How to set up and track goals for contact form submissions and inquiries in Google Analytics

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Setting up and tracking goals for contact form submissions and inquiries in Google Analytics is a great way to measure user engagement and the effectiveness of your website in generating leads. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you do this:

Step 1: Define Your Goal

Before setting up the goal in Google Analytics, you need to clearly define what constitutes a successful contact form submission. Typically, this involves the user reaching a thank you or confirmation page after submitting the form.

Step 2: Set Up Goals in Google Analytics

Log in to Google Analytics

  1. Go to Google Analytics and log in to your account.

Navigate to Admin

  1. In the bottom-left corner, click on the Admin gear icon.

Select the Account and Property

  1. Choose the account and property where you want to set up the goal.

Set Up a New Goal

  1. Under the “View” column, click on “Goals.”
  2. Click the “New Goal” button.

Choose a Goal Setup

  1. Select a custom setup for more flexibility and click “Continue.”

Describe Your Goal

  1. Name your goal (e.g., “Contact Form Submission”).
  2. Select a goal type. For contact forms, the most common type is “Destination.”

Configure Your Goal Details

  1. Destination Goal:
    • Select “Destination” and click “Continue.”
    • In the “Destination” field, enter the URL of the thank you or confirmation page that appears after a contact form is submitted (e.g., /thank-you).
    • Optionally, you can specify if the URL should be equal to, begins with, or matches a regular expression, depending on how your thank you page URL is structured.
  2. Event Goal (if you don’t have a thank you page):
    • Select “Event” and click “Continue.”
    • Configure the event details:
      • Category: e.g., “Form”
      • Action: e.g., “Submit”
      • Label: e.g., “Contact Form”

Verify and Save Your Goal

  1. Click “Verify this Goal” to see if the goal setup is correct and to see a preview of how it might perform based on past data.
  2. Click “Save” to finish setting up your goal.

Step 3: Set Up Event Tracking for Form Submissions (Optional)

If your contact form does not lead to a thank you page, you will need to set up event tracking. This can be done using Google Tag Manager (GTM).

Log in to Google Tag Manager

  1. Go to Google Tag Manager and log in.

Create a New Tag

  1. Create a new tag and configure it to track form submissions.

Tag Configuration

  1. Choose “Tag Configuration” and select “Google Analytics: Universal Analytics.”
  2. Choose “Event” as the Track Type.
  3. Fill in the Event Tracking Parameters (Category, Action, Label).

Set Up a Trigger

  1. Create a new trigger that fires the tag when the form submission occurs.
    • Go to “Triggers” and click on “New.”
    • Select “Trigger Configuration” and choose “Form Submission.”
    • Optionally, refine the trigger to fire only on specific forms by using CSS selectors or other identifiers unique to your contact form.

Publish Your Changes

  1. After configuring the tag and trigger, publish your changes in GTM.

Step 4: Monitor and Analyze Your Goals

Access Goal Reports

  1. In Google Analytics, go to the “Conversions” section and click on “Goals” to see an overview of your goals’ performance.
  2. Check the “Goal Completions” and “Goal Conversion Rate” metrics to understand how many users are submitting the contact form.

Analyze Goal Flow

  1. Use the “Goal Flow” report to visualize the path users take to complete the goal. This can help identify potential drop-off points or areas for improvement.

Step 5: Use Custom Reports and Segments

Custom Reports

  1. Create custom reports to combine different metrics and dimensions relevant to contact form submissions.
    • Go to “Customization” > “Custom Reports” > “New Custom Report.”
    • Add relevant metrics like goal completions, conversion rate, and dimensions like source/medium, user type, and landing page.

Segments

  1. Create custom segments to analyze the behavior of users who submit contact forms compared to those who don’t.
    • Go to “Admin” > “Segments” > “New Segment.”
    • Define conditions based on goal completions or events related to contact form submissions.
    • Apply these segments to your reports to compare engagement metrics and identify trends.

Conclusion

By setting up and tracking goals for contact form submissions and inquiries in Google Analytics, you can effectively measure user engagement, evaluate the effectiveness of your website in generating leads, and identify areas for improvement. Regularly reviewing these metrics will provide valuable insights and help you optimize your website to better meet your business objectives.

Categories: Digital Marketing