Setting up goals in Google Analytics is an important step to learning about your conversion funnel. It helps you learn things about your customers like which channels or mediums best convert as well as where potential customers typically drop off the funnel. Without a goal funnel it’s difficult to learn about your conversion rate. Setting up a goal might sound like a daunting task but it’s actually incredibly easy to do. While every operator is unique this can give you a foundation to start from.
Step 1: Navigate to the Goal Area
Goals are unique to each view within each property. To locate your goals navigate to Google Analytics and log in. Next find the view you wish to have your goal created and select “Goals”
Step 2: Configure Your Goal
Once you’ve clicked on the Goals section it’s time to set up your goal. This is done in three parts: type, description, and steps. In this case you can pick “Place an order” pre-defined template or “Custom” since we are tracking orders. TRYTN recommends the “Custom” type as it allows for more customization.
In this next step you’re asked to describe your goal. This description will appear as the name of the goal. The best practice for describing your goal is to ask yourself what the objective of the goal is. In our case the objective we’re looking for is “Place an order” so let’s add that in for the description.
It will also ask you for the type of goal. We recommend “Destination” for order or ecommerce goals as everyone who places an order ends up on a success or confirmation page.
The last step of the configuration of your goal is to set up the destination that considers the goal objective being met. In our case we’re going to have customers on the success page. We’re going to use something called Regular Expressions to allow for wildcards.
^.*success*There’s an optional step here to create a conversion funnel for your goal. This is highly recommended so you can learn more about how customers accomplish placing an order. Check the funnel box and create the funnel steps as outlined below. Since customers could enter from a product details page or the checkout page we don’t want to make the first step required.
It’s best practice to select the “Verify this goal” link to confirm your goal is set up properly. However if you’re setting up a new Google Analytics property that has little to no data it may result in a 0% goal conversion.
Step 3: Gain Insights
There are many different ways to look at the data from your new goal. Under “Conversions” and “Goals” you’ll find some pre-build reports. The Goal Flow and Funnel Visualization reports are extremely helpful to learn more about how customers convert on your site.
