There are four goal types available in Google Analytics: Destination, Duration, Pages/ Screen Sessions Per Visit, and Event.
In order to create these goals, you will have to choose from an option of pre-selected templates in Google Analytics. There are 4 types of templates to choose from, each will have several options based on what kind of website you own (a service website will have different options than an e-commerce store for example).
Google Analytics Template Types:
Revenue: Tracks customer actions such as making a payment, making a reservation, placing an order, or becoming a partner.
Acquisition: Tracks customer viewing and sign-ups, account creation, and submission of new content.
Inquiry: Tracks how a customer browsed such as viewing more products, looking into locations, viewing promotions or deals, and looking into upcoming events.
Engagement Goal tracks: Media play and social interaction. Adding to favorites, adding to cart, signing up for newsletters, or viewing media.
Once you have chosen a template you will then have access to choose what goal you would like to track.
Google Analytics Goal Types:
Destination: When a customer reaches a specific page or app on your website. There is also an option to show a funnel visualization of the journey the customer takes to get to that page, or where the customer drops off before reaching that page.
Duration: Based on the length of a user session. You can choose filters for hours, minutes, and seconds.
Pages/ Screen Sessions Per Visit: Counts how many pages are visited by the customer per session.
Event: Tracks a specific action on your site, such as playing a video on your page. There are 4 options to select from, you must choose at least one within category, action, label, or value.
There is also an option to assign a monetary value to each of your goals but only use this tool if the monetary amount is the same for each transaction. If you are an e-commerce store with different product values do not use this metric.
Before submitting the goal, it is a good idea to verify the goal to ensure that a value would be attributed to that goal. If the return value is 0% you will want to reassess your metrics.
The key to setting up the correct goals to monitor is having a set of SMART goals laid out for your business. If you need help determining what your SMART goals and strategies should be, we at Point of Sale Strategies are here to help!
The video below from Google also shows how to get started with Google Analytics goal setting.