GA Goal Value Calculator — Assign $ to Non-Revenue Conversions

An unset goal value is not a neutral choice

Leave the value off a newsletter signup or a form fill and analytics counts it identically to every other conversion. That feels like declining to make an assumption. It is the opposite: it asserts that every conversion is worth the same, which is a strong claim and almost always false.

Work through what that costs. Suppose a newsletter signup closes at 10% against average revenue of 500, making it worth 50; a demo request closes at 20%, making it worth 100.

• Channel A — 400 newsletter signups. By conversion count, the clear winner.
• Channel B — 250 demo requests. Nearly 40% fewer conversions.

By value, A is worth 20,000 and B is worth 25,000. The ranking reverses, and nothing in the conversion count hinted that it would. This is not an exotic case — it is what happens whenever one goal sits closer to a purchase than another, which is most of the time.

The formula

goal value = close rate x average customer revenue

That is the expected value of one conversion. On the defaults, 20% of 500 gives 100. The newsletter case above, 10% of 500, gives 50.

It is an average across many conversions, not a prediction about any one of them. Most signups will never buy; a few will spend far more than the average. The expected value is what makes channels comparable, and no individual conversion is expected to be worth it.

Where the two inputs come from

Close rate has to come from your own records — how many people who took this action went on to buy, within a window that matches your actual sales cycle. If you cannot trace that path, say so and label the number an estimate. An honest rough figure still ranks channels better than leaving the field blank, because blank is not neutral.

Average customer revenue is what you genuinely collect. If your revenue recurs you have a real decision to make: first sale, first year, or the whole relationship. Any of the three works. Mixing them across goals does not.

That is the point worth holding on to: consistency matters more than precision here. A set of values all built the same way, all somewhat wrong in the same direction, still ranks channels correctly — and ranking is the job. Values built on different definitions rank them wrongly however carefully each was calculated.

Revenue or margin

Revenue is not what you keep. If an average customer brings in 500 and costs 200 to deliver, the 300 of margin is the part that can actually fund more marketing, so a value based on margin answers the question you are really asking.

Either basis is defensible provided it is applied to every goal. Margin is truer; revenue is simpler and still ranks correctly. Using margin for one goal and revenue for another is the error — it breaks the comparison silently, and the numbers look fine while doing it.

Treat it as a model, and revisit it

A goal value is a modelled figure, not an accounting entry. It does not need to be right to be useful; it needs to be consistent enough to order your channels correctly, which it manages even when the absolute number is imprecise.

What it does need is maintenance. When the close rate moves, or pricing changes, or you start selling to a different kind of customer, the value silently stops being true — and because analytics reports it without complaint, it keeps steering budget on an assumption that has quietly expired. Reviewing it when the business changes costs a few minutes and prevents that.

Since the close rate is half the calculation, it is worth measuring rather than guessing: the conversion rate calculator covers how a rate depends on the denominator you choose.