How to Set Up Goals in GA4

How do you set up Goals in Google Analytics?

Creating a New Goal

Setting up goals in Google Analytics is crucial in tracking your progress toward achieving your business objectives. With Google Analytics, a powerful web analytics tool, you can easily create, edit, and monitor your goals directly from your dashboard, gaining valuable insights into the effectiveness of your website, campaigns, and overall business growth. To assist you with this process, our certified SEO Inc. team specializes in implementing Google Analytics, including goal setting, automatic and custom reporting, complex e-commerce tracking, and funnel creation.

To create a new goal in Google Analytics, follow these detailed steps:

1. Sign in to your Google Analytics account using your credentials.

2. Once signed in, click the “Admin” button in the bottom left corner of the navigation menu. This will take you to the Admin section of your account.

3. In the Admin section, choose the desired view for which you want to set up the goal. Views allow you to customize and focus your reporting on specific website properties.

4. In the View column, locate and click on the “Goals” option. This will take you to the Goals configuration page, where you can manage your existing goals or create new ones.

5. To create a new goal, click the “+NEW GOAL” button. Alternatively, if you have existing goals or want to import a pre-configured goal from the gallery, you can select the appropriate option based on your requirements. Note that if the “+NEW GOAL” or Import options are not visible, you have already created the maximum limit of 20 goals for the current view.

6. Google Analytics offers three options for creating goals:

   a. Use a template: This option lets you choose from a list of templates designed for different industries. Templates streamline the goal creation by pre-configuring settings based on industry best practices.

   b. Create a custom goal: This option allows you to define your unique goal parameters. You can set customized goals based on destination URLs, session durations, event interactions, or pages/screens per session.

   c. Create an intelligent goal: You can opt for intelligent goals if your account meets the necessary prerequisites. Intelligent goals leverage machine learning algorithms to analyze your website data and automatically set goals based on user engagement patterns. This option is beneficial if you are unsure about the specific goal parameters.

7. Depending on the selected goal creation method, follow the prompts to set up your goal by providing relevant information. For example, if you choose a destination goal, you will need to specify the destination URL or screen name and define the match type, such as “Equals to,” “Begins with,” or “Regular expression.” If you want to track the success of a funnel, you can enable the Funnel option and add multiple steps by clicking “+Add another Step” and entering the page or screen names for each step.

8. Assigning monetary values to your goals can help you evaluate the financial impact of each conversion. However, assigning monetary values does not apply to Smart Goals. For e-commerce events, such as purchases, you can leave the Goal Value blank, and the actual value of the sale will be recorded in the Revenue metric through the E-commerce Tracking code integrated into your shopping cart.

9. To ensure your goals are functioning correctly, it is crucial to verify them. Google Analytics provides a “Verify Goal” option that calculates the conversion rate based on the data from the last seven days. This verification process confirms the accuracy of your goals and allows you to make any necessary adjustments for optimal tracking.

10. It’s important to note that to create, edit, and share goals in Google Analytics, you must have Edit permission at the View level within the account you are working with. If you do not have the necessary permissions, you must contact your account administrator to enable them.

By setting up goals in Google Analytics and regularly monitoring your progress, you gain actionable insights that can help you optimize your website, campaigns, and overall business strategies. At SEO Inc., our certified team can assist you in leveraging Google Analytics effectively and turning your website traffic into revenue by providing comprehensive SEO services, including goal tracking, data analysis, and tailored reporting to align with your business objectives.

To determine if your business is on the right track for growth, it’s essential to set goals – but perhaps what’s even more important is making sure you have systems in place that will help you track your progress toward achieving those goals. Thanks to Google Analytics, it’s relatively easy to set and follow goal progress directly from within your dashboard. SEO Inc. can assist you or your company as our Team is Google Analytics certified. Our SEO Services include Google Analytics implementation regarding setting goals, automatic and custom reporting, complex e-commerce tracking, funnel creation, and many more critical elements to help you understand and decipher your traffic, turning that traffic into revenue!

To create, edit, and share goals in Google Analytics, you must have Edit permission at the View level in the account you’re working with. If you do not, speak to your account administrator to have those enabled.

Using a Template to Create a New Goal

Choose a Template from the list, and click Next to complete the Goal setup. Templates are included within Google Analytics on an industry basis. You won’t see this option if your account does not have an industry category selected. Once you choose your industry, you can see a list of templates for goal creation.

Creating a Custom Goal

Choose Custom from the list of options, click Next Step, select the Type of Goal, and click Next to continue setting up your goal.

There are several types of goals:

• Destination goals
• Duration goals
• Event goals
• Pages/Screens per session

Destination goals treat a pageview or screen view as a conversion. Enter the screen name or page URL in the Destination field. Specify the match type as Equals to, Begins with, or Regular expression. If you want to track the success of your funnel, you’ll turn on the Funnel option, and for each step in the funnel, click +Add another Step, then enter a page name or an app screen name, as you did in the Destination field.

To measure user engagement, you’ll treat the session time as a conversion. Choose the hours, minutes, and seconds to set the minimum session time to consider a conversion. Any session that lasts longer than this will count as a conversion.

Event goals treat specific interactions within your site or app as the conversion. Use the Event Conditions to set up at least one event before creating this goal.

Pages/Screens per session goals also measure user engagement. You can specify a certain number of pages as a conversion, and when a user hits that threshold, it will count as a conversion.

Creating a Smart Goal

If your account meets all the necessary prerequisites, you will have the option to develop Smart Goals. You’ll follow the same steps to create a goal, then choose Smart Goals from the options and click “Next Step” to continue.

To be eligible to turn on Smart Goals, you must first link your Analytics to AdWords accounts. Your AdWords account must have sent 500 clicks to the selected Analytics view over 30 days before you can set up Smart Goals. If it falls below 250 clicks, Smart Goals will deactivate until it hits 500 clicks or more again. Your Reporting View must not show more than 10 million views within 30 days and must have data sharing turned on.

Goals & Monetary Values

Once you set up goals in your account, you can assign monetary values to them to help you determine how much money each page or campaign is assisting your business to earn. Every goal type, except for Smart Goals, allows you to sign a monetary value for each conversion. When dealing with e-commerce events, such as when someone purchases a product, there are additional considerations for assigning monetary value. Leave the Goal Value blank if you’re tracking a transaction or purchase with the E-commerce Tracking code. The actual value of the sale will appear in the Revenue metric (not the Goal Value metric) and come from the E-commerce Tracking code in your shopping cart.

Verifying Your Goals

It is critical to test your goal to confirm it is working correctly. To check, click Verify Goal. It will calculate the conversion rate for the last seven days based on data already in your account. It is not a projection of how well you can expect the goal to convert in the future.

1. Sign in to your Google Analytics account using your credentials.
2. Once signed in, click on the “Admin” button at the navigation menu’s bottom left corner. This will take you to the Admin section of your account.
3. In the Admin section, choose the desired view for which you want to set up the goal. Views allow you to customize and focus your reporting based on specific website properties.