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How to Create Smart Goals via Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a great way to track traffic, and behaviour on your website. That’s why so many advertisers have this set up, and if you don’t already then it’s suggested that you do so!

Many PPC advertisers know that attribution and tracking is most important when it comes to optimisation, so setting this up in Google Analytics is a number one priority before you start ploughing money into a campaign. Without any valuable tracking, advertisers are left blind to what is working, and the main thing, what isn’t. While a large proportion of advertisers are already tracking conversions, Google Analytics Smart Goals helps you identify high-quality traffic and allows you to optimise more effectively.

How do Smart Goals work and what does it mean for advertisers?

Smart Goals via Google Analytics allow advertisers to identify what visits are more likely to lead to a conversion and set them as a goal completion in Google Analytics. This is based upon what they think the top 5% of traffic would be in terms of either:

  • Pages per session
  • Session duration
  • Location
  • Device
  • Browser

This then allows advertisers to determine which campaigns, Ad Groups and Keywords are bringing more high-quality traffic to their site. Then, more budget can be pushed to these areas as the ROI from these users is going to be much higher.

A good example of how Smart Goals can be used is if you have a showroom. By making sure that advertisers are getting more high-quality traffic to their site, they might see an increase in visits to their store, and not only online purchases, as these users are showing high interest/intent.

Advertisers can also set up remarketing campaigns for these users. This could be a very good strategy moving forward, as instead of remarketing to all of your website visitors, you can show ads only to the users that are more likely to come back to the site and convert.

How to setup Smart Goals:

Step 1: Activate Smart Goals via Google Analytics

In order to use Smart Goals via Google Analytics you need to activate them. To do this:

  • Log into your Google Analytics account
  • Go to the Admin tab
  • Navigate to Goals
  • Followed by + New Goal
  • Select Smart Goal from the list

The highest quality visits to your website will now automatically become smart goals with no additional tagging or customization required.

Step 2: Import Smart Goals into AdWords

Just like any other goal within Google Analytics, Smart Goals can be imported into AdWords and used as a conversion. To do this:

  • Log into AdWords
  • Go to Tools
  • Followed by Conversions
  • Navigate to the Google Analytics tab in the left-hand panel
  • Here you should be able to select your Smart Goal and use it as a conversion in AdWords

Please note:

There are some limitations before you get started:

  • Smart Goals are not configurable or customisable
  • You can have one Smart Goal per account view
  • Smart Goals will take up 1 of the 20 available goal slots
  • Smart Goals are only available for website visits, and cannot be used for mobile app views
  • Smart Goals are not available for views that receive more than 1 million hits per day
  • Smart Goals do not support View-Through Conversions or cross-device conversions

Have a go at configuring Google AdWords Smart Goals yourself, but if you have any difficulties ask us for help in the comments. Or, if you would like to learn much more one of our Google Analytics Training Courses or Google AdWords Training Courses could be of interest to you.

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