Giving Each Enquiry Goal a Dollar Value

Every goal counted as one

Most sites that track enquiries in Google Analytics have a handful of goals: a quote request, a contact form, a newsletter signup, perhaps a tap on the phone number.

Each counts as one completion. A newsletter signup and a request for a large job score the same, so a page full of signups looks more valuable than a page that brings in work.

Analytics has a field for this that most owners leave empty: a value for each goal. Filled in, even roughly, it lets reports rank pages and traffic sources by what their enquiries are likely to be worth.

What a goal value changes

• Goal value appears beside each traffic source and campaign.
• Per session goal value shows what an average visit from each source is worth.
• Page value credits the pages people read before enquiring.
• Landing page reports show which first pages lead to valuable enquiries.
• Goals imported into AdWords carry their value alongside the cost.

The third is the one owners find most useful. Page value spreads the worth of each enquiry across the pages visited on the way, so a service page people read before asking for a quote stops looking idle.

Working out a rough value

The arithmetic needs two numbers you probably already know: the average value of a job, and how many enquiries of that kind become jobs.

If the average job brings in $2,000 and about one quote request in four turns into work, each quote request is worth roughly $500 to the business. A general contact form that converts less often gets a lower figure.

Use your own records rather than guesses about the industry. Last year's quotes, the jobs that came from them and their totals are enough.

If you know your margin, use the profit on an average job rather than its price. The figures shrink, and become more honest.

Values for the smaller goals

A newsletter signup is worth something, but far less than a quote request. A small fixed amount, or nothing, stops it drowning out the enquiries that matter.

A tap on the phone number is worth tracking, since many customers call rather than fill in a form. Give it less than a form, because not every tap becomes a conversation.

Leave goals such as pages per visit or time on site without a value. They describe behaviour, not enquiries, and valuing them inflates every report.

A worked example

A carriage ride company runs horse-drawn tours in a historic district through the summer, holiday light rides in December, and wedding carriages booked months ahead.

Its website had three goals: a tour booking request, a wedding enquiry and a newsletter signup. The reports showed the tour pages and a tourism directory as its best performers, because they produced the most completions.

The owner set values from two years of bookings: a modest amount for a tour request, a token one for the newsletter, and far more for a wedding enquiry, which became a booking about one time in three.

With values in place, the order changed. The wedding page, a bridal show listing and a few wedding photographers' sites linking to the company carried most of the value, on a fraction of the traffic.

The tours still mattered. The reports simply stopped hiding where most of the income began, and the owner moved the wedding enquiry form higher on its page.

Setting it up

Goal values are entered in each goal's settings, in the view section of the admin area. Switch the value option on and type the figure.

Check the view's currency first, in the view settings. It defaults to US dollars, which puts the wrong label on every value in the reports.

An event goal, such as a phone tap, can use a fixed value set in the goal rather than one sent with the event, which is simpler for most small sites.

A goal counts once per visit, so a form sent twice in one visit is not counted twice, and the values cannot double by accident.

Where to read the results

Give it a month, then open the source and medium report with the goal columns showing. Sort by goal value rather than sessions, and the order often changes.

Then sort the all pages report by page value. Pages near the top are the ones people read before valuable enquiries; busy pages with no value may need a clearer route to the form.

Conservative on purpose

The point is ranking, not forecasting. A value that is roughly right, applied the same way to every goal, sorts pages and sources correctly even when the figures are off.

Err low. An inflated value makes the website look more profitable than it is, and flattering reports get believed when someone decides where to spend.

Leave out lifetime value and repeat business. They are real and tempting, but they turn a sorting tool into a sales projection.

Revisit them every year

Average jobs and closing rates change. Prices rise, services are added, and a season goes better or worse than expected.

Once a year, rerun the arithmetic from your records and update each value. Changes apply only from that day forward, so add an annotation in Analytics with the date and the new figures.

Afterwards, compare like with like: a jump in goal value in the month you raised the figures is arithmetic, not a better month.

The counter-case

A site with a single goal, such as one contact form, gains little from a value. Every completion is worth the same, so the count already ranks everything correctly.

An online shop with ecommerce tracking already records real revenue. Adding a value to the order confirmation goal as well would count each sale twice.

For any site with several kinds of enquiry, rough and conservative values are the quickest way to make reports reflect what the business earns rather than what the site counts.

This month

1. List every goal the site tracks now.
2. Pull last year's enquiries and the jobs they became.
3. Work out a value for each enquiry goal.
4. Switch the view currency from US to Canadian dollars.
5. Enter the values and add an annotation.
6. Read page value and sources after a month.
7. Put a yearly review in the calendar.

Step two is where the value comes from. Without your own records the figures are guesses, and a report built on guesses ranks pages no better than counting.

Carrying those values into the advertising account depends on the link described in AdWords and Analytics kept in separate boxes.

Frequently asked questions

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