How To Set Event Based Google Analytics Goals - Amazon Affiliate Links Tracking Example

<p>In this article I will guide you through - how one (perhaps you) can define custom even based goals in Google Analytics reports - and I will give you a real example - how to track Outbound links to Amazon.</p><p>With this post I'm starting a new topic series in my blog - <a href="http://www.reinisfischer.com/web-analytics&quot; target="_blank">Web Analytics</a>. I have already previously covered different topics related to web analytic you might find useful.</p><p>So, now let's go back on our topic subject - Setting Goals:</p><p><strong>Goals are everything, right?</strong></p><p>Before we are speaking of goals, be sure you have already registered for Google Analytics and your website visitor are counted. If you, just like me are a Drupal friend - here is a quick reference <a href="http://www.reinisfischer.com/drupal-developer/setting-google-analytics-…; target="_blank">how to add Google Analytics to your Drupal website</a>.</p><p>Please note - to use my suggested option for tracking outbound links - you should use <a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2790010?hl=en">Universal Google Analytics tracking code</a>:</p><blockquote><p><span>Universal Analytics introduces a set of features that change the way data is collected and organized in your Google Analytics account, so you can get a better understanding of how users interact with your online content.</span></p></blockquote><p><span><img src="http://www.reinisfischer.com/sites/default/files/universal.png&quot; alt="Google Analytics Universal Code" title="Google Analytics Universal Code" width="563" height="324"></span></p><p><span><br></span></p><p>Some notes I will highlight in this article I have found on Paul Koks Online-Metrics blog (For a reference go and see what Paul has to say on&nbsp;<a href="http://online-metrics.com/goal-values/">Goal Values</a>)</p><h2>How to setup Goals on Google Analytics:</h2><ol><li>Log in to your Google Analytics account</li><li>Navigate to the admin page (you need to have the rights to “edit”)</li><li>Select the “View” for which you like to add goal values</li><li>Click on “Goals”</li><li>Add the appropriate goal value</li></ol><h2>How to setup Event based goal on Google Analytics</h2><p>Now, we are willing to setup an event based goal to track our Outbound link to Amazon site.</p><p>Give a name for your Goal and choose Event</p><p><img src="http://www.reinisfischer.com/sites/default/files/amazonclicks.jpg&quot; alt="Google Analytics Goals" title="Google Analytics Goals" width="870" height="357"></p><p><em>Setting Google Analytics Goals</em></p><p>First set Category to equal <strong>Outbound links</strong>, then Label - Regular expression - <strong>www.amazon.com </strong>(I found this combination effective)</p><p><img src="http://www.reinisfischer.com/sites/default/files/amazoneventsgoals.jpg&…; alt="Amazon Events Goal" title="Amazon Events Goal" width="1154" height="561"></p><p><em>How to track Outbound links in Google Analytics</em></p><p>Google Analytics give's you &nbsp;a tool to <em>Verify your Goal</em> - you can use this tool, to verify &nbsp;- is your goals settings correct. Here is what I got by verifying my goal:</p><p><img src="http://www.reinisfischer.com/sites/default/files/verify-goal.jpg&quot; alt="Verify Google Analytics Goal" title="Verify Google Analytics Goal" width="684" height="119"></p><p><em>Verify Google Analytics Goal</em></p><p>One another option you could setup for such goal - Goal Value. But here you need to now average earnings you receive from a click to Amazon or any other affiliate site you are tracking)</p><p>By knowing my averages I will set my goal value to $1 (and later I can adjust it).</p><p><strong>Here is the complete Goal:</strong></p><p><img src="http://www.reinisfischer.com/sites/default/files/amazongoal.jpg&quot; alt="How To Setup Google Analytics Amazon Click Goal" title="How To Setup Google Analytics Amazon Click Goal" width="815" height="542"></p><p><em>How To Setup Google Analytics Amazon Click Goal</em></p><p>By now we have setup our event based goal to track our Amazon affiliate links. Now we should see it in work.</p><h2>Understanding Goal Value</h2><p>Now, when we have our reports created, in our Google Analytics we should see something similar to this in our Google Analytics reports:</p><p><img src="http://www.reinisfischer.com/sites/default/files/goalvalue.jpg&quot; alt="Google Analytics Traffic Source Goal Values" title="Google Analytics Traffic Source Goal Values" width="994" height="423"></p><p><em>Google Analytics Traffic Source Goal Values</em></p><p>Goal 2 in my case means clicks to Amazon.</p><p>As you can see from image above I had an overall <strong>Conversation Rate of&nbsp;4.29%</strong> .&nbsp;</p><p><strong>And now - the most important part - what drives the conversations?</strong></p><p>Yup, in this image you can see that Organic Search is responsible for all the conversation rates in that day.&nbsp;</p><p>It's important to measure each traffic channel separate, to better understand which channel works best for you.</p><p>Now you got your understanding why it's important to have on board such a powerful tool as Google Analytics equipped with Goal Values.</p><p>They can help you drive your online business - pointing you to bottlenecks or any other issues related to your website.</p><p>Google Analytics are not just for measuring visitor count - if handed to right hands - it might be one of the most powerful tools.</p><p><strong>Drop a comment, or share your opinion bellow!</strong><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">&nbsp;</span></p>