Goals and events: what counts as a conversion
Analytics without configured goals shows traffic but not results. Well-chosen goals turn it from pretty statistics into a management tool — and let ad platforms optimise towards what you actually need.
A goal is an action you treat as a result: a form submission, a tap on the phone number, opening a messenger. Advertising without goals optimises for clicks; with goals it optimises for requests, and the difference in cost per enquiry can be several-fold. Check goals by hand after every change to the site: one that broke silently looks exactly like advertising that stopped working.
In this article9 sections
- What a goal is in plain terms
- Which goals every business needs
- How not to count one enquiry twice
- How to set it up properly
- Micro and macro conversions
- What gets in the way of honest counting
- How to track a form submission correctly
- Tracking calls and messengers
- How not to break goals when updating the site
What a goal is in plain terms
A goal is an action you consider valuable. Submitting a form, tapping the phone number, opening a messenger, requesting a callback. When someone performs it, the system records the goal as reached.
You need this for three things: to know whether the site works; to compare channels against each other; and to give ad platforms a signal about what to optimise for.
Advertising without goals passed to it optimises for clicks. Advertising with goals optimises for requests. The difference in cost per enquiry can be several-fold, and this is the most underrated setting there is.
Which goals every business needs
| Goal | What it records | Importance |
|---|---|---|
| Form submission | A request from the site | Primary |
| Tapping the phone number | A call from mobile | Primary |
| Opening a messenger | An enquiry via WhatsApp or Telegram | Primary |
| Callback request | A request through the widget | Primary |
| Viewing the contacts page | Intent to get in touch | Secondary |
| Deep scrolling | Interest | Secondary |
The primary goals are enquiries. Secondary ones are useful when enquiries are few and you need to understand behaviour, but you cannot optimise advertising on them: they do not mean a request.
How not to count one enquiry twice
A common mistake: the person taps the phone number, then fills in the form, then writes on a messenger. The report shows three conversions and there is one client. Because of this the cost per request looks twice as good as it is, and decisions get made on inflated figures.
- Separate goals by type and look at them individually, not at the total.
- Pass one primary goal to ad platforms, not all of them at once.
- Reconcile the conversion count in analytics against real enquiries in the CRM at least monthly.
- Exclude internal actions: your own visits, test requests.
How to set it up properly
- Define the listEvery way a person can get in touch with you. Usually three to five.
- Configure the triggerA form submission is tracked on the successful send, not on the button click — otherwise failed attempts get counted too.
- Check by handPerform every action yourself and confirm it appears in the report.
- Pass them to the ad platformsImport the goals so advertising optimises towards them.
- Set a value where possibleIf you know the average deal size, enter it — then return on spend can be calculated automatically.
Always check goals by hand after any change to the site. A goal that broke silently is a common reason advertising suddenly «stops working»: it simply stopped seeing results.
Micro and macro conversions
Not everything a person does is equally valuable. Separating the two keeps you from fooling yourself.
- A macro conversion is what the site exists for: a request, a call, a purchase.
- A micro conversion is a step towards it: viewing prices, adding to the cart, downloading a price list.
Micro conversions are useful for diagnosis: plenty of them with few macro ones means the break happens at the last step. But advertising must be optimised on macro conversions — otherwise the system will bring you people who scroll pages beautifully and never call.
What gets in the way of honest counting
- Ad blockers: some visitors never appear in the statistics at all.
- Cookie consent: without it, part of the data is not collected.
- Requests by phone, dialled by hand from the screen.
- Enquiries through social media, bypassing the site.
- Repeat visits from different devices.
So the figures in analytics are always lower than reality. That is fine: what matters is not absolute precision but comparability between channels and the trend over time.
How to track a form submission correctly
This is where mistakes happen most, and the mistake is silent: you have numbers, but they are wrong.
- Wrong: counting the button click. Then everyone who clicked and got a validation error ends up in the statistics.
- Right: counting the moment the server confirms the request was received.
- Better still: recording failed submissions separately — that way you see it when the form breaks.
The difference between these approaches reaches tens of percent on real projects, and it always inflates.
Tracking calls and messengers
- Tapping the phone numberRecorded as an event. Not a guarantee of a call, but the best signal available on mobile.
- Opening a messengerCounted on the link tap. After that the person moves to another app and the trail is lost.
- Dynamic numbersThe only precise way to tie a call to a source. Paid, but worth it at a meaningful call volume.
- Asking during the callThe simplest fallback: «how did you hear about us». Imprecise, but better than nothing.
How not to break goals when updating the site
- After any change to the site, check the goals by hand.
- Keep a list: which goal, where it fires, how to test it.
- Reconcile conversions in analytics against requests in the CRM at least monthly.
- A sharp drop in conversions without a drop in traffic is almost always a broken goal, not falling demand.
Frequent questions
How many goals should we set up?
Primary ones matching your contact methods, usually three to five. Secondary ones as needed. Twenty goals turn a report into noise.
Should viewing the contacts page count as a conversion?
As a secondary one, yes — it shows intent. As a primary one for ad optimisation, no: there is still a way to go before an enquiry.
Why are there fewer requests in analytics than in the CRM?
Blockers, cookie refusals, calls from a manually dialled number. A 10–30% gap is routine. It is worrying when the gap is a multiple.
Do we need to pass goals to advertising?
Absolutely. Without it the system optimises for clicks rather than requests, and you pay for visits instead of enquiries.
Does opening a messenger count as a conversion?
Yes, it is an enquiry. But count it separately from the form: these channels usually differ in quality and in how fast they get handled.
What if a goal stops firing?
Check by hand immediately after any change to the site. A goal that broke silently is the most common reason for a sudden «drop» in advertising.
The materials answer general questions. We will look at your specific case — free and without obligation.