Google analytics - vistor path to specific site destination setup and monitoring?

Question

I have a website which I am using google analytics to track visitors and track our banner campaigns.

We're are promoting 'Purchase Ticket' buttons on our website which push visitors to a third party website who sell and distribute our tickets.

The url on all the 'Purchase Ticket' buttons are the same through out the site...

Example: http://ticketmaestro.com/events/my-event-2012

In the analytic control panel, is it possible so set something up, where I create a path-to-destination using the above example url?

...and then after this is setup: I want to be able to monitor the path visitors are taking from when they reach the site - to when they click the 'Purchase Ticket' button.

Graphs will show...

• Start Destination
• Path to Final Destination
• Final Destination: http://ticketmaestro.com/events/my-event-2012

Any help, suggestions, terminology would be great thanks.

Josh

Answer 1

Best solution is probably to add js to create a virtual pageview when the links are clicked, like so:

<a href="http://ticketmaestro.com/events/my-event-2012" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackPageview','/tracking/ticketmaestro/event2012']);">link</a>

/tracking/ticketmaestro/event2012 is an example - it can be anything you want as long as it starts with a /

Then set up this page as a goal in GA, and you can:

• use the reverse goal path report
• use the visitor flow view (much more powerful than anything in getclicky!)

This will inflate your pageview data, to avoid this an alternative to the virtual pageview is an event, which you can also create a page for. I prefer to use virtual pageviews for this kind of task because you can include them in goal funnels if you wish.

Answer 2

I think you would have much better results with another analytics package. Many people have more than one analytics their website. http://getclicky.com/69398 has click path analysis. You could set a goal on that URL, and then see exactly how people arrived.

In addition, if that third-party website you send them to has a fireback pixel, you can set a dynamic goals in clicky. This can be very handy. You can track your conversions, and tell exactly where they came from. It can also be used in paper click.