Goals

10 min

A goal is an action you want visitors to take, such as buying, adding to cart, clicking a button or reading a page. Personizely counts each time a visitor reaches a goal (a goal hit) and credits it to the campaigns and widgets they saw before. That is how every A/B test, personalization and widget report measures conversion rate and revenue. There are 7 goal types: Page view, Click, Form submit, Time, Scroll, Event and Manual.

How it works

You create goals once per website under Settings → Goals, or from the goal picker while editing a campaign or widget. A goal can be reused by any number of campaigns and widgets.

Each campaign and widget tracks a list of goals. A campaign needs at least one goal. One goal is the primary goal (marked with a star). It drives the winner verdict, the test progress and the totals on the Campaigns and Widgets lists.

Goal hits are recorded as visitors browse. Click, Form submit, Time and Scroll goals are detected by the snippet on the page. Page view and Event goals are matched when the visit or event is recorded. Purchases on Shopify and Wix are recorded server-side from the platform's order data.

Each goal hit is credited to every campaign and widget the visitor saw within your attribution window that tracks that goal. See Revenue attribution.

Goal types

Type	Reached when	Type-specific settings
Page view	The visitor loads a page that matches Page	Page (required)
Click	The visitor clicks an element matching the CSS Selector, or anything inside it	CSS Selector, e.g. #cta
Form submit	A form matching the CSS Selector is submitted	CSS Selector of the <form> (or an element containing it)
Time	The visitor's total time on matching pages in the current session reaches the threshold	Time spent in seconds, default 40
Scroll	The visitor scrolls past the given percentage of a matching page	Scroll percent, default 50
Event	A named event is recorded for the visitor: a built-in commerce event or a custom one	Event: Purchase, Add to cart, Checkout start (where supported) or Custom with an event name
Manual	Your code calls ply.trackGoal() with the goal's name or ID	Default value

Built-in commerce events

Event	Shopify	Wix	Other sites
Purchase	Server-side from Shopify orders. See Shopify order tracking and profit	Server-side from Wix orders	With the Google Analytics 4 and GTM, from GA4 purchase events in the data layer
Add to cart	From Personizely's Shopify web pixel	No	From GA4 add_to_cart events (Google Analytics integration)
Checkout start	From Personizely's Shopify web pixel	No	From GA4 begin_checkout events (Google Analytics integration)

When you connect a platform that supports them, Personizely creates these as system goals, named Purchase, Add to cart and Checkout start. The system Purchase goal counts every order. To count only some orders, create your own Event goal on Purchase with a product or tag filter (see below).

Shopify stores with GoKwik, ShipRocket or Shopflo checkouts get additional purchase and checkout-start events. See Custom checkouts: GoKwik, ShipRocket, Shopflo.

Custom events

Choose Event → Custom and type an event name, such as signup_complete. The goal is reached whenever an event with that exact name is recorded for the visitor, for example from your own code:

ply.trackEvent('signup_complete')        // no value
ply.trackEvent('quote_requested', 250)   // with a value, in your store currency

Event names must start with a lowercase letter and use only lowercase letters, digits and underscores, with at least 3 characters. signup_complete is valid. Signup-Complete throws an error. See the JavaScript API (window.ply).

Manual goals

A Manual goal is reached only when your code calls it by name or ID:

ply.trackGoal('Free trial')           // uses the goal's Default value
ply.trackGoal('Free trial', 49)       // overrides the value for this hit

ply.trackGoal only finds Manual goals. Calling it with the name of a Click or Event goal throws "Could not find the goal".

Configuration

Option	What it does	Values / default
Goal name	Shown in goal pickers and reports	Text
Action	The goal type	Page view (default), Click, Form submit, Time, Scroll, Event, Manual. Can't be changed after the goal is created.
CSS Selector	Element to watch (Click, Form submit)	Any CSS selector
Time spent in seconds	Threshold for Time goals	Default 40
Scroll percent	Threshold for Scroll goals	Default 50
Event	Event to match (Event goals)	Purchase, Add to cart, Checkout start, or Custom name
Products	Count the event only if it contains at least one of these products	Product list. For Add to cart and Checkout start goals you create, required. Shopify only
Tags	Count a purchase only if the order has at least one of these tags	Order tags. Purchase goals you create on Shopify. A Purchase goal needs Products, Tags or both
All pages / Specific pages	Where the goal can be reached	All pages (default). Page view goals always need a page. Not available for Manual and Purchase goals
Page	Page pattern to match	Path pattern, e.g. /checkout/thank-you or /products/*
Include query string	Match the pattern against the path plus the query string	Off
Count goal as reached	How often one visitor can reach the goal	Every time (default), Once per session, Once per page. Page view offers Every time and Once per session. Shown for Page view, Click, Form submit and Scroll
Value / Default value	Value recorded with each goal hit, in your website currency	Optional number. Not shown for Purchase, Add to cart and Checkout start, which use real order and cart values

Page patterns

Patterns match the URL path only, without the domain, and must match the whole path. A trailing slash is ignored.

Pattern	Matches	Doesn't match
/pricing	/pricing, /pricing/	/pricing/team
/products/*	/products/blue-shirt	/products/blue-shirt/reviews, /collections/sale/products/blue-shirt
/blog/**	/blog/, /blog/news/launch	/blogs/news
/thank-you?plan=pro with Include query string	/thank-you?plan=pro	/thank-you?plan=pro&ref=x

* matches one path segment. ** matches any number of segments.

Goals on campaigns and widgets

Campaigns track the goals you pick in the campaign's goal selector. The starred goal is the primary goal, and it's the default goal shown in the campaign report. You can view any of the campaign's other goals in the report too. See Reading campaign reports.

Widgets also have a goals list and a primary goal. By default, a widget gets credit for a goal only if the visitor converted in the widget (a Track conversion automation ran, for example on form submit or button click). Turn on Attribute on view to credit the goal to every visitor who saw the widget. Track conversion is added automatically when you add a Button, Survey, Products or Form element.

Behavior details and limitations

One goal hit, many campaigns. A single purchase is credited to every campaign and widget that tracks the goal and was seen within the attribution window. Reports for different campaigns can therefore include the same order.

Conversion rate counts visitors. A visitor who reaches a goal three times counts once toward conversion rate, but all three hits count toward goal hits and revenue. See Statistics methodology.

Once per page on single-page apps. On storefronts that change pages without a full reload, every detected page change resets "Once per page" counting and restarts Time and Scroll tracking for the new page.

Time goals add up across pages. Time spent on every matching page in the session counts toward the threshold. A goal limited to /blog/** only counts time on blog pages.

Scroll goals fire once per page view, the first time the visitor passes the threshold.

Form submit needs a real form submit. Forms that send data with JavaScript without firing the browser's submit event aren't detected. Use a Click goal on the button, or a Manual goal from your form's success callback.

Click goals work on elements added later, such as a button in a drawer that opens after page load.

Purchase goals with tags check the order's tags when Personizely records the order. Tags another app adds much later won't make the order count toward the goal. The Report filters, outliers and resetting stats always uses the order's latest tags.

Custom-event goals match the exact name. Purchase, purchase (trailing space) and purchase are different events.

Editing a goal doesn't rewrite history. Goal hits already recorded keep their credit. Changes to page, product or tag filters apply to new hits.

Examples

Lead-gen site: a Form submit goal on form#demo-request, plus a Page view goal on /thank-you as a backup, with Once per session.

Category-level purchase goal (Shopify): an Event goal on Purchase with Products set to your bundle products. Use it as the primary goal of a bundle-promotion test so unrelated orders don't dilute the result.

Subscription signups: a Purchase goal with Tags set to Subscription, to measure a test on subscription orders only.

App-like flows: call ply.trackEvent('onboarding_done') and create an Event goal on the custom event onboarding_done.

Troubleshooting

Click goal never fires → the selector doesn't match the element, or the click opens a new page before the event is sent. Test the selector in the browser console with document.querySelectorAll('<selector>'), and prefer a Page view goal on the destination page for links.

ply.trackGoal throws "Could not find the goal" → the goal isn't a Manual goal, or the name doesn't match exactly. Use the goal ID to avoid typos.