Setting up Goals in Google Analytics that involve a 3rd party site

[EricVallee34]

I've set up several goals for one of my clients in Google Analytics.  The ones that relate to things on the site -- such as clicking on the "Contact Us" button -- work just fine.  However, I set up one that is tracking when someone clicks on a purchase button, which sends the user to a third party site (PayPal).  This one doesn't seem to work.  (I purchased and item and the goal was not recorded).  Looking to see if I have to do anything different when setting up the goal.

[EricVallee34]

This was very helpful!  Thanks so much.

Eric Vallee

[GeorgeDavis]

Since you don't have your Analytics goal confirmation HTML code on the paypal website, for this to work, you need to turn "Auto Return" ON under website payment preferences in paypal and then add the following variable to the end of the URL of your successful goal page :

?utm_nooverride=1

The "Return URL" value would look like this :

http://www.yoursite.com/thankyou.php?utm_nooverride=1

After this is done, just make sure you have your analytics goal confirmation code on the goal confirmation page of your own website - Now that paypal is redirecting finished purchases to you, analytics should track them correctly.

If all you care about tracking is the number of successful goals, you can stop here, however if the goal you are setting up involves tracking purchase amounts (I am assuming this is true since you are using paypal), you need to do some fairly complex modifications involving php and javascript, you can find more information on how to complete that here.

Hope this was helpful.