In order for Google Analytics to calculate goal conversion metrics, you must create one or more goals. Before setting up a goal, please make sure you have the following requirements.
Requirements
- The name of the goal: Specify a name that you will recognize when viewing the goals within each set of your reports. Examples of names you might use include "email sign-up"or "article ABC download."
- The defined funnel: You may specify up to ten pages in a defined funnel. Although funnels are optional, defining one can help you map where visitors drop off during the path to completing a goal.
- The value of the goal: Google Analytics uses an assigned goal value to calculate ROI, Average Score, and other metrics. A good way to value a goal is to evaluate how often the visitors who reach the goal become customers. If, for example, your sales team can close 10% of people who request to be contacted, and your average transaction is $500, you might assign $50 (i.e. 10% of $500) to your "Contact Me" goal. In contrast, if only 1% of mailing list signups result in a sale, you might only assign $5 to your "email sign-up" goal.
Setting up goals
After you've thought of what your goals will be, start setting up them up by following these instructions:
- Sign in to your Google Analytics account at https://www.google.com/analytics/.
- Select the account that contains the profile you'll be creating goals in from the Overview page.
- Find the profile for which you will be creating goals, and click 'Edit' under the 'Actions' column.
- Under the 'Goals' section, select one of the four sets to create your goal in (each set contains up to five goals) and click 'Add goal.' You can create up to 20 goals if you use all four sets.
- Enter the goal's name so that you can quickly recognize it when viewing reports.
- Turn the goal 'On' or 'Off.' If you choose 'On,' that means you want Google Analytics to track this conversion goal at this time. Turning it 'Off' will only make the goal inactive without deleting it.
- Select the goal's position. The pull-down menu lets you select a goal's position from within a set so that you can control the order in which it appears from the 'Goals' tab in your reports, or lets you move a goal from one set to another.
- Decide one of the three types of goals you want. This can be URL Destination, Time on Site, or Pages/Visit. You can learn more about them and how to set up the goals for each one by visiting a separate Help Center article.
- Once you select the radio button for the goal type, a field for 'Goal Details' should appear. To learn how to fill out the fields for each goal type, please refer to this Help Center article.
Defining funnels
After you've entered your goal information, define a funnel if you've selected a 'URL Destination' goal type:
- Click 'Yes, create a funnel for this goal.'
- Enter the 'URL' of the first page of your conversion funnel. This page should be a page that is common to all users working their way towards your goal. For example, if you are tracking user flow through your checkout pages, do not include a product page as a step in your funnel.
Please note: Funnel URLs are treated as regular expressions. For this reason, you can include wildcard characters and use other regular expression methods if you want to match more than a single URL. Learn more about regular expressions. - Enter a 'Name' for this step.
- If this step is a 'Required step' in the conversion process, select the checkbox to the right of the step. If this checkbox is selected, users reaching your goal page without travelling through this funnel page will not be counted as conversions. Learn more about the 'Required Step' option in a funnel.
- Continue entering goal steps until your funnel has been completely defined. You may enter up to 10 funnel steps, or as few as a single step.
- Click Save Changes to create this Goal and funnel, or Cancel to exit without saving.
