Google Analytics Goal Settings – Types of Goals, & How to Set a Goal

Google Analytics is one of the primary tools that any website uses in order to track its incoming traffic. But is that all that we use Google Analytics for? No. Google Analytics provides you much more information than just about incoming traffic. One search information that Google Analytics provides you is information on how people convert or what kind of actions are being performed by people within your website. This is where Google Analytics goal comes in. Google Analytics helps you set specific goals in order to track specific conversions and assign value to these conversions. In this article, we will be discussing in detail the different kinds of goals that are offered by Google analytics and a step by step instructions on how to set them.

Note – If you’ve newly launched your website and haven’t set up a Google Analytics account yet, here is a step-by-step guide.

Where to find the Google Analytics Goal setting option?

In order to set up a goal in Google Analytics  –

• Log in to your Google Analytics account.
• Click on the ‘Admin’ button located in the bottom left pane

• Under the ‘View’ tab, you’ll find the option to set a goal in Google Analytics.  

Different ways to Track Goal in Google Analytics

There are 4 different ways to track a goal in Google Analytics –

1. Destination
2. Duration
3. Pages/Screens per session
4. Event

Each of these tracking mechanisms serves a different purpose as per your website is built or as per your goal requirement. We will be discussing each of these tracking mechanisms in detail in the next section.

1. Setting Google Analytics Goal – Based on Destination

A destination best goal allows you to keep a track of users who visit a particular URL within your domain. It could be a purchase successful page, a thank you page, or any other page within which you want to track your conversion.

How to set up a Destination URL based Google Analytics goal?

• First, navigate to the Goals tab as discussed in the previous steps.
• Select ‘Custom’ in Goal Setup, and click on ‘Continue’.

• On the Goal Description page, provide an appropriate name for your goal.
• Under ‘Type’, select ‘Destination’ and click on ‘Continue’.

• In the ‘Goal details’  page, provide the URL for which you want to track the conversion.

• Here, you also have the option to set a monitory value to the users who satisfy this goal (optional).

• Once you’ve provided the values, click on ‘Save’.

You’ve successfully created your new goal based on a destination URL.

2. Setting Google Analytics Goal – Based on Duration

This kind of a Google analytics Goal allows you to track the amount of time a particular user spends on your website. This can come in handy for content websites where the objective is to make the user go through the entire contents in the page and to have a certain amount of time dedicated from them.

How to set up a Duration based Google Analytics goal?

• Follow the steps mentioned in the previous section to reach the Goal Description page.
• In the Goal Description page, select Duration as the goal type and click on continue.

• On the Goal details page, you have the option to provide the duration a particular user needs to spend the website in order to qualify for this goal. You can specify the goal duration in hours, minutes, or seconds. Along with that you also have an option to provide a value for a particular goal (optional).
• Provide the relevant details and click on save.

You’ve successfully created your new goal based on time spent on your website.

3. Setting Google Analytics Goal – Based on Pages/Screens per session

As the name suggests, this goal track the number of pages visited by a particular user before they exit. This kind of goal comes in handy for support website where the objective is to make the user go through various support contents provided.

How to set up Pages/Screens per session based on Google Analytics goal?

• Follow the steps mentioned in the previous section to reach the Goal Description page.
• In the Goal Description page, select Pages/Screens per session as the goal type and click on continue.

• Provide a value for the number of pages a particular must visit in order to qualify for this goal. Along with that you also have an option to provide a value for a particular goal (optional).
• Provide the relevant details and click on save.

You’ve successfully created your new goal based on Pages/Screens per session in your website.

4. Setting Google Analytics Goal – Based on Events

This kind of goal is a bit more complicated as it requires events to be called within your website when a particular action takes place. An event could be any activity performed within the website – simple as viewing a video lesson or even making a purchase. It comes in really handy for big businesses or large companies with a lot of activities take place within the website and defining each activity individually would be a hassle. In such cases having predefined events within the website helps with the tracking.

How to set up an Event-based Google Analytics goal?

• Follow the steps mentioned in the previous section to reach the Goal Description page.
• In the Goal Description page, select Event as the goal type and click on continue.

• On the Goal Details page, you will have to provide relevant details pertaining to your events like your event category, action, label, or value. You have the option to use as many of them or as few of them depending on your need.
• Provide your relevant event-specific details in this section, assign a value if required, and click on Save.

You’ve successfully created your new goal based on the Events in your website.

How to verify the functioning of a Goal in Google Analytics?

Google Analytics provides you the option to verify which course that you created before you can actually use them. Testing the functioning of a particular goal is pretty simple and essential as well.

Follow the below mentioned steps in order to test functioning of a particular goal –

• Navigate to the Goals tab in your account and click on the goal for which you want to perform the test.
• Navigate to the Goal Details page.
• Click on ‘Verify this goal’ in order to verify the functioning of the goal that you have selected.

• Once you do that, Google Analytics will automatically give you the conversion rate of this particular goal in the past 7 days.

How to make use of a Google Analytics Goal?

A goal created within Google Analytics allows you to track distinct conversion based on your objective. It can be used to get the conversion from an overall channel level or as granular as campaign level.

Note – Since this is a newly created goal, it doesn’t have any values populated as such.

Summary

In the following article, we learned about the importance of having a Google analytics goal. We also learned about the different types of goals that Google Analytics helps you to set, step by step instructions on how to set each of these goals, and how to verify the functioning of each of these goals.   

Reference – https://neilpatel.com/blog/critical-goal-types/