a numerical value for a conversion e.g. RMB 100 for a conversion.
  • Add the steps as URLs (and with a Name to each URL) for your goal funnel.

Goal funnel

If you have your goal and goal funnel steps created correctly, then later you will expect to see the visual data in your goal funnel report.

  • Goal funnel provides a good way for you to visually see exactly which step most of your users departed without completing the funnel in full.
  • You can then use this information to make decisions on the exact spot on your site that you will have to focus fixing.

Now you can save your goal.

  • The total number of goal conversions is 1,205 (i.e. Reservation Booked) which means the number of times users have reached this pre-defined goal URL.
  • Users have entered the Booking Process step 2,858 times, and for 1,834 times they have left without completing the funnel in full. Only 1,024 (36%) times they have continued to the final step (i.e. the goal URL).
  • Users have entered the Checking Availability step 10,076 times, and for 7,218 times they have left without completing the funnel in full. Only 2,858 (28%) times they have continued to the next step (i.e. the Booking process).

Once you have created a goal, the goal starts reporting goal data in your Google Analytics view going forward. Your Google Analytics view does not retroactively reprocess goal data that could have happened prior to the goal creation.

Track User Registration via Goal Conversion

Assume your Chinese mobile website allows users to sign up (or register).

Your website has a registration form on this web page.

URL A: http://www.example.com/register

When a user successfully registered, he /she will be shown this registration success page.

URL B: http://www.example.com/register?success

To create this goal, under to your Google Analytics properties go to:

View -> Goals -> +New Goal
  • Enter “RegistrationSuccess” in Name field.
  • Choose a Goal Slot ID that is available.
  • Select Destination as Type and click Continue.
  • Enter /register?success. This is in the regular expression format which matches URL B.

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Content on Gordon Choi’s Analytics Book is licensed under the CC Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International license.

Gordon Choi’s Other Books:
The China Mobile SEO Book
Mobile Website Book

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