Setting up Goals in Google Analytics that involve a 3rd party site
-
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.
-
This was very helpful! Thanks so much.
Eric Vallee
-
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 :
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.
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 change domains in Google Analytics without losing the data
Hi there, We recently changed our domain from .COM to .NET so that all our subdomains from external pages matched. Right now in Google Console we have our new .NET website being tracked, but in GA we are still tracking .COM. It is also causing issues with MOZ crawling our site because of the .COM/.NET discrepancy. My question is what is the best way to change our Google Analytics from .COM to .NET without losing historical data and what considerations do we need to change before implementing this? Our team was concerned that just downloading the old data would be too vast and it we wouldn't be able to continue manipulating it dynamically in GA. Thanks!!
Reporting & Analytics | | cPanel-LLC.0 -
Moving data between Google Analytics Properties
Last summer we setup another Google Analytics property for us with Universal Analytics and have been running this alongside the old Google Analtyics property. is there a way of exporting all the old data from the old property into the new Universal Analytics property?
Reporting & Analytics | | ese0 -
Google Analytics - Still Seeing Keyword Data
Hi, I hope you can answer this question for me, obviously I'm aware of the changes regarding "not provided" in analytics however I am still getting keyword referral data in analytics (not much of course!) in the section Acquisition>Keyword>Organic Can anybody explain why I am still seeing organic keyword data even up until yesterday for the odd term? I cannot find an answer anywhere!!! Many thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | splendidapple1 -
Showing significant visit in google analytics
Hello Everyone, I was checking GA account of my site and I have found there are few keywords have significant number of visits in GA. These keywords not ranking even in hundred(google SERPs).I am not understanding from where these visitors coming .Please help me out. I am attaching screenshot of those keyword.Last but not least when i check source of these keywords source are google. Thanks aScZ8WT.png
Reporting & Analytics | | Alick3000 -
Google Analytics Myth?
Dear Moz-members, I have read several discussions regarding not to implement Google analytics on your website. Reason: Google is tracking your website behavior, for example you have a high bounce rate it will affect your rankings negative. See it as we are opening the doors too much to Google so it can have a negative impact on your online business, especially when your site is new and you are still building your credit. Because of this i have not chosen to install GA. What is your experience with this? Most of the time if i read analytics posts at Seomoz, people do have GA installed. I am also in doubt whether to switch over at GA, but then again mine site is relative new and i am still working on the negative bounce rate/daily visitors. Would like to hear from you pro's whether this is a myth or not 🙂 Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | mcweb0 -
Google Analytics "Undetermined" Keyword
Google analytics is suddenly showing a new keyword "undetermined". Traffic Sources > Sources > All Traffic with the primary dimension set to Keyword. It's currently our 13th keyword and it is displayed without parentheses around that you see with (not provided) or (not set). Anyone have any idea what this is? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | Morris770 -
Google Analytics Best Practice Set up for Clients
Hi When setting up new Google Analytics accounts for clinets what is the preferred/best practice. At present we have our own company google account and add new clinets this way (to our account) - the disadvantage with this, we can only grant them limited account access otherwise they would be able to view all the accounts we cretaed. Plus we can't link their adwords to the GA account we cretaed them. Is it best practice to set the client up with their own Google Account and then we just link to their account. Advise would be appreciated, thank you.
Reporting & Analytics | | daracreative0 -
Google analytics - help
Hello, What is meant by campaign expiration in Google analytics ? The default value is 6 months. what does it mean ?
Reporting & Analytics | | seoug_20050