tl;dr
Can Events (triggered and passed to GA by Tag Manager) be set up as Goals in GA to be used in funnel visualisation & flow without setting up a virtual pageview?
Context
Our lead funnel is as follows:
- User clicks "Get a Quote" button on the homepage (
example.com
): so theGetAQuote
Event fires. - User is taken to another URL (
example.com/getaquote
) where they enter their details and click submit (URL stays the same;QuoteRequested
Event fires). Or they can click a "Call Me" button (CallMe
Event fires). - They get a quote (URL doesn't change), and then they can fill out more details to generate a lead, and when they click submit (URL stays the same), the
LeadGenerated
Event fires.
Question
We could set up virtual page views but we're launching into production tomorrow morning, so don't have time for that.
It is possible to set up Event-Goals for funnel visualization and flow in Google Analytics with these events and have everything report correctly?
Research done
I'm asking because I saw another question from 2014/6 that it's not possible, but wondering if it's now possible in 2019.
In this article by Bounteous, it's suggested that this should be possible:
OK, so we’ve made the case for Events. But what do we get by using Events as Goals? If Events, in general, give us versatility, Events as Goals give us precision.
This is a good time to mention a key difference between Events and Goals. Events can happen several times per session. Goal Completions only happen on the first occurrence. So lets say you use video views as an Event Goal Completion.
Google's documentation, however, only mentions Destination Goals in this context (and not Event Goals):
With a Destination goal, you can specify the path you expect traffic to take. This path is called a funnel. When you specify steps in a funnel, Analytics can record where users enter and exit the path on the way towards your goal.