Google Analytics: Do 'Goals' actually work?
-
Hi,
Hoping someone can clarify this for me. I've set a goal up whereby the rule is to pick up all pages with "Thank-you" in the destination URL (regular expression). So, when someone fills out a form, it will count as a lead. I'm about 8 weeks in to the campaign now and measuring the last 4 weeks I've had a total of 30 goals completed. I have two issues with this and I really hope someone can help clarify:
-
Using a custom report I can see that I've actually had 52 Visits to the Thank-You pages, 49 Unique Visits and 60 pageviews. Where is Google getting the goals from?
-
I have 51 leads in my inbox from the campaign so far. So, much closer to the above stats in the custom report than in the Goal report. Why is this?
Thanking you in advance!
-
-
Did you ever figure this out? My hunch is that Dana's first suggestion might be the cause.
Are you sure the regex is set up correctly? It might help to export the list of URIs from analytics and test your regex against them in some kind of text editor w/ regex support, e.g., sublime text.
Did you get multiple leads from the same person? Google Analytics will only count a goal completion once per visit—so if the same person converts several times in one visit, you'll only see a single goal completion for them.
-
Well, there are about 40 products, out of which there are two different types of forms. So for example "red shoes" product page will go to either:
www.website.com/red-shoes/call-form/Thank-you
www.website.com/red-shoes/Info-Form/Thank-you
Repeat that across all products. The urls start to look a bit messy as you start to see all of the CLID (PPC) and other strings after the thank-you section of the URL. This is why I'm trying to just use a the regular match to say "Yeah, it contains Thank-you somewhere in the URL". Does this make sense?
-
can you private message me the site's URL or the thank you URL? I'm a little lost. You have + 80 forms pointing to the same "thank you" or confirmation page?
-
Hey Dubs,
Thanks for the reply. Much appreciated. Forgive me for being a little naive, does this mean the URL needs to begin with "thank-you" then? This would be ideal but the problem is there are over 80 forms and each have different mechanisms of working, which will result in various URL outputs. All I know is that in every outcome, "thank-you" will feature in the URL. Does this make sense?
Steve
-
Instead of using Reg Ex, can you set the goal using the head match instead? My understanding is that the head match will consider all url's that begin with the /thank-you. Google Analytics is constantly making updates to their interface, it appears the match type is now call "Begins with" instead of head match.
I tried to attach a cropped screen shot
-
Hi Dana,
Many thanks for prompt reply. I've actually heard this a few times now about people clicking X before the script can load. Would this also affect the recorded visits to that page as well? Also, the code is sitting just before , so perhaps moving it up to the top may help?
Welll the set up is very simply, there are no steps to it, for a goal to happen the user must hit a page with Thank-You in the destination URL. That's it! The only way to get to these pages is via a form and they're not indexed either. I'll look in to your question regarding commonality in visit paths, interesting suggestion and worth looking in to.
Stephen
-
Hi Steve,
I believe this discrepancy could be happening because in order for a "goal" to be completed, the analytics script must complete load on the "Thank You" page. Sometimes a user will "x" out of a page before the script can completly loading, so that lead doesn't get counted as a completed goal. Similar discrepancies happen when viewing conversion stats in Adwords versus Google Analytics.
If the previous scenario is not the cause, it could be something in the setup of the goal that isn't attributing a goal properly. Is there anything "in common" about the visitors' paths for the ones that weren't counted? Perhaps investigate that to see if perhaps you've included some steps that maybe don't need to be there...or if your "required" step can somehow be bypassed but still lead to a conversion.
Hope that helps a little!
Dana
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Tracking a Deposit Page Through Google Analytics: Which is a better way?
Good day to all, I do have game download website (Works like Google Play and Steam) and currently working on the deposit page which is payable by fund transfer and Paypal. The thing is I do not have a confirmation page that I can use to track all incoming successful and unsuccessful conversions for this deposit page. My question is, which is better to use for this kind of tracking a goal in Google Analytics? Are we going to use a virtual page or and event tracking method? How can I track users that visit the deposit page that weren't able to do a deposit attempt? Thanks for answering this question. Have a good day ahead.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Francis.Magos0 -
Google Experiments issues
Hey fellow Mozzers! We're in the middle of working on CRO for a client of ours and we were going to try out Google Experiments for the first time. Following the click path described on the Google help page should take me to an option that says 'Create Experiment', but this isn't coming up - do we need to create the various URLs before it will let us set up an experiment, or has the system changed now? I've found in the past Google has a habit of updating its interfaces but not the advice on using the affected tools, so wondering if I'm looking at old information? Secondly, does the Experiment show a user the same variation of the page throughout their journey? What I mean by that is: their site currently has a real mish-mash of page styles, and I think a large part of boosting their conversions is probably down to ensuring consistency across the site as it currently seems like you're bouncing around different sites. But will this issue be made worse by running Experiments - ie, will I enter the site on Variation A, click a link and be shown the next page in Variation B and so on? If so, are we better off running the experiment on one page at a time and using what we've learnt to impact the next page? Thank for any help you can give! Nick.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | themegroup1 -
Why Google Analytics is still showing data for edited/old "Goals"?
For example, I edited "Goal #1" (goal type=event) with new values/event conditions last Nov. 20, 2014. Why Google Analytics is showing numbers from Nov 1-19 for Goal #1? Does Google Analytics show old data?TIA!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | zpm20140 -
Analytics : Goal tracking for multiple payment methods
ello! I don't know if anyone else has come across this problem, but our ecommerce site offers two payment methods during checkout. I've set up goals and they successfully record the total number of transactions. Our site offers two payment methods (credit card and purchase order) and once you hit the 'select your payment' page, you're directed to different pages to make payment and end up on the thank you page. I created two goals, a credit card one that has "funnel" turned on and lists every page a 'credit card' customer would undertake, and a 'purchase order' goal listing all the pages a customer who undertake when making a "purchase order" payment. Google is however recording figures for both. Say I had 10 credit card orders and 5 purchase order, my Goals report 15 for both. Anyone come across this?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Bio-RadAbs0 -
How do I get Google to rank the right page?
My site ranks #1 for Arabic Interpreting on Google UK. This great, but it's ranking my home page rather than the my specific Arabic Interpreting page. The home page shouldn't really rank for this term as it has very little connection with this exact term. This means that while the site ranks great, the conversion is pretty much zero. How can I get Google to rank the page I've optimised for this term? I know the ranking will no doubt slip but may the conversions will be better. Can you help please?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | GlobalLingo0 -
Recommendations for Books on Analytics, Ecommerce and Data Manipulation?
Having just moved into a position where an Ecommerce site is now a big part of my responsibilities I'm looking to get up to speed on the topic (been a while since I worked on a shop). Site is Magento based. I'd also like any recommended books on broader analytics and using/reporting data. Obviously finding books on these subjects isn't difficult, I'd just like mozers thoughts on any that are particularly good and more important still relevant ie fairly recently published. Quite broad topics these I know but open to any or all suggestions - however not too worried about covering wider SEO, more 'technical' guide style is what I'm interested in. Couldn't really find any threads on books in general so should be an interesting topic (I hope!) Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | SteveHoney650 -
Google Adwords CPC Tips and Bid Managment
What is the best option for Bid Managment? Enhanced CPC or Conversion Optimizer? What should I be looking at in our Account to see where we are throwing money out the window? My goal is to have more ROI with much less expense.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | hfranz0