In this lesson we'll talk about tracking macro and micro conversions in Google Analytics.
We do this using a feature called "Goals."
We'll walk through how Goals are set up and then have you practice on your own test account.
Just a note - we're going to walk through creating Goals for a website, not an app.
But the app process is very similar.
Setting up Goals in Google Analytics is one of the most important parts of implementation.
Goals are the way that we map the data in Google Analytics
to the key performance indicators that you defined in your measurement plan.
Anytime you think of conversions, you should think about "macro conversions" and "micro
conversions".
Macro conversions are your primary business objectives.
Micro conversions are the relationship building activities that lead up to a macro conversion.
As an example, for our fictional outdoor company, the macro conversion is to sell products.
A related micro conversion could be a sign-up for a promotional newsletter.
When a user signs up for a newsletter it's an indicator that she wants to stay connected.
It gives us, as a business, an opportunity to continue to market to the user
and hopefully convert her into a customer.
Once you enable Goals, you get metrics like the number conversions and the conversion
rate.
These metrics are always available in the Conversion section of your standard reports.
But you can also find these metrics in almost every other report in Google Analytics.
This is useful because the reports allow you to segment your conversion data.
For example, if you look at the conversion rate metrics in the Traffic Sources report
you can instantly see which marketing channels drive the most value for your business.
Now let's talk about the specific features of Google Analytics Goals.
Goals are configured at the view level.
That means you can create different Goals for each view.
There are four types of Goals.
Each Goal is slightly different to set up, but they all do the same thing --
they track conversions on your website or in your app.
First let's talk about Goals that track user actions.
A destination Goal is a page on your website that users see when they complete an activity.
For an account sign-up, this might be the "thank you for signing up" page.
For a purchase this might be the receipt page.
A destination Goal triggers a conversion when a user views the page you've specified.
If you're setting up a Goal for an app, you'd set up a screen view Goal rather than a destination
Goal.
The second type of Goal you can use to track a user action is an Event Goal.
This kind of Goal is triggered when a user does something specific
like downloading a PDF or starting a video.
You need to have Event Tracking implemented on your website in order to use this type
of Goal.
The last two types of Goals can be used to measure user engagement.
Engagement can be measured based on the amount of content that people see
or the amount of time that they spend on your site.
A Pages per Visit Goal is triggered when a user sees more or fewer pages than a threshold
that you specify.
A Time on Site Goal is triggered when a user's visit exceeds or falls below a threshold that
you set.
Let's talk through how to set up a destination Goal for a website.
When you select "Destination" as the Goal type, you specify the Goal page.
You don't have to enter the entire URL for the page.
Just enter the request URI - that's what comes after the domain or hostname.
So, if the complete URL is myoutdoorstore.com/confirmation.html,
you only need to enter /confirmation.html.
Make sure that the URI corresponds to a page that the user only sees
once they complete the conversion activity.
So, pick something like the "Thank You" page or a confirmation page for your Goal.
You can also enter a name for the Goal, like "Completed Order."
This name will appear in your reports.
When you set up a destination Goal, you have three choices for the Match Type option:
Equals, Begins with, and Regular Expression
The Begins with match type indicates that the page URI must begin with what you specified
as the Goal URI.
So, if you specify "/thankyou" as your Goal,
any page URI that begins with "/thankyou" will count as a conversion.
For example, visits to "/thankyou.html" or "/thankyou.php" would both count as a Goal
conversion.
"Begins with" provides flexibility with limited complexity.
It works to track most destination Goals.
The Equals match type means that the URI of the page visited
must exactly match what you enter for the Goal.
In contrast to Begins With, which can be used to match multiple versions of a URI,
an Exact Match only matches one single URI.
The Regular Expression match type gives you the most flexibility,
but requires you have expertise in Regular Expressions.
For example, if you want to count different pages, all with different URIs as a Goal,
you can create a regular expression pattern
that will give Google Analytics the set of rules to match any of these URIs.
To learn more about Regular Expressions, check out the resources in this lesson.
Another part of the Goal setup process is the verification tool.
This simple tool let's you quickly test your Goal settings before completing the process.
Just click the "Verify this Goal" link and Google Analytics will give you an expected
conversion rate for this Goal,
based on your settings, for the last 7 days.
If the conversion rate seems too high or too low then there's probably an issue with your
settings.
The "Goal Value" field allows you to specify a monetary value for a Goal.
This is really useful because Google Analytics will interpret the Goal value as actual revenue.
By setting a Goal value, you make it possible for Google Analytics
to calculate metrics like advertising ROI and average per visit value.
These metrics will help you measure the monetary value of a non-ecommerce site.
If you're having trouble calculating a Goal value
think about how much each user action, or Goal conversion, is worth to your business.
Let's say your website generates sales leads.
If your sales team closes sales on 10% of the leads, and your average transaction is
$500,
you might assign $50 or 10% of $500 to your Goal value.
For each destination Goal that you create, you can also set up a funnel.
A funnel is the defined process that you expect users to complete prior to conversion.
A sales checkout process is a good example of a funnel.
To complete a transaction, the user must add items to a cart,
enter shipping information, and submit payment information.
To define a funnel, you specify the pages leading up to the Goal.
Notice that there is no match type for the funnel steps.
Google Analytics uses the same match type that you used for the Goal page.
You can also provide a name for each step in the funnel,
which will show in your reports.
Defining a funnel is valuable, because it allows you to see where users enter and exit
your define process.
Using the Goal Flow report you can identify where users might be having issues with an
important step.
For example, if you notice that many of your users never go further than the shipping information
page,
you might focus on redesigning that page so that it's simpler.
Knowing where customers drop off during the process
allows you to eliminate bottlenecks and create a more efficient conversion path.
In addition to conversion metrics, setting up Goals also activates the Multi-Channel
Funnels reports.
These reports show you the path a user took toward conversion across multiple visits to
your site.
Conversion path data is generated for each Goal conversion and ecommerce transaction
recorded by Google Analytics.
If your site sells products or services online, you can also use Google Analytics ecommerce
reporting
to track sales activity and performance.
The ecommerce reports show you transactions, revenue, and many other commerce-related metrics.
Some examples of the kind of information you can get from the ecommerce reports include
the products that were purchased from your online store, a list of transactions,
and the number of times people visited your site before purchasing.
In order to use ecommerce reporting, you need to do the following three things.
First, enable ecommerce reporting within your Analytics website view.
Second, add the Google Analytics Tracking Code to your receipt page or "Transaction
Complete" page.
Finally, add some additional ecommerce tracking code to your receipt page
so that you can capture the details of each transaction.
Your development team needs to be involved with this set-up process.
Please refer to the resources in this lesson to find more details on how to implement ecommerce
tracking.
If you do use ecommerce tracking in Google Analytics,
there is an important difference between Goal conversions and ecommerce transactions that
you should be aware of.
A Goal conversion can only be counted once during a visit,
but an ecommerce transaction can be counted multiple times during a visit.
Here's an example.
Let's say that you set one of your Goals to be a PDF download
and you define it such that any PDF download is a valid Goal conversion.
And let's also say that the Goal is worth $5.
In this case, if a user comes to your site and downloads five PDF files during a single
session,
you'll only get one conversion worth $5.
However, if you were to track each of these downloads as a $5 ecommerce transaction,
you would see five transactions and $25 in ecommerce revenue.
One more thing about Goals and ecommerce transactions.
As a best practice, you should only add a Goal value for non-ecommerce Goals.
The reason is that Goal value is cumulative.
If you add a Goal value, and you track transactions with the ecommerce tracking code
Google Analytics will add the value of the transaction to the value of the Goal.
Now it's your turn to try setting up a Goal in your test account.
Follow the instructions in this lesson to complete your Goal set-up.