Create Your Goals

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Create or edit a goal.
• Verify a goal.

Create a New Goal

To create a new goal or update an existing goal:

1. From Google Analytics, click Admin and select your account and property.
2. In the VIEW column, click Goals.
3. Click + NEW GOAL or Import from Gallery to create a new goal, or click an existing goal to edit its configuration.

Note: If + NEW GOAL and Import from Gallery are not visible, you have already created the maximum of 20 goals for the current view.

Once you reach this point, you have three options for creating goals:

• Use a goal template
• Create custom goals
• Create Smart Goals

For the purposes of this module, we take you through using a goal template only.

Use a Goal Template

Goal templates help you set actionable goals that meet standard business objectives. You can edit any template field before saving a goal. The goal categories—Revenue, Acquisition, Inquiry, Engagement—are the larger business objectives that underlie the goal templates. Use them as an organizational tool to help you think about the purpose of your goals.

Try to create at least one goal for each category to get a better understanding of how users interact with your content. These categories don’t affect any data or your reports.

To create a new goal from a template:

1. From Google Analytics, click Admin and select your account and property.
2. In the VIEW column, click Goals.
3. Click + NEW GOAL or Import from Gallery.
4. Select a template from the list.
5. Click Continue to continue setting up your goal.

Don't see any templates? Goal templates are tailored to meet the needs of businesses within specific industries, such as automotive or entertainment. If you didn’t select an industry when you set up your account, templates are disabled. To get templates that are relevant to your business, edit your property, select an industry category, and save your changes.

Verify Your Goal

Once you’ve created a new goal, click Verify this goal to test your goal setup. This will calculate a conversion rate for the goal based on the data in your account from the past 7 days. Because the test is based on data in your account, not actual conversion data, it’s not a projection of how well your goal will perform.

Recording Status

As soon as you create a goal, Google Analytics starts recording data. You can pause a goal by changing the recording status to OFF. Analytics doesn’t record data for a goal that’s turned off.

Because Analytics calculates and applies goal conversions as your data is processed, you can’t delete a goal. If one of your goals becomes obsolete or irrelevant, change the recording status to OFF.

1. Navigate to your goals.
2. Locate the goal you want to change.
3. Turn the Recording toggle to ON or OFF.

Share and Import Goals

After you have created and saved a goal, you can share it with other Analytics users, just as you can other assets, such as Dashboards, Segments, Channel Groupings, etc.

When you share assets, only the configuration information is shared. Your data remains private.

Importing Goals From the Solutions Gallery

Instead of creating your own goals, you can import them from the Solutions Gallery. When you import a goal from the Solutions Gallery, only the template is imported into your account. You can use that goal to track the conversions in your Analytics account, not the conversion data from the person that created the goal.

Resources

• Goal examples and use cases
• About the Goal Flow report
• Troubleshoot goals
• Set up Ecommerce Tracking
• Learn more about how to use regular expressions