How to Add a New Goal in Google Analytics

Setting up goals in Google Analytics turns a confusing mess of clicks and pageviews into a clear story about what's actually working on your website. This guide will walk you through exactly how to add goals, whether you're using the older Universal Analytics or the newer Google Analytics 4, so you can start measuring what matters most to your business.

First Things First: Do You Have Admin Access?

Before you can create or edit goals, you need to have the right permissions for your Google Analytics property. You’ll need "Edit" permissions at the View level for Universal Analytics or "Editor" role for Google Analytics 4.

If you log in and don't see the options we cover below, you'll need to ask a current administrator on your account to grant you access. Getting this sorted out first will save you a headache later.

Which Google Analytics Are You Using? UA vs. GA4

Google has been phasing out its classic version, Universal Analytics (UA), in favor of the newer Google Analytics 4. They work very differently, especially when it comes to tracking conversions. So, how can you tell which one you have?

Universal Analytics (UA) Property IDs start with "UA-" followed by numbers (e.g., UA-12345678-1).
Google Analytics 4 Property IDs are just a series of numbers (e.g., 123456789).

You can find your ID by clicking the "Admin" gear icon at the bottom left. The middle column, "Property," will show your ID at the top. We'll provide step-by-step instructions for both versions, so just jump to the section that matches your setup.

How to Set Up Goals in Universal Analytics (UA)

In Universal Analytics, goals are configured at the 'View' level. You're allowed up to 20 goals per view. Keep this limit in mind and focus on tracking what’s most important.

Step 1: Navigate to the Goals Section

Log in to your Google Analytics account.
Click on the Admin gear icon in the bottom-left corner.
In the 'View' column on the far right, click on Goals.

Step 2: Create a New Goal

You’ll see a list of any existing goals. To add a new one, click the red + NEW GOAL button. This takes you to the goal setup screen.

Step 3: Choose Your Goal Setup

You’ll be presented with three options. For most cases, you’ll want to select Custom.

Templates: These are pre-filled configurations for common goals like 'Create an account' or 'Make a payment'. They can be a good starting point if you're unsure what to track.
Smart Goals: An automated option that uses machine learning to identify your most engaged website sessions. It's a bit of a "black box" and is best avoided if you have specific actions you want to track.
Custom: This gives you full control and lets you build a goal from scratch based on a specific action. We recommend this for nearly all situations.

Select Custom and click Continue.

Step 4: Describe Your Goal

Now, give your goal a name. Be specific and clear so you and your team know exactly what it's tracking. For example, instead of "Form," use "Contact Form Submission." Next, you select a Goal Slot ID (this is just for organizing multiple goals) and then you must choose your Goal Type.

Here are the four goal types in Universal Analytics:

Destination: This is the most common goal type. It tracks a conversion when a user lands on a specific page, like a "thank you" or order confirmation page.
Duration: Triggers when a session lasts for a specific amount of time. This can be useful for measuring engagement on a blog or resource hub.
Pages/Screens per session: Triggers when a user views a specific number of pages during a single visit. This helps you identify highly engaged users who explore your site deeply.
Event: Tracks specific interactions that don't necessarily load a new page, like clicking a button, playing a video, or downloading a PDF. This requires some extra setup (usually via Google Tag Manager).

Select the type that matches what you want to track and click Continue.

Step 5: Configure the Goal Details

This is where you tell Google Analytics the specific criteria for your goal. The options will change depending on the goal type you selected.

Example: Setting Up a Destination Goal

Let's say you want to track how many people successfully fill out your contact form, which redirects them to a "thank you" page located at www.yourwebsite.com/form-submitted/.

Under "Destination," you'll see a dropdown for match type and a field for the URL.
Match Type:
- Equals to: The URL must exactly match what you enter. Works for simple URLs with no variables. Good for /thank-you.
- Begins with: The URL must start with what you enter. Best for URLs like thank-you.html?source=cpc, since the beginning is the same. Good for /form-submitted/.
- Regular expression: Powerful for matching complex URL patterns, but requires special syntax. Only use if you know what you're doing.
For our example, we'll choose Begins with and enter /form-submitted/ into the field. You don't need to include your full domain name (yourwebsite.com).
(Optional) You can assign a monetary Value to the conversion or set up a Funnel to track the steps users take to get to the destination page.
Click the Verify this Goal link. This will show you what percentage of your users would have completed this goal based on data from the last 7 days. If the number is greater than 0%, it's a good sign your setup is correct!
Click Save.

Congratulations! Your goal is now live. Remember, Google Analytics will only start tracking goal completions from the moment you save it, it cannot apply goals retroactively to your past data.

How to Set Up "Goals" (Conversions) in GA4

In GA4, the concept of "Goals" has been replaced with "Conversions." Everything is an "event," and you simply tell GA4 which events you want to count as a conversion.

There are two main ways to set this up: marking an existing event as a conversion or creating a new event and then marking it as a conversion.

Method 1: Mark an Existing Event as a Conversion

GA4 automatically tracks many important events, like purchase, file_download, or form_submit. The easiest way to set up a conversion is to simply flip a switch for one of these existing events.

Log in to your GA4 property.
Click on the Admin gear icon in the bottom-left corner.
In the 'Property' column, click on Events. This shows you a list of every event being tracked on your site.
Look through the list to find the event you want to count as a conversion (e.g., generate_lead).
On the far right of that event's row, you'll see a toggle under the "Mark as conversion" column. Simply turn that toggle on.

That's it! GA4 will now count every instance of that event as a conversion. You can see this reflected by going to Admin > Conversions.

Method 2: Create a New Custom Event for a Page Visit

What if you want to track something specific, like someone visiting a "thank you" page? In UA, this was a Destination Goal. In GA4, you create a new event that fires only when someone visits that page, and then you mark that new event as a conversion.

Step 1: Create a Custom Event

Navigate to Admin > Events and click the Create event button.
On the 'Custom events' screen, click Create.
Custom event name: Give your event a descriptive name. GA4 recommends using snake_case (lowercase with underscores), so let's call it contact_form_success.
Matching Conditions: This is where you tell GA4 when to fire this new event. We want it to happen when a page view occurs on our specific thank-you page.
- Set the first condition: event_name | equals | page_view
- Click Add condition.
- Set the second condition: page_location | contains | /thank-you (or whatever your specific URL path is).
Leave 'Copy parameters' unchecked for this simple setup. Click Create in the top-right corner.

Step 2: Mark Your New Event as a Conversion

Your new custom event should start showing up in reports in a few hours (sometimes up to 24). Once you trigger it for the first time by visiting the URL yourself, you can mark it as a conversion.

Navigate to Admin > Conversions.
Click the New conversion event button.
In the field that appears, type the exact name of the custom event you just created: contact_form_success.
Click Save.

Now, your new contact_form_success event will appear in your Conversions reports alongside any other goals you have configured!

Best Practices for Goal Tracking

Whether you're using UA or GA4, a few principles will help you get better insights from your data:

Use a Clear Naming Convention: Make your goal names simple and descriptive so anyone on your team can understand them at a glance (e.g., "eBook Download - AI Guide" instead of "Goal 1").
Track Business Objectives, Not Vanity Metrics: Focus on actions that directly contribute to your bottom line, like leads, sales, or sign-ups, rather than pages-per-session.
Test Before You Trust: After setting up a goal, test it yourself. For UA, use the 'Verify' button. For GA4, use DebugView or the Realtime report to make sure your conversion event fires correctly when expected.
Don't Forget About Value: If a conversion has a tangible monetary value (like an online purchase), add it to your goal setup. This unlocks powerful metrics like Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).

Final Thoughts

Creating goals in Google Analytics transforms your website data from a passive observer of traffic into an active tool for measuring performance. By carefully defining and tracking key user actions as goals or conversions, you can finally connect your website activity to concrete business outcomes.

But getting data into Google Analytics is just one part of the puzzle. The next challenge is making sense of it all, especially when your customers' journey is split across marketing ads, your e-commerce platform, and your sales CRM. We built Graphed to erase that complexity. Instead of toggling between a dozen tabs to pull reports and stitch them together, you can connect all your data sources and create live dashboards in seconds just by asking questions in plain English - no more wasted hours, just clear answers.