Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 178 – Top 3 Google Analytics Goals For Hotel Websites

Subscribe to Podcast:

While the ultimate goal on a hotel website is to drive bookings, there is more behavioral data available in Google Analytics that can help a hotelier make better marketing decisions than looking at just that one item. In this episode, the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast discusses their top 3 GA goals and explains why you should be paying attention to them too.

Click Here For A Crisis Management Resources For Hotels Master List

SHOW NOTES:

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

The 3 Most Important Google Analytics Goals for Hotel Websites

Here are our top 3 Google Analytics goal suggestions:

1 – Bookings

 

2 – Entrances to the booking engine

  • Why would you want to set up a “conversion” as entrances to the booking engine? It’s because not all traffic is created equally. By using a booking engine entry goal, you can quickly assess what traffic sources/entry pages/device type/geo location, etc. are at least getting visitors to the engine.
  • This goal setup would be similar to how you set up the booking goal, using the “Destination” goal, and determining the page URL that is being passed to Google Analytics when you enter the engine.
  • I recommend coupling this data with a segment of these same people. Once the segment is applied, you can then see by sources/entry pages, which ones convert best and worst IN the engine. Using both parts of the funnel can give you insight as to the visitors’ journeys.
  • See images and analysis information in the full blog post

 

3 – All form submissions

 

  • Whether it’s email sign-ups, contact forms, group/events RFPs, or any other form you have on the website, you’ll want to track it as a goal. Setting up these goals can be tricky. Sometimes using the “Destination” setup makes sense and is simple, and other times you may want to use the “Event” setup. In an ideal world (I have yet to see a single client do this), you should assign a real value to the goal completion.
  • Depending on how these forms are built, you may or may not end up at a “thank you” page when a submission is complete.
  • See full details of how to set up these different scenarios in the full blog post.

 

CAVEATS

1 – In all goal scenarios, your numbers may not be exactly accurate. A goal conversion will count only once per session. Therefore, if one person makes 2 transactions in the same session, you would see 2 transactions in your ecommerce data, but 1 booking goal conversion.

 

2 – If you are reading this in 2023, all of this is probably out of date, and you should look for another article on conversion goals in GA4.

 

Wrapping it up

Goals should not be overlooked as a critical part of your Google Analytics data and website analysis. However, don’t fall into the “the more, the merrier” trap. Instead, determine what is truly an important conversion on the site, vs. a behavior you’re interested in tracking.

 

 

========================

In The Newsaroos:     

========================

Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to @_travelboom or info@travelboommarketing.com.

IN ADDITION TO THE PODCAST WE HAVE A BUNCH OF WHITEPAPERS AND STUDIES YOU CAN DOWNLOAD HERE

Categories:
Share via
Copy link