How to set Metrica goals for an honest reading of ads
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A goal in Yandex Metrica is an action that matters to the site owner: a number of page views, a page, a click, a transition, a payment. A completion is the moment the condition is met. A goal visit is a visit in which there was a completion. Conversion is the share of goal visits in the total number of visits. A goal visitor is the person who met the condition. How a lead price is calculated from the same visits is covered in how to calculate cost per lead.
In one goal visit the same goal can fire more than once. Visitor conversion is the share of people who reached the goal among unique visitors. Goal revenue is set in the interface as a fixed amount or passed in the price or order_price parameter. The list of types is a menu of conditions, not a sign of traffic quality: a goal event from JavaScript, the API, or a file; page views; pages; a click on an email, a phone, or a button; a form submit; a messenger; a social network; a file; on-site search; a return from a payment system; calls; chats; a multi-goal; and a compound goal. Metrica creates some goals itself.
A form that stays silent
The “Form submit” goal records a completion when the visitor presses the submit button. The form has to be a form tag. A form built from a div is not tracked. The button is button type="submit" or input type="submit" inside that form. A button with type="button" does not reach the goal. If JavaScript handles the form, the goal works only for the standard onSubmit event.
By default a failed attempt is also counted, when the data did not pass validation. To keep the attempt out of the goal, the help suggests holding the button with a disabled attribute until validation. Firing on an invalid submit is a property of the goal, not proof of a bot. Any change in the markup can break the goal, so it has to be checked before it is used in advertising. A specific form is chosen by id, name, or XPath. The page on which the form was chosen is not taken into account when the completion is checked. If the button cannot be rebuilt, the help points to a “Goal event”.
A worked example, not a report. In a week there are 30 submit presses, 10 of which failed field validation. By default the completions are 30. With disabled until validation, 20 would have entered the goal, if the failed presses did not happen. Conversion still counts goal visits, not every press: two submits in one visit are one goal visit.
How many goals, and how often
A counter can be given up to 200 goals. The same completion of one goal on one counter is recorded no more often than once a second. One visit can hold up to 1,000 completions. The numbers belong to accounting, not to a fraud threshold. The text sits on the calls page and states the counter’s limits as a whole.
A Direct strategy needs at least 10 completions of a goal per week to train on it. If there are fewer, the help advises a goal higher in the funnel, or a change of budget or conversion price. Separately, the goal is checked with your own conversion, and you look at whether Metrica counted it. Ten is a training threshold, not a sign of fraud.
Who can see the goals
If someone else runs the campaigns, the counter’s owner can allow the use of goals that already exist, automatic and their own, without access to the counter. The Direct user then optimizes campaigns and sees only the statistics needed to judge those campaigns. The help does not give that permission for retargeting and audience selection. On a recently created counter the option is on by default. This is access to goals, not a handover of raw visits and not a right to change the counter.
If a segment combines several goals, Direct’s selection includes only people who completed all of those goals in one visit. The help example: “visited the promotion page” and “ordered the discounted product”. Ads for audience segments are shown on search and on networks, the Yandex Advertising Network and external ones. Two goals on different days for the same person are not assembled into this segment under the page’s wording.
| Setting | What you get | What you do not get |
|---|---|---|
A div instead of a form | the form is not tracked | a completion on a click on the block |
type="button" | the goal is not reached | credit for “almost submit” |
A button without disabled before validation | a failed attempt enters the goal | a conclusion “this is a bot” |
| Permission for an agency | optimization on goals that already exist | retargeting and audience selection |
| Two goals in one segment | a person who completed both in one visit | a sum of people with the goals on different days |