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The Art of Effective Goals and Goal Funnels
Overview & Best Practices
IntroWho We Are and What We Do
Justin Spencer
Search and Analytics Strategist
OverviewPutting the “fun” in funnels
What We’ll Cover
• Goals– Types of Goals– Uses of Goals– Best Practices–Worst Practices
• Analysis• Funnels– Uses of Funnels– Best Practices
GoalsGoooooooaaaaaaaalllllllllllllsssssss
Types of Goals
Not All Goals Are Alike
URL Based Goals
• Can be either actual page or virtual pageview– Pulled directly from content reports
• Multiple match types– Exact match: Don’t do it– Head match: Sometimes do it– Regular Expression match: Usually do it
Event Based Goals
• Match any singular or combination of Category, Action or Label– Events must be functional to be set as
goals
• There are match type options here too– Begins With– Is Equal To– That Matches
Engagement Based Goals
• Set thresholds to trigger goals– Pages Per Visit– Session Duration (Time on Site)
Uses of GoalsExtracting Insight
Success Points
• Goals should be any action that is a success event– Purchase– Email subscription– Creating an account– Viewing a key content page
Key Engagement Metrics
• Set engagement thresholds– A session that views more than 4 pages
or spends longer than 3 minutes and 10 seconds on the site
–With a lot of data, you can set the average as the threshold to gauge performance against average
Best Practices
Be A Rock Star
Have A Strategic Architecture• Once a goal is set, it should never
change• If a goal is changed, the historic value
remains intact• Calculations begin at the exact moment
the goal is set. They are not retroactive
• Future-proof your page settings– If your conversion page changes, you can
use regular expressions match to keep tracking consistent
Group Your Goals
• Google Analytics is separated into four sets of five goals
• Group similar goals together– This type of architecture provides great
long-term value and creates ordered structure within the profile
Example SetsGroup 1: TransactionalCompleted PurchaseCart ViewsProduct Views
Group 2: Non-TransactionalAccount CreationEmail Sign Up
Group 3: Key ContentSupport PagesProduct Views
Group 4: EngagementAbove AvgPages Per VisitAbove Avg Visit Duration
Goal Score Framework• A value can be assigned to each goal
that is set• These values populate as a dollar value
in Google Analytics– For example, for each 1,000 users that sign up for an
email, they purchase $150 worth of product. Therefore, the value you assign to the Email Sign Up goal is $15.
Goal Score Framework• For goals that do not have a directly
attributed monetary value, we can still assign a value
• A Goal Score Framework helps rate events on a scale from 1 (low importance) to 10 (high importance)– Account Creation: 10– View Shopping Cart Start Page: 7– View Products: 4– View Support Articles: 2
High value conversion days
Low value conversion day
Worst Practices
Don’t Be That Guy
Avoid These Common Pitfalls• Improper match settings– Test your settings in content reports to
know what the reports will look like• For example, a match type of “/success” could
also match “/?errorpage=/success”
• Duplicating goals– If you set up goals that are duplicated, it
makes extracting insights difficult– Possible Exception: Duplicating goals for
specific funnel analysis, such as abandonment rate from different starting points
Avoid These Common Pitfalls
• Temporary goals– If possible, make temporary URLs
permanent
• “Conversion Rate” metric in Google Analytics is AGGREGATE of all goals.– Be aware your aggregate conversion rate
might be over 100%
Analysis
Goals In Their Natural Habitat
Standard Reporting
• Traffic Reports– Judge conversion rate from last-click
attribution
Standard Reporting
• Browser & OS– Conversion rates can help pinpoint issues
with certain browsers or operating systems
Multi-channel Funnels
• Goals are required for MCF to function properly
• Understand various touch points leading to a conversion
Multi-channel Funnels
• Understand which channels are best at assisting conversion, even though they may not be directly attributed
Custom Dashboards
• Dashboards can provide a quick view into metrics and dimensions not easily accessible in standard reports
Custom Dashboards
• New dashboard widgets allow you to dive deeper– For example, you can view what
language a visitor is using sorted by the country they are in and whether or not they completed a goal
GoalFunnels
Going With the Flow
Goal Flow
• Introduced in October 2011• HUGE improvement over previous
funnel
Highlights
• Big improvement over previous view• Retroactive• Dynamically update nodes• Segment views on different
dimensions• Apply default and custom segments• Detailed information within each step
Best Practices
• Ensure the first step of the funnel is on a logical page– Abandonment Rate is calculated on this
page.
Shopping Cart Home Page
Best Practices
• Don’t select “first step required”– Outdated feature of deprecated funnel
view
Best Practices
• Include all possible steps in the process– Login error page– Incorrect password page
• Any page not included in the flow will be skipped over in the visualization
Best Practices
• Plan your goal architecture before saving the goals
• Keep a record of your goal structure– Make notes for future reference
Conclusion
For anyone still awake
Wrap Up
• Goals are a powerful tool to help extract performance-based insights
• A strategic goal architecture is crucial• Goal settings should be permanent to
avoid irregularities in data• Strategic set up of funnel steps
provide an additional layer of insight into goal abandonment and bottlenecks
Resources
• Visit AnalyticsPros.com/tools/goal-planning-worksheet– Download a template spreadsheet that
allows for effect goal framework creation
• Visit goo.gl/lGgAe for a secondary planning worksheet to monitor current state and preserve historic iterations
