Configure goals
Create a goal, link it to a page and assign it to an experiment.
A goal is defined once per project and can be used in any number of experiments. This page walks you through creating a goal and assigning it to an experiment. The differences between the four goal types are explained in Goal types.
Create a goal
- Open your project and go to Targeting & Goals → Goals.
- Click Create your first goal, or the create button above the goal list if you already have goals.
- Fill in the form and save.
The form has four sections.
General
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | A clear name, for example Add to cart click. Required, up to 191 characters, unique in the project. |
| Description | Optional note about the purpose of the goal. It is shown on the results page. |
Definition
Choose the type of the goal. The fields below change depending on your choice.
| Type | What it counts | Extra fields |
|---|---|---|
| Pageview | A pageview counts as a conversion. | Page |
| Click | A click on an element counts as a conversion. | Page, CSS selector |
| Custom | A conversion or a value that you trigger with JavaScript. | API Name, Measurement type |
| Revenue | A revenue value that you trigger with JavaScript. | API Name, Currency sign, Value filter type |
For Custom and Revenue goals, the form also shows an API Code box with the code to copy. Details are in Goal types.
Statistic Settings
Set the Counting method and the Winning direction. Both are explained in Goal types.
Advanced Settings
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Always embed | If enabled, the goal is always embedded in the snippet. Not needed in most cases. |
Link a goal to a page
Pageview and click goals are tied to a page. Select it in the Page field. You can only choose pages that already exist in the project. Create them under Targeting & Goals → Pages, see Pages.
When exactly a pageview or click goal counts is described in Click & pageview goals.
Assign goals to an experiment
- Open the experiment.
- In the Goals section ("WHAT should be tracked?"), click Select.
- In the Select Goals panel, click Add existing goal and choose a goal. Repeat for more goals.
- Save. The notification Goals updated confirms the change.
In the same section, the link with the plus icon creates a new goal for the experiment. The goals are shown as badges
with the name and type, for example Add to cart click [click].
Primary and secondary goals
The order of the goals in the Select Goals panel matters:
- The first goal is the primary goal. The panel highlights it with a border.
- All other goals are secondary goals.
- The order is also the order of the goal cards on the results page.
The primary goal is your main success metric. ABlyft uses it for the project option Auto-pause on significance: a running experiment is paused automatically as soon as its primary goal reaches statistical significance, and the team is notified by email. You find this option under Project → Settings → Statistics & Analytics.
You can also define Default Goals under Project → Settings. They are added to every new experiment, and the first default goal becomes the primary goal.
Goals added later
If you add a goal to a running experiment, it is only counted from the day it was added. The results page shows the note "This goal was added later. It is counted from ..." for such goals.
Edit, clone and delete goals
In the goal list, each row has an edit action and a menu with Clone and Delete. The list is grouped by type. You can show more columns such as API Name, Page or CSS selector. The Assigned column shows in how many experiments a goal is used. When you delete several goals at once, goals that are still used in an experiment are skipped.
Next steps
- Choose the right type: Goal types
- Check that events arrive: Verify measurement
- Understand the numbers: Metrics