Google Analytics Goals: How to Set Them Up as Key Events

Google Analytics no longer has a Goals menu. The actions goals used to track, such as form submissions and purchases, are now called key events.

Key events connect your traffic to results. Without them, your reports show visits but not which visitors became leads or customers.

In this guide, we explain what goals were, why Google Analytics replaced them, and how to set up each goal type as a key event today.

In This Article:

What Were Goals in Universal Analytics?

Goals were the Universal Analytics feature for counting conversions. Each goal told Universal Analytics which visitor action counted as a success, and a reporting view could hold up to 20 goals.

Universal Analytics offered four goal types.

• Destination goals counted a visit to a specific page, such as a thank-you page. An optional funnel listed the pages people should pass through first, much like a funnel exploration does today.
• Duration goals counted sessions that lasted longer than a set time.
• Pages/Screens per session goals counted sessions that viewed more than a set number of pages or app screens.
• Event goals counted an event you already tracked, matched by its Category, Action, Label or Value.

Every goal needed a Name and a Type, according to Google’s instructions for creating Universal Analytics goals. A Value was optional on all four types. Smart Goals also existed, but only for Google Ads advertisers.

Why Google Analytics Replaced Goals With Key Events

In Universal Analytics, goals and events were separate. Events recorded interactions such as video plays, and goals decided which pages, sessions or events counted as success.

Google Analytics now records everything as an event, including page views. Instead of building a separate goal, you mark the events that matter as key events, so there’s one list to manage instead of two.

Key events are not the same as conversions. Google now reserves conversions for Google Ads campaign measurement. If you advertise with Google Ads, you can create conversions from your key events once you link your Google Ads account to Google Analytics.

Our beginner’s guide to Google Analytics event tracking explains how events work, including parameters and event counts.

How to Set Up Goals in Google Analytics Today

Destination and Event goals each become a single key event in Google Analytics. Pages/Screens per session goals need an audience, and Duration goals and Smart Goals have no direct match.

For Duration goals, Google suggests user_engagement as a proxy. It follows Google’s definition of an engaged session, though, so it isn’t a precise time-on-site threshold.

Mark an Existing Event as a Key Event

Google Analytics already collects several events that can work as goals. Enhanced measurement, Google’s built-in automatic tracking, adds events such as form_submit and file_download, and plugins on your site can send their own. An Event goal built on video plays, for example, maps to the events in our guide to tracking video plays.

To turn one into a goal, open Admin and click Events under Data display. Find the event on the Recent events tab and click the star next to its name. Google describes the same step in its help page on marking events as key events.

The Events page has two tabs. Key events lists the events you have already marked, and Recent events lists everything the property collected in the last 28 days.

Google Analytics marks purchase as a key event by default, so a store’s sales goal may already be in place. A standard property can hold up to 30 key events in total.

Automatic events have one catch, though. form_submit counts every form and file_download counts every file, so a narrower event works better when only one form or page should count.

Create a New Event for a Thank-You Page or Specific Action

A thank-you page event is the closest match to a Universal Analytics Destination goal. It counts a conversion only when someone reaches the page your form or checkout sends them to.

To build one, open Admin, click Events under Data display, and then click + Create event. In the Create an event form, give the event a short name, such as contact_thank_you.

Next, turn on Mark as key event. Under Default key event value, you can leave Don’t set a default key event value selected, or choose Set a default key event value and enter what a lead is worth to you.

Under Counting method, Google recommends Once per event. I’d pick Once per session if you want numbers that behave like old goal completions, because Universal Analytics counted each goal at most once per session.

Further down the form, select Create without code and choose the data stream for your website. For the trigger, pick page_view from the Event name dropdown, then enter the thank-you page’s address in the URL field, such as https://www.example.com/thank-you/.

The match rule is set to URL contains, so the event fires on any page whose address includes what you typed. A full, specific address keeps other pages from counting. When the summary below the field describes the page you meant, click Create.

Because you marked it as a key event, the new event appears on the Key events tab right away. It shows up on the Recent events tab only after Google Analytics processes the first visits to that page. Google’s help page on creating events in Google Analytics covers the same form in more detail.

The same steps work for other goals too. Swap in the address of a page people reach after taking an action, and give the event a matching name. Here are a few examples:

• A newsletter confirmation page, such as /subscribed/, for a newsletter_signup event
• A booking or appointment confirmation page, such as /booking-confirmed/, for a booking_complete event
• A download page for a guide or other lead magnet, such as /guide-download/, for a lead_magnet_download event
• A WooCommerce order confirmation page, which includes /checkout/order-received/ in its address, for a store that doesn’t send purchase events yet
• A high-intent page such as /pricing/ or /request-a-demo/, when a visit there is worth counting on its own

For a goal that counts completed actions, choose a page that only loads after the action happens. A page anyone can browse to, like the page that holds your contact form, counts visits instead. Save those pages for softer goals, such as a visit to your pricing page.

Once a key event collects data, it appears in the Key events column of standard reports such as Traffic acquisition and Landing page. Google’s overview of key events in Google Analytics lists the explorations and Advertising reports that use it too.

Rebuild a Pages/Screens per Session Goal With an Audience

A Pages/Screens per session goal takes an audience instead of a single event. Google’s guide to replicating engagement goals sets the audience’s Membership duration to Maximum limit and its scope to Within the same session.

The audience’s condition is a page_view event whose event_count is greater than your old threshold. Under Audience trigger, click + Create new and name the trigger event after your old goal.

Once that trigger event appears in your events list, mark it as a key event. Unlike the old goal, this key event can’t carry a value.

From Goal Conversion Rate to Key Event Rate

Goal conversion rate was the Universal Analytics number that showed what share of visits reached a goal. Without its replacement, you can count leads but can’t tell whether a traffic source sends visitors who convert.

In Google Analytics, the closest metric is session key event rate. It’s the percentage of sessions that included at least one key event.

Explorations, the custom report builder under Explore, include session key event rate as a metric. You can set it beside a dimension such as Landing page or Session source / medium.

I’d compare it page by page rather than site-wide, since one strong page can hide several weak ones.

We show that comparison step by step in our landing page conversion rate tutorial.

How MonsterInsights Sends Your Goal Events to Google Analytics Automatically

Each thank-you page event you build covers one page. With several forms, that means several events to create and keep pointed at the right URLs.

If your site runs on WordPress, MonsterInsights, the WordPress analytics plugin, can send the events your goals depend on. With the Forms addon on the Pro plan or higher, every successful form submission reaches Google Analytics as a generate_lead event.

That turns a lead goal into one step. You mark generate_lead as a key event, and no thank-you page is needed. eCommerce tracking (Pro and above) sends purchase for WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads stores, and Google Analytics already counts that as a key event.

On Pro, button and image blocks get a Mark as a conversion event toggle with a custom event name. On a button, the same panel also has a Mark as Key Event option, so a click like “Book a call” can become a goal without any code. We cover each addon’s setup in our guide to conversion tracking in WordPress.

Inside WordPress, the Forms report at Insights » Reports » Forms shows impressions, conversions and conversion rate for each form. You can see which forms bring in leads before you decide what counts as a goal.

Our form submission tracking walkthrough also shows where to find generate_lead in Google Analytics.

Video Tutorial: How Google Analytics Goals Became Key Events

In the video below, we explain why Google Analytics replaced goals with events and key events. Some menus may look different from when we recorded it, so follow the written steps for today’s screens.

Below, we answer the remaining questions about Google Analytics goals and key events.

FAQs About Google Analytics Goals

Once your first key event collects data, the Key events column in your reports shows which pages and traffic sources bring in leads and sales. If you liked this article, check out the following beginner-friendly guides:

• How to Add Google Analytics 4 to WordPress (Best Way)
• How to Track Outbound Link Clicks in GA4 + WordPress
• How to Track Conversion Paths in Google Analytics
• Google Analytics eCommerce + Revenue Tracking Tutorial
• The Beginner’s Guide to Google Analytics Custom Dimensions

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