Goals

Adding a goal to your experiment can be done in four main ways:

• Add an existing goal
• Use a goal template to create a new goal
• Import an existing Google Analytics goal
• Define an Advanced Goal (using the goal builder)

Note: The primary goal will be the first goal in your report and features like "automatically stop losing variations" and "keep winner running" will look at the winners and losers of this primary goal.

Add an existing goal

We have two default goals in the system called Decrease Bounce Rate and Increase Engagement. If you add more goals, you will then be able to reuse them in other experiences as existing.

Use a goal template to create a new goal

There are available 7 goal templates that you can configure to track, plus you can create additional advanced goals.

1. Visit a specific page

   This allows you to create a new goal that is triggered when the visitor goes to a certain page.

   • Goal Name (give the goal a recognizable name)

   • Page URL (match exactly, starts with, contains, or exact match with regular expression)

   • Url (paste the URL, URL part, or URL with regular expression)

2. Revenue goal

   • Goal Name (give the goal a recognizable name)

   • Revenue page (same as Page URL) that has 4 options (match exactly, starts with, contains or exact match with regular expression)

   • Url (paste the URL, URL part, or URL with regular expression)

3. Click on a link

   This allows you to create a new goal that triggers when a visitor clicks on a link, whether site-wide or on pages you define.

   • Goal Name (give the goal a recognizable name)

   • Link Url, what URL you would like to track (full URL's only)

   • Link Found On-Page, would you like to track the link clicks on the entire site or on one particular page?

4. Submit a form

   This allows you to create a new goal that triggers when a visitor submits a form, whether site-wide or on pages you define.

   • Goal Name (give the goal a recognizable name)

   • Submit Form To. This is the URL your form posts to, you would have to check the form code on your site (view source) it could be something like this: <form action="https://www.salesforce.com/servlet/servlet.WebToLead?encoding=UTF-8" method="post"> where the part bold you have to pass in the "Submit Form To" field,

   • Form Found On, would you like to track the link clicks on the entire site or on one particular page?

5. Clicks something on a page

   This allows you to create a new goal that triggers when a visitor clicks on a specific element (for example, a button or link). You can track clicks site-wide, on pages you define with Page URL rules, or only on the pages that are part of the experiences where this goal is used. This goal opens a browser screen and shows your website. You can click on one element (like a button or link) to monitor. This goal is less accurate than "Visit specific page goals" but can be very useful if the goal is on a third-party domain that you cannot access.
   

   • The “Click something on a page” goal setup screen. When configuring this goal you will see the following options:

     • Goal Name - give the goal a recognizable name.
       
     • Goal Description - give a goal description or details
     • Element Selector - Choose an item by clicking on which triggers the goal.

1. • • The Track only on used experiences checkbox and information icon

     • The Page URL control in its enabled state and how it becomes disabled when the checkbox is selected
       

   • Page URL – lets you restrict where the goal listens for clicks (site-wide, or only on URLs that match the rules you define). When Track only on used experiences is checked, this field is disabled because the goal location is inherited from the experience.

   • Track only on used experiences (checkbox) – when enabled, this goal only tracks activity on pages that are part of the experience(s) where the goal is attached. It will not fire on other pages, even if those pages match the same URL rules.
     
     The tooltip next to this checkbox reads (with the NOTE in bold in the UI):

     • When enabled, this goal will only track activity on pages that are part of the experience you’re running. It won’t fire on other pages, even if they match the same URL rules. Note: Use this when you want one goal to automatically apply only to the pages used in a specific experiment, without listing each page manually.

   • When to use “Track only on used experiences”
     Use this option when you want the goal to follow the locations of a specific experience instead of maintaining long Page URL rules. Typical use cases include:

     • You are running the same “Add to Cart” button test on multiple product detail pages. Rather than creating separate goals or listing every product URL, you can create a single “Clicks something on a page” goal, attach it to the experience, and enable Track only on used experiences so it tracks only on those experiment pages.

     • You are testing a multi-step funnel where the same CTA appears across several steps that belong to one experience. Enabling Track only on used experiences ensures the goal fires on those steps only.
       

   • When not to use “Track only on used experiences”
     Leave this option unchecked when you want a click goal that behaves like a global or URL-based KPI, for example:

     • Tracking clicks on a header navigation link across the whole site using Page URL rules.

     • Re-using the same click goal across different experiences and normal traffic wherever the Page URL rules match.
       
       In these cases you should configure the Page URL to define where the goal can fire and keep Track only on used experiences disabled.

2. Scroll Percentage Goal

   • The scroll percentage goal allows you to set up a goal based on how far your visitors scroll down the page ("scroll depth"). You can configure this goal to be triggered based on 25 percent, 50 percent, 75 percent, or more of the page read.

3. Javascript triggered goal

   • This allows you to create a new goal that can only be triggered using Javascript code. This goal only needs a name and it would create some code like the one below. This code can be pasted on your website codebase or Project Javascript or Variation Custom Javascript sections to track conversions.

<script type="text/javascript">
 
 var _conv_q = _conv_q ||;
 _conv_q.push(["triggerConversion","10007732","1000123"]);
 
</script>

NOTE: The last parameter (in this case it's 1000123) is optional and when that is provided, it's the experiment ID for which to trigger the goal. This is only used on custom implementations;

Import an existing Google Analytics goal

You can import every (non event based) Google Analytics goal.

Please verify the goals manually after import, on occasions, the import is slightly off in "contains, start with or exact match due to some limitation in the API). To import goals you need to have Google Analytics access rights.

Define an Advanced Goal (using the goal builder)

Sometimes you want to measure something more advanced. Your imagination is the limit with the advanced goal builder. 

Archive/Unarchive Goals

You can archive your goals when you have finished with them but they will still be visible to your existing reports where you used these. You also have the option to un-archive them in case you want to add them to new experiences.

To help manage a large number of goals more efficiently, Convert now supports bulk actions directly from the Goals section. On the Goals screen, you’ll now find a checkbox next to each goal. When one or more goals are selected, an "Actions" dropdown appears next to the “New Goal” button. From this dropdown, you can:

• Archive Selected Goals

• Unarchive Selected Goals

• Delete Selected Goals

⚠️ Important Rules for Bulk Actions:

• You can only archive active goals.

• You can only unarchive archived goals.

• You can only delete archived goals.

If you select goals that don’t meet the action criteria, the following error notifications will appear:

• “Only Active goals can be archived. Please check your selected goals.”

• “Only Archived goals can be unarchived. Please check your selected goals.”

• “Only Archived goals can be deleted. Please check your selected goals.”

Recommended number of goals

As a best practice Convert recommends the following guidelines regarding the number of goals in your project and experiments.

We recommend that you have a main KPI / goal against what you are trying to optimize in your experiment. This might be 'Leads Signups", "Purchases", etc. 

You can utilize other 5 goals to expand your view on how the visitor behavior is being affected by the change you are testing. This might be "Reached Form", "Clicked on Form Submit", "Clicked on Add to Cart Button", "Reached Product Page".

You can also use other 5 supporting goals to verify the data you gather with the first six goals we mentioned.

These recommendations numbers are included as a flexible baseline to suit your experiment data collection.

However, we recommend against using Convert as an analytics tool in which hundreds of events are tracked. This is because Convert was not designed with this purpose, but rather to track a few goals for your experiment.

Do not track unused goals

By default, unused goals will stop being tracked after 15 days and this is a setting in your Project Configuration.