Talk given at the Eloqua user group meeting in March 2016 for the Silicon Valley / San Francisco area held at Adaptive Insights' offices. I recommend that marketers adopt the form submission-method for tracking goals in their online analytics systems. This presentation explains the importance and purpose of having a scalable way to do goal tracking online and includes sample code on how to implement it effectively.

1. 1
Michael Freeman – Director, Demand Generation & Marketing Operations
San Francisco/Silicon Valley Eloqua User Group – March 23, 2016
Modern Goal Tracking Strategies & Analytics

2. 2Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
WARNING - High Density Deck
There's lots of text & few images

3. 3Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
 We tend to improve what we measure
 Good decisions are very hard without good data
 Yet, good measurement practices are very rare
Good measurement is the foundation of DG

4. 4Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
 Not enough investment in understanding the data or
what’s important to the business
 Choose a path of least resistance for data gathering
 We don’t think about the future
Why don’t most marketers measure well?

5. 5Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
OK, but what about goal tracking?

6. 6Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
 Not enough investment in understanding the data or
what’s important to the business
– We setup the wrong goals to track
 Choose a path of least resistance for data gathering
– Data quality suffers & maintenance eats a lot of time
 We don’t think about the future
– A limited view of the data & can’t handle change well
Goal tracking suffers as a result

7. 7Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
Thank you page-based
Pros
 Quick to start using
 Seemingly easy
 Low technical knowledge needed
Cons
 Not scalable or very flexible
 SEO/WEB needs != Data needs
 Lots of maintenance
Form submission-based
Pros
 Flexibility by using virtual URLs
 Very rich data gathering
 Separate tracking from UX & SEO
 Low maintenance
Cons
 Requires some up-front planning
 Higher technical requirements
Goal tracking – a tale of two methods

8. 8Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
1. Create a common goal tracking function (GTF)
– Define the variables to pass to the GTF
• What? = Conversion Type
• Where? = Location
• So What? = Goal Value
– Hook in your various goal tracking services
– Host it in a common location such as Google Tag Manager
2. Form preparation
– Determine how you’ll pass the variables to the GTF
– Setup a global form listener for onSubmit events
3. Configure goals in your analytics services, as necessary
Setting up the form submission method

9. 9Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
 conversionType (required): This will tell us where to bucket the conversion in our tracking systems.
– I recommend using a number followed by a forward slash and description of the conversion in short, URL-style text.
– 2/online-demo, 1/contact-us, 3/asset-download, 1/free-trial
 trackPath (optional): The location of the form completion. In almost all circumstances it will be defined by the value of
window.location.pathname
 goalValue (optional): This value captures the $-value we associate with a goal completion. In most cases this will be a
static value associated with the conversionType and is typically used dynamically only in ecommerce situations
trackPath + "/form/" + conversionType
"/products/adaptive-suite" + "/form/" + "2/online-demo"
/products/adaptive-suite/form/2/online-demo
The what, where, & how much of tracking

10. 10Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
 goalCompletion: the namespaced object to handle all logic
 bindFormSubmit: sets the event listener for onSubmit and calls trackGoal
 trackGoal: fires off all of the individual tracking functions for each service
 trackGoal_ga: fires off the call to GA
 trackGoal_optimizely: fires off the call to Optimizely
 trackGoal_bing: fires off the call to Bing Ad Center
 Etc.
Anatomy of goalCompletion {}

11. 11Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
Load goalCompletion from GTM
<script type="text/javascript">
try {
if (typeof goalCompletion === "undefined") {
$.ajax({
url: "//yourwebsite.com/assets/js/goalCompletion.js",
dataType: "script",
cache: !0
}).done(function(){
//look for any eloqua forms and bind the submit handler
if ($('#eloquaForm').length > 0) {
//insert code here to set the conversion variables
goalCompletion.bindFormSubmit(typeof conversionType == 'undefined' ? undefined : conversionType, typeof
trackPath == 'undefined' ? undefined : trackPath, typeof goalValue == 'undefined' ? undefined : goalValue);
}
});
}
} catch (error) {}
</script>
Google Tag Manager is a great way to include this script loader on all of your pages

12. 12Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
Adding form-based goal tracking to GA
• Make sure you choose
regular expression
• Use the same pattern to
define form viewing for
better funnel reports

13. 13Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
 Form has default hidden field
called conversionType
 The form load handler reads the
conversionType field value and
sets the form submit handler
variables
 On form submission (passing
html5 validation) the trackGoal
function is called
 All tracking services are updated
Putting it all together

14. 14Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
 We can track goal completions
anywhere on the site
 We can see where the form is
most likely to be completed
 We can create a separate set of
goals to track Tier-2 goals
 It's easy to update and maintain
since it's tied to the form code,
not the destination URL
Putting it all together - continued

15. 15Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
 Take the time to think about your reporting comprehensively
 Use goals that define your business / main touch points
 Put in a scalable system for tracking and reporting on goals
 Start using the form-submission method
 Teach your peers how to get more out of using better analyses/data
Final thoughts

16. 16
www.adaptiveinsights.com
Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
mfreeman@adaptiveinsights.com
@spanishgringo
Thank you!

17. 17Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
Appendix – goalCompletion functions

18. 18Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
Goal tracking with goalCompletion
var goalCompletion = {
bindFormSubmit: function(conversionType, trackPath, goalValue) {//code},
trackGoal: function(conversionType, trackPath, goalValue) {//code},
trackGoal_ga: function(a, b, c) {//code},
trackGoal_optimizely: function(a, b, c) {//code},
trackGoal_bing: function(a, b, c) {//code},
//add more services here
//end goalCompletion
}

19. 19Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
goalCompletion.bindFormSubmit()
bindFormSubmit: function(conversionType, trackPath, goalValue) {
try {
//add in validation code if you use a 3rd party validator like jQuery Validate
// if (form is valid){ call the submit hander in the validate object etc…}
$("form").submit(function(){
goalCompletion.trackGoal(conversionType, trackPath, goalValue);
});
} catch (e) {}
}

20. 20Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
goalCompletion.trackGoal()
trackGoal: function(conversionType, trackPath, goalValue) {
//set goal defaults if none passed
goalCompletion.conversionType = conversionType || goalCompletion.conversionType || "unknown-conversion";
goalCompletion.trackPath = trackPath || goalCompletion.trackPath || document.location.pathname;
goalCompletion.goalValue = goalValue || goalCompletion.goalValue || 100;
if((/^[1-5]//).test(goalCompletion.conversionType)) {
goalCompletion.conversionType = "/form/" + goalCompletion.conversionType;
}
try{
// fire off GA
goalCompletion.trackGoal_ga(goalCompletion.conversionType, goalCompletion.trackPath, goalCompletion.goalValue);
} catch(error) {
console.log("errorGA:n" + error);
}
try{
// fire off Optimizely
goalCompletion.trackGoal_optimizely(goalCompletion.conversionType, goalCompletion.trackPath, goalCompletion.goalValue);
} catch(error) {
console.log("errorOpt:n" + error);
}
/* services not in use right now */
//goalCompletion.trackGoal_linkedIn(goalCompletion.conversionType, goalCompletion.trackPath, goalCompletion.goalValue);
//goalCompletion.trackGoal_acme(goalCompletion.conversionType, goalCompletion.trackPath, goalCompletion.goalValue);
}

21. 21Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
goalCompletion.trackGoal_ga()
trackGoal_ga: function(conversionType, trackPath, goalValue) {
if (typeof gaCookie != "undefined") {
gaCookie.getVisitData();
}
if (_gaq) {
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', (trackPath.substr(-1) == "/" ? trackPath.substr(0, trackPath.length-1) : trackPath) +
conversionType]);
}

22. 22Michael Freeman, @spanishgringo
Resources to pass more web campaign information with form submissions
 https://moz.com/ugc/how-to-measure-roi-for-leadgen-websites
 https://github.com/spanishgringo/ga-campaign-tracking
Bonus Material – Passing GA data to Eloqua