This article explains how to configure objectives when you link to a Google Analytics 4 property. If you link to a Universal Analytics property, see this article instead.
Objectives are used to determine how your variants perform and inform the statistical model used to pick leaders. Think of objectives as the metrics or activities that your variants are measured against. This article describes the types of objectives available in Optimize and explains how to configure them.
In this article:Prerequisites
To configure objectives in Optimize, you need:
- An Optimize account and container
- An Optimize tag installed on your website
- An Optimize experiment with at least one variant
To set an objective, you need Edit access to the Optimize container.
Select an objective
To run an experiment, you must select an experiment objective. The experiment objective is used to determine whether a leader has been found for an experiment. Additional objectives allow you to measure your experiment against other metrics; however, they do not inform when a leader is found.
To select a primary objective:
- Go to the experiment detail page.
- In the Measurement and objectives section, ensure that you've linked to a Google Analytics 4 property.
- Click Add experiment objective to select an objective.
- Optional: Click Add additional objective to select additional objectives.
Objective types
Optimize includes these types of objectives:
- System objectives
- Conversion objectives
- Custom objectives
System objectives
System objectives are predefined objectives that are often used in experiments. Optimize makes these system objectives available in all experiments:
| Objective | Description |
|---|---|
| Purchases | The average number of purchase events per user in the experiment. |
| Purchase revenue | The average revenue from purchases per user in the experiment. |
| Pageviews | The average number of pageview events per user in the experiment. |
Conversion objectives
Conversion objectives are objectives based on the events you mark as conversions in your linked Google Analytics 4 property. You can use conversion objectives to measure your experiments against the events that are important to your business. Optimize populates your experiment with conversion objectives once you link to a Google Analytics 4 property.
Example: You can choose Maximize purchases to identify the web page that generates the most purchases if you mark the purchase event as a conversion.
Custom objectives
In addition to system and conversion objectives, you can use custom objectives as experiment objectives. Custom objectives allow you to create experiment objectives using the events in your Google Analytics 4 property. For example, you could enter the view_item event to identify the web page that generates the most item views.
Custom objectives are a good option when system and conversion objectives aren't sufficient to measure your experiments.
To create a custom objective:
- Go to the Measurement and objectives section of the experiment details page.
- Make sure you've linked your Optimize container to your Google Analytics 4 property. Learn more
- Click Add experiment objective > Create custom.
- Enter the name of an event in your linked Google Analytics 4 property.
For a list of all the events in your Google Analytics 4 property, go to Admin > Events in the left navigation of Google Analytics.Warning: The event name must be no more than 100 characters. If you have already started an experiment that includes a custom objective with an event name that is longer than 100 characters, we recommend that you stop the experiment, rename the event to something shorter than 100 characters, and then restart the experiment.
- Click Save.
Objective limits
You can use up to 3 objectives per experiment and see data for those objectives in Optimize reports. By upgrading to Google Analytics 360, you can select up to 10 additional objectives per experiment.