Conversion Goals in Google Analytics due to subdomains and subdirectories

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

We are currently working on an integration between Google Analytics and Marketo. We encountered unfortunately the problem that we have both subdomains (www.site.com and info.site.com) and subdirectories (www.site.com/de, www.site.com/en) what leads to the problem that goal conversions (specified as thank you pages of certain downloads) are not measured correctly per subdirectory.

For this we are thinking about a solution where we would have 1 primary UA-tracking code (UA-XXXXX-1) for the main domain and subdomain (www.site.com and info.site.com). Of course we will exclude the subdirectories from this because we will give them all separate UA-tracking codes:

(UA-XXXXX-2) for www.site.com/de

(UA-XXXXX-3) for www.site.com/en

etc.

With Google Tag Manager we will fire both the UA tracking codes for the primary domain (UA-XXXXX-1) and the related subdirectory (UA-XXXXX-2, when a person is visiting the www.site.com/de). Example of how we will set this up is http://marketlytics.com/adding-multiple-google-analytics-tracking-codes-to-webpage/

Will this be possible and will this have no consequences for all tracking data?

If I have to provide more information please let me know!

[Justin_Norris1]

Pim Opraus​ Is it not possible using REGEX in your goal configuration to capture the unique string you want to fire on?

You can definitely set these up as separate properties but the consequence is your reporting will be split up among different places, which may be sub-optimal.

I suggest reaching out to a GA expert like Stephane Hamel​ who has done more work than most on GA<-->Marketo integrations.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the ping Justin.

Pim - I would say this is probably not the right approach since your localizations are just folders of the main site, and info. is just a subdomain. As Justin mentions, you should be able to configure your Goal using a regex that will catch all conditions. Once you have that, you will have a single goal but the goal path will reveal exactly which form/download were concerned.

Note this is more of a GA specific question that isn't specific to Marketo. You could also ask in the GA G+ Community at http://goo.gl/iAJ8g and provide a little more details if possible.

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[Anonymous]

Thanks for your responses Justin and Stephane!

I already had a bad feeling about the possible solution. I think one of the main problems is that working with both subdirectories and subdomains is a bit tricky. The solution is to stop using the GA Goal Conversions for measuring downloads but rather to measure defined goal funnels. You're right that this is more of a GA problem

Thanks for your help anyway!

Stephane Hamel Your cheatsheet for the integration between Marketo and Google Analytics is awesome! Many thanks for this.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Pim Opraus​ - if you email me privately I can have another look at your site & goal configuration.