Are you curious about the Google Analytics events tracked by ExactMetrics?
ExactMetrics automatically tracks various types of visitor-triggered events once installed and activated on your WordPress site.
If you need help coming up with goals for your website, read through this guide to learn more about these events and their properties.
What is an Event in Google Analytics?
Site visitor interactions on your website are called Events in Google Analytics.
Examples of events tracked in ExactMetrics:
- File downloads
- Outbound link clicks
- Telephone link clicks
- Affiliate link clicks
- Form impressions and submissions
Why Do You Need Event Tracking?
Outside of event tracking, Google Analytics tracks what pages are viewed. Without event tracking, page views alone are not very insightful or useful when trying to track your site’s performance.
With event tracking, you can deduce:
- What your users are doing.
- If your users are completing certain actions (or your site goals, like using a form).
- If your users are interacting with your website as expected (clicking a play button and etc).
Event tracking makes goal tracking much more feasible, allowing website owners to see meaningful progress or help make meaningful improvements to their site.
About Google Analytics Events
Custom events in Google Analytics are made up of the following:
- Event Category
- Event Action
- Event Label
- Event Value (optional, integer)
- Non-Interaction (optional, true or false)
An example of a download event:
When a user clicks on a link such as the following …
<a href="http://example.com/my-ebook.pdf">Download My eBook</a>
It will trigger an event type of “download”. This means:
- The Event category assigned will be “download”.
- The Event action will display as http://example.com/my-ebook.pdf.
- The Event label will be “Download My eBook”.
- The Event Value is not applicable.
- The Non-Interaction value is not set.
- The <a> element’s title attribute.
- Or text label of the <a> link.
- But since there is no title attribute in the above example, the event label is the text: “Download My eBook”.
Later in the guide, you can view the makeup of different event types currently implemented by ExactMetrics.
Events Types Available in Each Plan
ExactMetrics tracks the following out of the box:
- Outbound link tracking
- Download link tracking
- Telephone number tracking
- Affiliate link tracking
This tracking is available in all versions of ExactMetrics. Data for these custom events can be viewed within Google Analytics.
Table of ExactMetrics Events
| Event Type | Event Category | Event Action | Event Label | Event Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Download file link click | downloads | URL of file | The label of the href attribute, either link title or text content | n/a |
| Outbound link click | outbound-link | URL of link | The label of the href attribute, either link title or text content | n/a |
| Form Impression | form | impression | Form ID | 1 |
| Form Conversion | form | conversion | Form ID | 1 |
| Affiliate link click | outbound-link-aff | URL of link | The label of the href attribute, either link title or text content | n/a |
| Telephone number link click | tel | URL of number, i.e., tel:1-222-333-4445 | The label of the href attribute, either link title or text content | n/a |
| Email link click | mailto | mailto URL of mailto link, i.e., mailto:[email protected] | The label of the href attribute, either link title or text content | n/a |
eCommerce Events Table
| Event Type | Event Category | Event Action | Event Label | Event Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product Impression | Products | Impression | Impression | n/a |
| Products | Products | Viewed Product | Product Title | n/a |
| Products | Products | Click | Product Title | n/a |
| Products | Products | Remove From Cart | Product Title | 1 |
| Products | Products | Add to Cart | Product Title | 1 |
| Checkout Page Impression | Checkout | Started Checkout | Checkout Page | n/a |
| Completed Checkout | Checkout | Completed Checkout | Order ID Number | Price (integer) |
| Increase quantity of Product in Cart | Cart | Increased Cart Quantity | Product Title | 1 |
| Decrease quantity of Product in Cart | Cart | Decreased Cart Quantity | Product Title | 1 |
| Refund | Orders | Refunder | Order ID Number | Price (integer) |
Table of ExactMetrics Scroll Tracking Events
| Event Type | Event Category | Event Action | Event Label | Event Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scroll 25% Down Page | Scroll Depth | Percentage | 25% | 1 |
| Scroll 50% Down Page | Scroll Depth | Percentage | 50% | 1 |
| Scroll 75% Down Page | Scroll Depth | Percentage | 75% | 1 |
| Scroll 100% Down Page | Scroll Depth | Percentage | 100% | 1 |
That’s it! Now you know the event type, category, action, label and value of various custom events.
What’s next? Create some Goals in Google Analytics through our guide: 4 Types of Goals in Google Analytics That Are Critical to Your Business.