Frustrated with GA goal setting

[newguyintown]

Hi All -

I have read through the threads and looked over Google Analytics instructions, but I am having an issue using the Goals feature.

We are starting to see more sales generating on the site (nice to see the fruits of labor) and I wanted to track customers through the sales process. I am wondering how to do so since the checkout process is run with Session ID's. Doesn't the session ID change for each customer and each purchase? Or, is it the same for each page? How do I list the pages I want GA to track? I can place the code from GA into my Invoice page (what I want for my Goal page), but the actual page the customer will land on is not ...mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=INVC, but a session id page.

Advice, tutorials, some thread I missed? All help is appreciated.

[Mark Simon]

Re: Frustrated with GA goal setting

Hi Rex,

I would recommend using virtual pages in Google analytics for each of your checkout steps. To do this you want to pass the page name into the tracking call but the format will depend on if you use ga.js or urchin.js - my example uses urchin.js.

If you want to track the ecommerce information I would recommend getting the GOL Analytics module since it will pass all the ecommerce information to google analytics when using the urchin.js version of Google analytics.

The best practice is to only make one urchinTracker call per page so I add the code below to the global footer when clicking on the store name.

<script src="https://ssl.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript">
    _uacct = "UA-######-#";

    <mvt:if expr="(g.screen EQ 'OCST')">
        urchinTracker('/checkout/address.html');
        </script>
    <mvt:elseif expr="(g.screen EQ 'OSEL')">
        urchinTracker('/checkout/shipping.html');
        </script>
    <mvt:elseif expr="(g.screen EQ 'OPAY')">
        urchinTracker('/checkout/payment.html');
        </script>
    <mvt:elseif expr="(g.screen EQ 'INVC')">
        urchinTracker('/checkout/order.html');
        __utmSetTrans(); // only include if tracking ecommerce
        </script>
    <mvt:else>
        urchinTracker();
        </script>
    </mvt:if>

If any of the pages are not SSL (very common) then you want to wrap the above code in another If-else statement so that you use the appropriate http or https protocol to avoid unfriendly security messages.

Once you add the code you will need to setup your funnel & goal tracking to go off the virtual URLs with an Exact Match. You could also easily incorporate product or category pages in the funnel but would need to expand your virtual URL model.

Hope this helps.

[AlanW]

Re: Frustrated with GA goal setting

Ed,

To eliminate the session id for GA you can to go to your website profile and chose "Edit" for the particular site you are tracking. The first box you see should be your "Main Website Profile Information." In the upper right hand corner of that box is and "Edit" link. In the field entitled "Exclude URL Query Parameters:" enter "Session_ID" (without the quotes.)

This will eliminate the Session_IDs from your url strings. Unfortunately you have to wait a day for GA to update.

Additionally, if you're using the latest version of Analytics (the link to the new code is right above the "Edit" link described above, click on "Check Status" to access it.) you can use "_trackPageview" to name your pages anything you want. There's lots of documentation on this in the GA help, search under "_trackPageview":

http://www.google.com/support/analyt...n&answer=55485

AlanW

[Dan - Glendale Designs]

Re: Frustrated with GA goal setting

If you are not comfortable doing this yourself, we offer a complete Google Analytics/Adwords Conversion Integration Service.

[karks88]

Re: Frustrated with GA goal setting

To eliminate the session id for GA you can to go to your website profile and chose "Edit" for the particular site you are tracking. The first box you see should be your "Main Website Profile Information." In the upper right hand corner of that box is and "Edit" link. In the field entitled "Exclude URL Query Parameters:" enter "Session_ID" (without the quotes.)

This will eliminate the Session_IDs from your url strings. Unfortunately you have to wait a day for GA to update.

Will eliminating the Session ID allow checkout goals to work by itself or would I still have to use"_trackPageview"?

I'm using GOL Analytics and it tracks the ecommerce sales, but the goals still don't work. They haven't been able to tell me how to make them work with their module.

[AlanW]

Re: Frustrated with GA goal setting

Eliminating the Session ID won't by itself make the Goals work. I only eliminate the Session ID to get a better aggregate total for pageviews, etc.

_trackPageview should help you set up your goals, though:

http://www.google.com/support/analyt...n&answer=55576

I don't know anything about GOL Analytics so I'm not sure what the affect of modifying these settings would have on your reports.

AlanW

[karks88]

Re: Frustrated with GA goal setting

Thanks for your help! I know I can setup the checkout pages with the _trackPageview code. But with using GOL Analytics on the INVC page, I may not be able to add the code in there while using the module since it requires an MV ITEM tag instead of the standard Analytics code.