Goal
A goal is the indicator in jExperience, Jahia’s personalization solution, that turns an action you expect from a visitor into a conversion rate (the share of visits that reach the intended outcome). A page visit, a form submission or a click on a link can serve as one. Goals are also the measure that decides between the variants of an A/B Test.
Definition and how it works
In digital marketing, a goal is the action you expect from a visitor because it serves the business, such as requesting a demo, registering for a webinar or downloading a white paper. Declaring it forces the team to say what really matters, instead of judging a site on page view volumes. Once reached, it becomes a conversion.
The Academy documentation describes several goal types: page visit, landing page, funnel between a start page and an end page, video, download, form submission and click on a link. A goal is created from the site metrics dashboard. It relies on a recorded event (jExperience), such as a form submission. jExperience calculates a rate from the relevant visits, except for downloads, which only give a number of visits. The calculation is explained in the Conversion Rate entry.
Academy documentation: creating and viewing goals in jExperience
Related terms: Conversion Rate · Event (jExperience) · Conversion · A/B Test
Resources that cover this term
- Conversion: 3 essential steps in your Personalization Strategy
- Customer Data Platforms (CDPs): a practical guide to a unified customer experience
- Extranet solution: How to choose the right platform for your clients, partners, and suppliers
- Headless CMS personalization: How to deliver truly adaptive experiences
- How Integrators Can Design the Ultimate Content Author Experience in a CMS? (Integrators Tips Pt.1)
- How to build a website personalization strategy?
Goal vs jExperience event: the differences
Event, goal, conversion and conversion rate form a chain. The event is the raw fact, the goal says which one counts, a conversion is a goal that has been reached and the conversion rate compares those successes with the relevant visits.
| Concept | Role |
|---|---|
| Event (jExperience) | A recorded interaction, such as a form submission. It is a signal but carries no value judgment. |
| Conversion | A visitor action considered positive for the business. In jExperience, it is declared and measured as a goal. |
| Conversion Rate | The percentage obtained by comparing conversions with the relevant visits. It is the output of the measurement. |
Goal in practice
A team is preparing registrations for a webinar. It sets up the measurement from the site metrics dashboard and picks the form submission type, on the registration form, rather than a visit to the webinar page. Registering, not reading the page, is what serves the business. It does so before going live, since a goal only counts visits that start after it was created.
A poorly chosen indicator distorts every decision that follows. Pick the action closest to the real business outcome.
Frequently asked questions
Should every important page view become a goal?
No. A page view is worth tracking this way mainly when viewing that page is the outcome you are after, such as the confirmation page after a request. Piling up indicators dilutes attention and makes tests hard to read. A few measures close to business outcomes, reviewed with each campaign, beat dozens of indicators that nobody looks at.
Do jExperience goals replace the site’s web analytics tool?
jExperience goals complement a web analytics tool. They measure conversion against the objectives a team sets, notably to decide between the variants of an A/B test. The Academy leaves traffic monitoring to the analytics engine a team already uses. Both readings work better when they share the same conversion definitions.