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The fundamental part of a digital measurement and optimization plan is defining your goals. Get this wrong and you'll set yourself up for disaster!

Last week I published an in-depth guide on Google Analytics goals on my blog. In this blogpost I share 25 things you need to know about Google Analytics goals. It will help you to better understand and leverage them in your unique situation.

1. Always take a strategic approach when setting up goals. Start with a measurement and implementation plan first before implementing goals in Google Analytics.
2. Ask questions and discuss goals with your colleagues or client to make the most sense of your goals.
3. Always keep a raw data view with no goals set up or other modifications.
4. Goals can be evaluated against almost any dimension in Google Analytics.
5. Per reporting view there is a limit of 20 goals divided in four different goal sets.
6. Best practice is to use one goal set for your macro goal(s) (and funnel steps) and the other for secondary or micro goals.
7. Be careful with setting up goals for "minor" conversions. For example, you measure scroll depth and set up a goal for percentage = 75%. If the conversion rate for this particular goal is high, it will influence the overall conversion rate. And this metric won't make much sense anymore. I recommend to set up a new view for these type of goals if you really want to track them as a goal.
8. Google Analytics goals don't work retroactively.
9. Per session a goal can only be counted once. In most cases you can analyze your pageviews or events to count the total number of instances.
10. Based on historical data, you can verify pageview and event level goals. Another method for evaluating pageview (destination) level goals is by filling in the "thank you" URL in your "All Pages" report. 
11. Learning all about regular expressions is very useful; they might come in handy when setting up goals.
12. Set up funnels to evaluate clearly defined paths on your website.
13. Add goal values to each of your goals. One exception: ecommerce "thank you" page goal. Ecommerce of Enhance Ecommerce will already take care of the value of these goals.
14. Setting up goal values unlocks a valuable metric called page value. It allows you to analyze the value of each of your pages in relation to your goals.
15. Use the Google Analytics API to automatically export goal metrics and dimensions.
16. Be extra careful when you set up goals that span multiple domains. You need to have cross-domain tracking in place to track across multiple domains and tie the right channel to your goal.
17. Use a goal copy/paste tool to copy goals to multiple views at a time.
18. Set up event based goals for your most important on-page interactions.
19. Use duration and pageview/session goals in context to your most important (macro) goal.
20. Make a goal inactive when you don't use it anymore. Keep in mind that you can't delete it.
21. Use goal descriptions that make sense and can be understood by anybody in your organization.
22. Remember that funnel step 1 required (in funnel of destination goal) only affects the funnel report itself. It doesn't influence your other conversion rate or goal stats.
23. You can expect a short delay before a new implemented goal actually works.
24. Add an annotation to make sure that you and other people in your organization know when you change or add a goal.
25. Google Analytics goals are session based, but you can set up calculated metrics on the user level. This will help to analyze your conversion rate on the user instead of or in addition to the session level.

Happy to hear any comments or feedback!