While we might not always realize it, every website has a purpose for existing. Some websites are created to sell products and services, while others focus on providing content and information to site visitors. Many websites have more than one goal such as increasing sales leads and creating valuable content - like our Seer website.
That’s why it’s incredibly important to use Google Analytics goals to assign value to specific actions only the most relevant users will perform. How? By identifying Analytics goals that make sense to your business.
Why Does Your Website Exist?
Measuring website performance not only means comparing site traffic to benchmarks, but also goals and the value that your goals are driving.
[Tweet "If users don't complete a goal, how valuable are they to your website's bottom-line? #analytics"]
However, not all websites have clear monetary values associated with their goals, so it makes it more difficult to understand the true impact of your marketing efforts. Once you create a goal in Google Analytics, you have the option to assign a goal value.
GOAL VALUE is a dollar amount associated with an action completed by a user on your website.
If you take the time to add values to your goals, you can then measure this metric against other metrics and dimensions in Google Analytics.
Assigning a Value to Website Goals
- Measuring ROI - when you have a dollar amount ($) associated with your goals, it’s much easier to tell a story about your data in relation to your actual business’ website goals.
- Creating Smart Goals - it’s easy to get carried away and start making LOTS of goals for your website - why not! Well, cluttering your data with too many goals can make it hard to understand how your site is truly performing. Goals that are completed too often will inflate your numbers and might not be good measures of value to your business’ bottom-line.
- Reporting Accurately - Let’s say the number of goals on your site increased by half month-over-month. Your first instinct is to assume this is very great for business. However, what if that increase in goals was from users signing up for your newsletter?
- These types of actions do not directly drive revenue for your company - by measuring accurately, you’re able to view this metric as an indicator of higher blog engagement rather than a significant increase in conversions.
Calculating Google Analytics Goal Values
Let's say you have a lead generation website, and one of your site goals is to fill out a contact form. Filling out the form doesn't directly generate revenue, but it is a step in the process. If data shows that a lead is accepted 50% of the time, and leads drive an average LTV of $1000, you would assign a value of $500 to that goal.
...But I Still Can’t Calculate Goal Value
If you find yourself really struggling to figure out a dollar amount for your website goals, you can use the method of assigning value by importance.
If one goal on your website is twice as important as another, assign that goal a value of 2, and the latter a value of 1. While this won’t be a direct measure of revenue, it still takes into consideration which goals are more important in ultimately driving revenue for your business!
You can use goal value to measure your website's performance in terms that everyone can understand: money! Whether it be as direct revenue, or hypothetical dollar values assigned to your goals, it’s easier to understand the impact of your marketing efforts in dollars rather than the mysterious “goal completions”. Then it’s just as easy as measuring changes in goal value over time.
Analytics can help you drive users to your site and measure the impact of your efforts in order to inform your digital strategy.
So, why does your website exist?
Just give our team a buzz if you have questions or leave your comments below.
