9. URL Based Goals
⢠Can be either actual page or virtual
pageview
â Pulled directly from content reports
⢠Multiple match types
â Exact match: Donât do it
â Head match: Sometimes do it
â Regular Expression match: Usually do it
10. Event Based Goals
⢠Match any singular or combination of
Category, Action or Label
â Events must be functional to be set as goals
⢠There are match type options here too
â Begins With
â Is Equal To
â That Matches
11. Engagement Based Goals
⢠Set thresholds to trigger goals
â Pages Per Visit
â Session Duration (Time on Site)
13. Success Points
⢠Goals should be any action that is a
success event
â Purchase
â Email subscription
â Creating an account
â Viewing a key content page
14. Key Engagement Metrics
⢠Set engagement thresholds
â A session that views more than 4 pages or
spends longer than 3 minutes and 10 seconds
on the site
â With a lot of data, you can set the average as
the threshold to gauge performance against
average
16. Have A Strategic Architecture
⢠Once a goal is set, it should never change
⢠If a goal is changed, the historic value
remains intact
⢠Calculations begin at the exact moment the
goal is set. They are not retroactive
⢠Future-proof your page settings
â If your conversion page changes, you can use
regular expressions match to keep tracking
consistent
17. Group Your Goals
⢠Google Analytics is separated into four sets
of five goals
⢠Group similar goals together
â This type of architecture provides great long-
term value and creates ordered structure within
the profile
18. Example Sets
Group 1: Transactional Group 2: Non-Transactional
Completed Purchase Account Creation
Cart Views Email Sign Up
Product Views
Group 3: Key Content Group 4: Engagement
Support Pages Above AvgPages Per Visit
Product Views Above Avg Visit Duration
19. Goal Score Framework
⢠A value can be assigned to each goal that is
set
⢠These values populate as a dollar value in
Google Analytics
â For example, for each 1,000 users that sign up for an email,
they purchase $150 worth of product. Therefore, the value
you assign to the Email Sign Up goal is $15.
20. Goal Score Framework
⢠For goals that do not have a directly attributed
monetary value, we can still assign a value
⢠A Goal Score Framework helps rate events on
a scale from 1 (low importance) to 10 (high
importance)
â Account Creation: 10
â View Shopping Cart Start Page: 7
â View Products: 4
â View Support Articles: 2
High value Low value conversion
conversion days day
22. Avoid These Common Pitfalls
⢠Improper match settings
â Test your settings in content reports to know what
the reports will look like
⢠For example, a match type of â/successâ could also
match â/?errorpage=/successâ
⢠Duplicating goals
â If you set up goals that are duplicated, it makes
extracting insights difficult
â Possible Exception: Duplicating goals for specific
funnel analysis, such as abandonment rate from
different starting points
23. Avoid These Common Pitfalls
⢠Temporary goals
â If possible, make temporary URLs permanent
⢠âConversion Rateâ metric in Google
Analytics is AGGREGATE of all goals.
â Be aware your aggregate conversion rate
might be over 100%
30. Custom Dashboards
⢠New dashboard widgets allow you to dive
deeper
â For example, you can view what language a
visitor is using sorted by the country they are in
and whether or not they completed a goal
33. Highlights
⢠Big improvement over previous view
⢠Retroactive
⢠Dynamically update nodes
⢠Segment views on different dimensions
⢠Apply default and custom segments
⢠Detailed information within each step
34. Best Practices
⢠Ensure the first step of the funnel is on a
logical page
â Abandonment Rate is calculated on this page.
Shopping Cart Home Page
35. Best Practices
⢠Donât select âfirst step requiredâ
â Outdated feature of deprecated funnel view
36. Best Practices
⢠Include all possible steps in the process
â Login error page
â Incorrect password page
⢠Any page not included in the flow will be
skipped over in the visualization
37. Best Practices
⢠Plan your goal architecture before saving
the goals
⢠Keep a record of your goal structure
â Make notes for future reference
39. Wrap Up
⢠Goals are a powerful tool to help extract
performance-based insights
⢠A strategic goal architecture is crucial
⢠Goal settings should be permanent to
avoid irregularities in data
⢠Strategic set up of funnel steps provide an
additional layer of insight into goal
abandonment and bottlenecks
40. Resources
⢠Visit AnalyticsPros.com/tools/goal-
planning-worksheet
â Download a template spreadsheet that allows
for effect goal framework creation
⢠Visit goo.gl/lGgAe for a secondary planning
worksheet to monitor current state and
preserve historic iterations
41. Questions?
Hit me with your best shot.
Fire away!
justin@analyticspros.com
@jutspen