Setting up Goals in Google Analytics that involve a 3rd party site
-
I've set up several goals for one of my clients in Google Analytics. The ones that relate to things on the site -- such as clicking on the "Contact Us" button -- work just fine. However, I set up one that is tracking when someone clicks on a purchase button, which sends the user to a third party site (PayPal). This one doesn't seem to work. (I purchased and item and the goal was not recorded). Looking to see if I have to do anything different when setting up the goal.
-
This was very helpful! Thanks so much.
Eric Vallee
-
Since you don't have your Analytics goal confirmation HTML code on the paypal website, for this to work, you need to turn "Auto Return" ON under website payment preferences in paypal and then add the following variable to the end of the URL of your successful goal page :
?utm_nooverride=1
The "Return URL" value would look like this :
After this is done, just make sure you have your analytics goal confirmation code on the goal confirmation page of your own website - Now that paypal is redirecting finished purchases to you, analytics should track them correctly.
If all you care about tracking is the number of successful goals, you can stop here, however if the goal you are setting up involves tracking purchase amounts (I am assuming this is true since you are using paypal), you need to do some fairly complex modifications involving php and javascript, you can find more information on how to complete that here.
Hope this was helpful.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google Analytics not Working on all pages despite many attempts
Hey gang, So this problem has been going on for months. None of our landing pages track, but all of our blog pages do. I've tried GA plugins, (we are on wordpress) and just now even put the code in the theme header script. Still to no avail. I just checked right now, and the blog pages have the global GA code, but now I noticed not even the home page has the code! Could it be something to do with my theme? I tried to pay a guy on upwork to fix but he couldn't fix it either. Thank you for you help!
Reporting & Analytics | | Meier0 -
How can I overwrite previously imported cost data in Google Analytics?
I choose the overwrite option but it keeps adding the costs to the existing costs. When i select that radio button and click done, that option does not appear on the summary screen. That section next to Import Behavior is blank.
Reporting & Analytics | | JGB5550 -
All goal conversion in Google analytics showing under referral
Hi All, I have switched my website from http to https After switching from http to https all goal conversions in Google analytics showing under referral.I have also updated the GA code for https. Please help me out to fix the issue. Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | Alick3000 -
Google Analtyics during site redesign
Hi, We will be launching a new redesign for our website. There will be new URLs and navigation and almost everything (except for static pages like about and contact) will be different. The overwhelming opinion seems to say that it's important to keep the same Google Analytics profile. How can we compare the past URLs to the new ones if they are completely different. Does anyone have any experience in this? Did you create any segmentation? Thanks 🙂
Reporting & Analytics | | WSteven0 -
How do I manually add transactions to Google Analytics
We are seeing Google Analytic's drop transaction on our site so therefore all the figures are skewed. Is there a way I can manually add transactions to GA to cover the missing one?
Reporting & Analytics | | Towelsrus0 -
Google Analytics (not provided)
Hi A greater and greater % of clicks is showing as "not provided" - does any one know of any good external tracking software which will show this information? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | jj34340 -
Transferring Google analytics accounts
Hi, Does anyone know if you can transfer an Google Analytics account. We are looking to take over a new clients existing website and the analytics account is registered to their current web designers. Is it possible to transfer it to the client so that their existing web company no longer has access and they keep all their historical data, or do we have to start from scratch. Thanks Fraser
Reporting & Analytics | | fraserhannah0 -
New Google Analytics Site Speed tool and excel
Hello, I was wondering if there is a good tool or method to pull the new Google Analytics Site Speed data into excel and use this document to track site speeds on a weekly basis for multiple clients? Any good articles or how-to's would be awesome!
Reporting & Analytics | | Hakkasan0