In this article, we'll cover the basics of Goals in Google Analytics and how we identify events that happen on your website. For a deep dive into goals, head on over to Google's Analytics Help article.
We'll keep this article short and sweet. If you're unsure what to do with this info, feel free to share this link to your Google Ads specialist.
Let's get started!
Events Tracking
We believe that if something is worth doing, it's worth tracking. That's why we fire events for just about any important action a customer can take on your website. Here's a non-exhaustive list of the most important events:
Rent a Unit Button Clicked
Rent a Unit Payment Successful (hint: this is the most important event of them all!)
Reserve a Unit Button Clicked
Reserve a Unit Successful
Contact Form Submission
Leave Review Link Click
Information Bar Click
Since the app triggers events based on user behavior, we generally do not rely on page URLs for goals. That said, there's no rule against setting up goals based on URLs!
From the Google Analytics dashboard, just go to Behavior -> Events -> Pages to see a list of all the pages you can pick from.
Creating Your First Goal
An event has the following components:
Category
Action
Label
Value
Since many of our clients have more than one facility, we have naming convention for Category and Label components.
Category: "Type - Company Name: Location Name"
Example: "Rent a Unit - Storage Masters: St. Charles"
Type: Rent a Unit
Company Name: Storage Masters
Location Name: St. Charles
Label: "Action - Company Name: Location Name"
Example: "Rent a Unit Button Clicked - Storage Masters: St. Charles"
Type:Rent a Unit Button Clicked
Company Name: Storage Masters
Location Name: St. Charles
The primary actions are:
Rent a Unit Button Clicked
Rent a Unit Payment Successful
Reserve a Unit Button Clicked
Reserve a Unit Successful
Contact Form Submission
Leave Review Link Click
Information Bar Click
The easiest way to set up a goal is to use the Event Label component. You just need to pick an action, company name, and location name, then put it in the format above.
Here are a few more examples using Storage Masters in St. Charles:
Goal: A Successful Rental
Event Label: "Rent a Unit Payment Successful - Storage Masters: St. Charles"
Goal: A Successful Reservation
Event Label: "Reserve a Unit Successful - Storage Masters: St. Charles"
Goal: Contact Form Submission
Event Label: "Contact Form Submission - Storage Masters: St. Charles"
Goal: Insurance Selected During Rental
Event Label: "Rent a Unit Insurance Selected - Storage Masters: St. Charles"
For more examples of Events, head to the Google Analytics dashboard and go to Behavior -> Events -> Top Events
Summary
Now that you have goals setup in Google Analytics, you can identify which of your customer segments are completing your desired outcomes (ie. renting a unit!). The real magic is combining the goals with Conversion tracking in Google Ads. You can really start to attribute your advertising spend to real results. And if correctly configured, you can leverage all this data to target more customers who are likely to complete the goals.
We hope this article helps you with goals in Google Analytics!
Quick Pro Tips
Insights Platform
Event Actions:
Rent a Unit Payment Successful
Rent a Unit Button Clicked
Reserve a Unit Successful
Reserve a Unit Button Clicked
Contact Form Submission
Request a Quote
Event Labels Format:
Action - Account Name: Location Name
Rent a Unit Button Clicked - Summit Self Storage: Loveland Location
Request a Quote has no colon:
Request a Quote Form Submission - Summit Self StorageJackson Location
Pug Platform
Event Actions:
Rent a Unit Payment Successful
Rent a Unit Button Clicked
Reserve a Unit Successful
Reserve a Unit Button Clicked
Contact Form Submission
Information Bar Click
Event Labels:
Information Bar Click - Phone Number
Information Bar Click - Email