What Are Conversion Goals?

Short Definition: A measurement of a completed action by a customer on a website.

A conversion goal is an objective you set based on an action you want users to take on your website. Conversion goals can help you measure your marketing performance and set benchmarks for improvement. Measurement is key with conversion goals– for example, if your goal is to get people to download an eBook from your site but you don’t track the downloads, you’ll have no way of knowing how many conversions you have.

Fortunately, Google Analytics makes it easy to set up conversion goals (which are simply referred to as Goals on this platform). Google Analytics lets you configure Goals in four different categories:

• Destination Goals require a user to visit a specific web page or app screen. For example, you might set a Destination Goal for a thank you page that site visitors are sent to only after they fill out a form to receive a free download.
• Duration Goals are based on a user spending a specified amount of time on a session (e.g. staying on a page with a How To guide for 10 minutes or longer).

• Pages/Screens Per Session Goals require users to view a specific number of pages or screens on your site.
• Event Goals can only be completed when a user completes an action that you have defined as an Event, such as watching a 10-minute video tutorial.

Examples of Conversion Goals

The conversion goals you set for your site will depend on the nature of your business and what you ultimately want site visitors to do. If you have an ecommerce site, you’ll probably want to define completed purchases as conversion goals. If you have a lead generation site, your main conversion goal might be getting visitors to fill out a contact form. If you have a content-based website (e.g. a niche blog), your primary conversion goal might be getting visitors to join your email list.