It is one thing to set a goal for yourself, to plot a course for how you will achieve it, and then to relish in your success when you inevitably do. Working this way gives you a plan for the future to help accomplish your goals time and time again. You know not only that the goal was hit, but the path that was used to get there.
Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes, you may stumble upon a goal without a clear understanding of how you achieved it. When this happens, trying to replicate the process can require, well, the same blind luck that helped you reach it in the first place. That’s not exactly the formula for a high-converting website.
As marketers, we want to hone in not only on what happened, but how it happened.
Any digital marketing professional worth his or her salt will tell you that step one of customizing your website analytics is setting up goal tracking. While total conversions and conversion rate are both important metrics to review, they won’t tell the full story on their own. Sure, a visitor may have reached your Contact page, but did they do so via the homepage, a product page or an About page? Which page does the best job leading someone to reach out for services? What path is more successful? With just a single number you can’t know for sure.
So where do we get a closer look at the user journey that ultimately created a lead or a sale for you?
Enter, the Reverse Goal Path.
The Reverse Goal Path report allows you to see the steps that led a person to the point of conversion. This article provides an overview to help you understand the Reverse Goal Path, along with tips to help you get the most out of the data through customization.