So you’ve launched your new website and now leads and inquiries are starting to come in. Life is good, right? After all, you’ve spent all this effort and money on your new site, now it’s time to kick back and watch the dollars roll in. But you just can’t help but think, “is this the best my site can do? Should I be satisfied with this amount of leads? How can I tell?” Well, if you haven’t set up Conversion Goals in your Google Analytics account, you’ll never truly know how this new site of yours is performing (and if you haven’t set up Google Analytics, then you have even more work to do!).

When it comes to gauging the success of your website and overall digital marketing program, Conversion Rate is the number-one key performance indicator (KPI) you need to track – and the only way to do that is to set up Conversion Goals.

What are Conversion Goals?

These are the desired actions you want users to take on your website, and the metric used to measure them. This action could be filling out a contact form, booking a reservation, or downloading some sort of gated content. It’s up to you to define these actions, by setting Conversion Goals in your Google Analytics (GA) account (and Google Tag Manager, if your site is a bit more complex).

What is a Conversion Rate?

This is the percentage of users who take those desired actions. Using the goals you established, you can see just how much of your traffic turns into inquiries, leads, downloads, and ultimately, revenue. Conversion rates can vary widely by industry and goal, with a healthy average around 2% to 5%, but it’s important for you to set your own goals and establish your own benchmark metrics to monitor growth and success.

To learn more about analytics goals and how to set them up, click here.

Track, Learn, Repeat

So many of our clients forget that the work doesn’t stop once their new site is launched. A site is only as good as the data you collect from it. Without understanding how your traffic and users are ultimately turning into leads or revenue, you’ll never truly know if your website is delivering results.

With these goals in place, you’ll have a much clearer picture of how your website and marketing efforts are working together to drive success.

Dan Seitz is the Director of Strategy at Hawthorn Creative and has helped execute marketing strategies for clients from all over the hospitality industry. His favorite Avenger? Captain America.