Understand the importance of goals in Google Analytics and check the step-by-step guide to configure yours
The configuration of goals in Google Analytics is an essential step to analyze the conversions performed on your site, whether they are e-commerce transactions, lead generation, among other activities relevant to your business.
Therefore, if you are not yet tracking your goals in Analytics, it’s time to understand the details of how they work and check the step-by-step guide to create yours. Let’s go!
Why are Google Analytics goals important?
As you know, marketing objectives are very important to define the actions that will be carried out in your digital plan. Whether to increase the number of sales or brand visibility, it is essential to have a well-defined purpose along with goals that help achieve it.
That’s why Google Analytics offers the tool for goal creation and analysis to assist its users in reaching their marketing goals.
These goals are aligned with actions taken on the company’s or client’s website and should fit the type of business. For instance, an e-commerce always aims to increase sales, right? So the best way to achieve it is through the transactions made on it.
When these goals are configured properly, it is possible to measure the number of conversions the sales in the case of the online store the conversion rate of visitors into customers, revenue coming from each channel, and the average ticket, among other relevant metrics.
Without this detailed analysis, it becomes difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of your digital marketing campaigns and devise strategies that help achieve the best results for the company.
How to configure goals in Google Analytics
Configuring goals in Google Analytics is very simple. When you log into your account, follow the initial step-by-step.
- Access the administrator tab and then the property view you want to edit
- Then go to the View column and click on Goals
- Click on New Goal or Import from Gallery to define or edit your goals. If these options do not appear, it is because you have already reached the limit of 20 goals for this view
After this first step, you will have three options to create the goals: use a goal template, create a custom goal, or use smart goals, as we will see in more detail below.
Goal templates
After the first phase of goal creation, you must select a Template from the list and click on Next Step to start the necessary configurations.
The templates are available according to the company’s sector and are intended to make the goal creation and analysis process more practical according to the standards of each type of business.
Among the previously available objectives are those of Revenue, Acquisition, Inquiry and Engagement You can set goals for all of them to understand how users interact with the site, or just for those that are really relevant.
When you choose the ideal template, the most suitable goals are indicated. However, you have the freedom to edit any field before saving them.
Custom goals
As for custom goals, you need to select the option Customize after clicking on New Goal. Then, in the next step, you must choose the Goal Type most aligned with the actions that should be monitored. There are four available.
- Destination when a specific location like a webpage or app screen is loaded. To use it, just add the URL or screen name in the Destination field
- Duration tracks site sessions that last a certain amount of time or longer. If a person spends 15 minutes or more, for example, it can be considered a conversion
- Pages/screens per session when a user views a certain number of pages, you define how many, or screens in a session
- Event an action you defined as an event is performed by the user. Examples of possible interactions include video viewing or an ad click
With the goal type defined, you just need to click on Next Step again to finalize your settings.
Read also Sessions, users, and views in Analytics: what are the differences
Smart goals
Finally, there are the Google Analytics smart goals that can be set up in accounts that meet the necessary prerequisites, such as linking the account to Google Ads.
This type of goal is one of the simplest to configure since you just need to select Smart Goals and choose a name for it.
This is because these goals use machine learning to analyze the site sessions and determine which have actions that can be considered conversions.
Goal values
For goal templates or custom ones, it is possible to assign a monetary value to track and compare conversions. This way, you can determine what improvements need to be made on your site and marketing strategy.
How to share or import goals
Since goals are Google Analytics resources, their sharing with other users is possible. To do this, go again to the View column, click on Share Resources, and select the goals you want. Sharing can be done via link or the solutions gallery.
When a goal is shared, only the template will be accessible by another user. The data, however, remains private.
As for the goal import should be done through the Solutions Gallery. As with sharing, you will have access only to the model sent by the user and not to their site data.
Want to know more about Google Analytics Google Analytics? Click here and check out our complete guide to the platform.
