Just recently Google has launched Smart Goals, a feature on Google Analytics that can be a huge help for site owners and online marketers especially those who are using AdWords to promote their brand, products, or services. If you’re keen on improving your site’s ability to generate traffic and attract the attention of potential customers, you’d certainly want to know how Smart Goals can help you.
Throughout the years, Google has used various customer data to identify user patterns. Through these efforts, Smart Goals was born. This feature is basically like your automatic buying persona creator. It helps you determine if a particular user is likely to bring high quality traffic to your site because Google was able to identify user patterns that are similar to high quality traffic. Some of the parameters that Google takes into account when deciding whether you have completed a smart goal or not include user’s time on site, behaviour on site, and the likelihood to convert.
How Smart Goals Work
Smart Goals are already activated in Google Analytics. There is only one Smart Goal at a time for an entire website. Based on parameters it doesn’t share with users, Google will decide what counts as a successful completion of a smart goal. When you complete one, you will see a number of successfully reached goals, just as you would when you complete regular goals.
In a nutshell, Smart Goals tell you how many high quality visits your site has received and show you where they are coming from. If you are selling stuff online and you are tracking sales, they will also tell you how your site is faring sales-wise. So for instance, if you got 8 million visits from Facebook and 800,000 of those achieved smart goals, you’ll see them reflected in your Google Analytics report.
Smart Goals are useful not just for Analytics users. As mentioned earlier, this feature can help you beef up your AdWords campaigns. Smart Goals are ideal for businesses with long sales funnels, those who do not track conversions, those who track just one type of conversion, and those who do not track enough conversions like new accounts and new campaigns.
Activating Smart Goals
To activate Smart Goals, the first thing you need to do is log on to you Analytics account and go to the admin section. Click on “goals” and select “smart goals.” To use them with AdWords, you must link Analytics and AdWords if you haven’t done it already. Once they are linked, you can now set up a CPA bidding strategy with the fulfilment of a smart goal counting as an actual conversion.
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