Learn what optimization goals are and how they guide variation performance
Everyone who visits your site has objectives they want to accomplish — like gathering info, checking out pricing, making a purchase, or subscribing to a newsletter. Similarly, your site has objectives too — like collecting revenue, generating leads, or getting more sign-ups. These shared objectives are called goals, and they're essential for website optimization and measuring success.
What optimization goals are
Goals track digital actions that visitors can take on your site. When you set up the goal, you define the actions to track — based on what matters most to your business. When someone takes that action (e.g., clicking a button), it counts as a conversion.
How optimizations use goals
Optimizations use goals to measure performance, compare variations, and guide decision-making.
Test optimizations — the goal determines which variation is declared the winner. Optimize then highlights the top performer and suggests how to proceed or end the test based on results.
Personalize optimizations — the goal helps you measure performance within each segment. All variations stay live until you choose to pause or archive them.
AI Optimize optimizations — the goal powers the AI. The system uses the goal to learn which variations drive the most conversions, then adaptively shows the best one to each visitor.
Target goal vs. tracking goals
You can attach multiple goals to an optimization, but only one can be the target goal. The target goal is what Optimize uses to measure success — and in AI Optimize optimizations, to help determine which variations to promote.
- One goal — if your optimization has just one goal, it’s automatically the target goal
- Multiple goals — you can choose which one to set as the target goal
Additional goals not set as the target are tracking goals in Optimize. These goals still collect data and appear in reports, but they aren’t used to guide outcomes. Set tracking goals to monitor visitor behavior that you're curious about.
Compare optimization goal types
AutoGoal — the default goal for new optimizations that tracks visitor activity after a variation is viewed. It includes clicks and navigation events, helping you measure broad engagement without setting up a specific goal.
Click goal — tracks specific clicks on the page. You choose which clickable elements to track (e.g., two "Subscribe" buttons).
Pageview goal — tracks when a visitor lands on a specific URL. Useful for confirming flows like reaching a thank-you page.
Custom goal — tracks custom events using the sendEvent() API. Use this for purchases, custom form submissions, or other interactions not captured by clicks or pageviews. You can also include a monetary value.
Form submission goal — tracks submissions on forms from supported integrations, like Marketo or HubSpot. Each time a visitor submits a tracked form, it counts as a conversion.
Account goals vs. local goals
(A simplified ecommerce flow where each page has a local goal guiding visitors toward a sale)
Your website should have one or more key objectives. In an ecommerce site, for example, one key objective is to increase total sales (i.e., visitors complete purchases). A site's key objectives are account goals in Optimize.
- Account goal examples — demo requests, form submissions, accounts created, subscription signups, and bookings
- Account goals are sitewide — account goals are added to every optimization for use as tracking goals or the target goal
Each page in the flow can have its own page-level objective that supports the broader account goal. This is often to drive visitors from their current page to the next step in the funnel or flow. These page-level goals are local goals in Optimize.
- Local goal examples — CTAs to the next page in the funnel or flow and secondary objectives
- Local goals are not sitewide — goals you make in one optimization can’t be reused in other optimizations
How to manage your goals
Account goals:
- Manage Marketo form submission goals
- Manage HubSpot form submission goals
- Integrate with Shopify to track total sales
- All other account goals are managed by your Webflow support team
Local goals: