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
-
How to fix canonicalization so Google shows our company's website and not LinkedIn
I work for a company that builds and manages apartments. I would like to know how we can fix canonicalization. You see, we have been posting our company's blog articles not only on our company's website, but also on LinkedIn. When people search for one of our articles, Google is displaying the article for LinkedIn. Except, that's not what we want. I'd prefer for Google to display our company's website, to drive more traffic to our website and not LinkedIn. For instance I just Googled the title to one of our company's blog article "Great Leadership is about Influence not Authority." The first thing to show up was a link to see the article on LinkedIn. There was nothing referring to our company's website. Here is a link to the LinkedIn account where we have been posting the blogs: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/great-leadership-influence-authority-mike-kaeding/ Here is a link to the same article, but on our company's website: https://www.norhart.com/blog/2018/08/08/great-leadership-is-about-influence-not-authority/ Why is Google showing the article for Linkedin and not our Company's website? Might LinkedIn have canonicalization over Google? If so, how might we be able to reverse this and drive people to our company's blog instead. Any ideas I'd greatly appreciate it! Thanks.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | mikleing0 -
Google showing in snippets last individual rating instead of aggregate rating
the product pages of my ecommerce site contain schema markup.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | lcourse
according to rich snippet tool from google all looks fine and properly formatted
however in the SERP google shows the last rating in the snippet instead of the aggregate rating. any idea how to show the aggregate ratings? URL: https://www.humidordiscount.co.uk/adorini-triest-deluxe-rosewood-humidor below extract of schema code as recognized by the rich snippet tool: Product name:adorini Triest Deluxe Rosewood Humidor image:https://www.humidordiscount.co.uk/952-large_atch/adorini-triest-deluxe-rosewood-humidor.jpg description:High-quality multiple ..... brand [Organization]: name:Adorini offers [Offer]: price:141 priceCurrency:GBP availability:http://schema.org/InStock aggregateRating [AggregateRating]: worstRating:1 ratingValue:4.5 bestRating:5 ratingCount:460 review [Review]: description:It 's my first .... reviewRating [Rating]: ratingValue:4 worstRating:1 bestRating:5 author [Thing]: name:Alessandro M review [Review]: description:excellent ... reviewRating [Rating]: ratingValue:5 worstRating:1 bestRating:50 -
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 -
Testing Google Tag Manager
Is there a way to test if the Google Tag Manager is set up correctly? Am I right in thinking that the only code that will be output on the page will be the actual embed code, eg: SCRIPT REMOVED Cant work out if there is an issue with what has been set in the account of if there is a problem with how the code has been added to the page..
Conversion Rate Optimization | | edwardlewis0 -
How Do I Create a Google Analytics Dashboard for My Designer To Monitor Landing Page A/B Testing
Hello All, We recently started doing some "AdWords Experiments" using A/B testing of our search landing pages. My web design team does not have access to our AdWords account, but they do have "user" access to our Google Analytics account. What I need to figure out how to do is setup an easy dashboard (or custom report) that will show them at a quick glance how the two versions of their page are performing in terms of: Goal Completions (Conversions) where the specific page is the entrance/landing page. Bounce Rate Time spent on site where the specific page is the entrance/landing page. Pages viewed where the specific page is the entrance/landing page. Possibly a way to see the most popular page visited 'next' after starting on the specific entrance/landing page Anything else that might be useful The two URLs would be like: http://www.domain.com/search/testa/
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Robert-B
http://www.domain.com/search/testb/ Any insight about the best way to do this is greatly appreciated! Cheers!0 -
Non-branded search before branded search in Google Analytics
A lot of organic search phrases contain branded terms. Does Google Analytics provide a possibility to track wheteher the first interactor with the website is due to a non-branded search term? Example: On monday someone search for 'online shoes' and on thursday this visitor search for 'shoestore.com'. Ist it possible in the Thursday report in Google Analytics to see that this visitor has first arrived on the site with the search term 'online shoes'? The same question can be asked for direct/none traffic. is it possible to see whether these visits ca be attributed to an organic search term?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | xicero0 -
CRM, CRO and Google Analytics
Hi, I am making a paid marketing, and organic too, at the moment i am promoting a small product, peoples are signup every day, but i cannot meassure from which keyword which signup(CRO) do you know any software or something like that, to use together with google analytics and google adwords, and to monitor conversions and to know which keyword is bringing me sales and which not. Tell me any how to guide, a software to use for this etc.. help me if you are doing this job. THanks
Conversion Rate Optimization | | leadsprofi0 -
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