The success or failure of an AB testing experiment on a site is determined by whether certain goals have been met or not. Setting up goals for an experiment is essential as it tracks and collects data which are then used to assess the effect of the test on the conversion rate. 

For this purpose, Freshmarketer packs an array of advanced goals which are significant to measure a test's outcome.

The list of conversion goals provided by Freshmarketer are,

• Track click on elements
• Track click on links
• Track page visits
• Track form submits
• Track Revenue
• Track bounce rate
• Track time on page
• Create custom event goal
• Track engagement

Before moving to how different types of goals work, it is necessary to know what a primary goal is.

Primary Goal

In an experiment, choose a primary goal that best helps you in defining "conversions."

Examples:

• Track click on elements - call to action button on a home page.
• Track form submits - Form submissions on a sign-up page.
• Track click on links - Referral links for an e-commerce site.

It is important to set a primary goal because Freshmarketer handles goals which are made as a primary goal in a unique way from other goals by calculating the results significantly. In other words, Freshmarketer ensures that the goal set as primary goal always has the most statistical power.

The different types of goals and its working are explained in detail as follows.

Track Click on Elements

This goal in Freshmarketer tracks clicks on any element on the page. You can track more than one element by adding another Track click on elements goal. With this goal type, you can choose whatever element on the website which you want to track for conversions.

Technically, Freshmarketer achieves this goal using the "onmousedown" event to make sure that the clicks are tracked accurately without any loss.

This goal option is beneficial in tracking the performance of individual elements. With this goal, you can track

• Existing elements,
• New elements which are the part of a variation,
• Interactive elements.

Example: Call for action button, textbox, etc.

Track Click on Links

This goal is used to track the clicks on the links which are set up as a goal and counts those clicks as conversion. To set up this goal, the page URL needs to be mentioned as a value.

This goal option is particularly helpful when there are multiple links or buttons on the test page linked to the specific page which has to be tracked.

Whenever a click is made on any of the links present in the experiment page, Freshmarketer tracks the click in the background using “onmousedown” event and records the click as a conversion.

Example:

Let us assume that a site contains a link (www.test.com/register) for the signup page. Here, ‘Track click on links’ goal tracks this particular link and takes it as a conversion whenever a visitor clicks the link.

Track Page Visits

Track page visits goal tracks the specific URL or URL pattern and counts them as a conversion when the visitors visit them. In order to use this goal, it must be made sure that Freshmarketer JS code is added to all the goal pages.

Here are some of the general page visits goals you can set up,

Example:

Let's assume that a product based organization wants to track the amount of traffic they receive on a particular page which has details about their new feature release. For this situation, defining a Track page visits goal for that page URL helps in tracking the volume of traffic for that page accurately.

Track Form Submits

This type of goal is used to track and record conversions whenever a visitor submits a form on the webpage. To use this option, the corresponding URL of the form which is to be tracked for conversion should be specified.

Why Track form submits goal is important?

Assume that you have defined a Track click on elements goal to the submit button in a form to track the form submission. Now, there arises a situation where the user forgets to enter or enters a wrong value in a field present in a form. Clicking the submit button will throw an error message, but since the goal is defined to be "Track click on elements", it will still track the click since a click has been made on the button. For this purpose, if we define Track form submits goal for the forms, the above-stated situation will be resolved which leads to tracking and recording conversions only after the successful form submission.

In Freshmarketer, a conversion is recorded only after the successful form submission. It is vital to make sure that the experiment is created for the page where the form to be tracked for submission is present.

Example:

Suppose an e-commerce site owner wants to track form submissions of the signup form on the site to know the number of visitors who sign up, choose Track form submits option in the GOALS tab and enter the page URL of the form. Now, Freshmarketer tracks form submission and counts conversions accordingly.

This goal is particular to HTML forms and to track form submissions on JS based dynamic or AJAX forms, you can use Create custom event goal.

Track Revenue

Freshmarketer’s Track revenue goal helps in tracking revenue from purchases and other transactions on a website by associating the revenue amount for every valid transaction.

Freshmarketer's revenue tracking option comprises of a two-line snippet which has to be implemented into your site to track the revenue goal.

To know more about this goal and how it works, read this article.

Track Bounce Rate

With this goal type, the bounce rate of a web page can be tracked to know whether visitors bounce from the variations created. It is highly important to know the site’s bounce rate because it helps in understanding the visitors and where changes can be made so that there’s a hike in conversions.

To know more about this goal and how it works, read this article.

Track Time on Page

This is a type of goal in Freshmarketer where the conversion is recorded based on the amount of time the visitors spend on the page.

To know more about this goal and how it works, read this article.

Create Custom Event Goal

Tracks and records conversion on any custom event such as ajax request completion, watching a video, browsing image in a photo carousel, etc. The custom event goal is generally set to track goals that are not directly associated with button clicks or links.

In Freshmarketer, once this goal is chosen, a snippet is generated. This code must be executed to track the conversion. Double-check and make sure to add the custom tracking snippet to the web page where the test runs.

This goal can be of utmost importance and useful in scenarios such as,

• To track the visitors' activity on a site that uses a Single-Page Application framework such as AngularJS, BackboneJS, EmberJS.
• To track pop-up views that appear for the visitor at specific situations. This can be done by triggering a Custom Event when the pop-up is displayed.
  To know more about this goal and how it works, read this article.

Track Engagement

Tracks and records a conversion every time a visitor clicks a button or scrolls down or clicks a button present on the URL or URL pattern in which the goal is defined. In other words, this goal tracks and records all kinds of engagement carried out by the visitor on a web page.

Sometimes, the engagement goal will not be able to track and record all the clicks due to the technical challenges. Suppose a visitor clicks a button or link, it is not always successfully tracked because there might be a slight interval in between visitor's action and the consequent activity that happens during which the tracking might fail for reasons such as network connectivity, browser speed, etc.

The above-mentioned scenario holds good for all the variations in which the tracking engagement loss occurs at approximately the same rate. Having said all that, the engagement goal may still be the best way to determine the efficient and suitable variation if no other goal metrics are defined.

Note: Integrate Freshmarketer JS code site-wide for better results from the engagement tracking goal.

Example:

Let us assume that a blog owner wants to track whether the visitors read the blog posts or just scroll and exit. For this purpose, Track engagement goal can be set to see whether the visitors click the posts, links and engage with the blog. In this goal, any type of visitor engagement with the page is considered as a conversion. The variation with a higher conversion rate will be considered to be the most engaging and suitable design for the page.

With the abundance of goal options that Freshmarketer provides, AB testing is made more efficient that you can ascertain which variation is best suited for a site.