Goals that count.

Why Metrica needs goals

Out of the box, a Yandex Metrica tag shows traffic: how many people came, where from and which pages they viewed. A business owner cares about something else - how many of them left a request, called or wrote in a messenger. For Metrica to see that, you have to tell it which actions count as a result. That is what goals in Yandex Metrica are for: each goal is one visitor action that brings them closer to a purchase.

Once goals are set up, Metrica calculates the conversion rate - the share of visits in which a goal was reached - and shows it for every traffic source. Yandex Direct can optimise campaigns for Metrica goals, and without goals both advertising and SEO are judged by clicks rather than by leads.

Which goals in Yandex Metrica to set up first

Start with actions that directly mean someone is getting in touch. For a service business or a small online shop these are usually:

• Form submission - a request, a booking, a cost estimate, a call-back.
• Click on a phone number - especially for mobile visitors who call straight from the site.
• Messenger click - taps on messenger links.
• Email click - if the email address on the site is used for enquiries.
• Checkout - for a shop: starting checkout and completing a purchase.

These are your main goals: you will use them to compare channels and calculate the cost per lead. Supporting goals show interest rather than contact: visiting the prices or contacts page, downloading a price list, viewing several pages in one visit. Keep them separate and do not mix them with leads - otherwise the conversion rate looks better than it really is.

On new tags, and on tags with hardly any goals, Metrica creates automatic goals itself: clicks on phone numbers and email addresses, messenger and social media clicks, form submissions, file downloads, site search. They do not count towards the overall limit of up to 200 goals per tag. Check what exactly the automatic goals have picked up: the forms may include a newsletter sign-up or a search box, and those are not leads. Main enquiries are more reliable as separate goals marked as favourites - their statistics appear in reports automatically.

How to set up goals without mistakes

Goals are created in the tag settings. Choose the type according to what actually happens on the site:

• "Form submission" - for ordinary forms. The Metrica help pages advise tracking the submission itself rather than a visit to the page with the form: opening a form does not mean leaving a request.
• "Page visit" - if after submitting a request the person lands on a separate thank-you page.
• "Target event" - for actions that do not change the page address: pop-ups, quizzes, forms that submit without reloading. The developer adds a call to the reachGoal method with the goal identifier to the code.
• "Composite goal" - a chain of up to five steps that a visitor completes in strict order within one visit: a service page, a calculator, sending the estimate.
• "Multi-goal" - a single goal that is reached when any one of several conditions of different types is met; there can be up to ten.

A few rules that save time later:

• One goal, one action. Keep calls and forms apart so you can see how customers prefer to get in touch. A combined "all enquiries" goal can be built as a multi-goal.
• Clear names: "Request - form on the service page" instead of "Goal 3".
• Goal value. You can set revenue for a goal when you create it - then reports show an approximate amount as well.
• Keep your own visits out. Turn on the "Don't count my visits" option and add a filter for your office IP address. Filters only apply to data collected after they are switched on, and the changes they make are irreversible, so check the conditions before saving.

How to check that a goal fires

A common problem is a goal that fires when the form window opens rather than when it is submitted, or stays silent because the form is sent in a non-standard way. Check every goal right after creating it:

1. Open the site with the _ym_debug=2 parameter added to the address - this turns on the Metrica tag debugger. It shows what data the tag collects and whether goals are being recorded correctly.
2. Send a test request, tap the phone number, go to a messenger and make sure each action was counted once.
3. Try submitting the form with a required field left empty. If the goal fires on a failed attempt too, the report will show more leads than your inbox.
4. Repeat the check on a phone.

If the debugger does not start, the Metrica help pages list the typical causes: the tag is blocked by an extension such as Adblock Plus or by a firewall, or it is installed incorrectly. For the same reason, Metrica data will never match your CRM exactly: some visitors use blockers too. A sudden gap is a reason to check your goals again.

Which reports to look at

Goals can be selected in almost any report, but a business owner only needs a few:

• "Sources, summary" - where visitors came from and the conversion rate for the main goal in each channel: search, ads, social media, referrals from other sites.
• "Conversions" - extended statistics for every goal and the history of goal changes over the last six months.
• "UTM tags" - which campaign, newsletter or post led to a request, if the links are tagged.
• "Direct, summary" - if you advertise in Yandex Direct: conversions by campaign next to the spend.

Pay attention to the attribution model - the rule that assigns a visit to a source. Metrica currently offers "Last click", "First click (cross-device)", "Last significant click (cross-device)" and "Automatic attribution"; some of the older models were switched off on 20 May 2026. Channel figures differ between models, so compare periods using the same one. If a contractor's report does not match yours, check the model and the goal first - more on this in our article on how to read an SEO report.

How to link goals to money

A goal is an enquiry, not a sale. To understand which channel brings revenue, leads have to be traced through to deals:

• Calls. A click on the number shows intent, not the call itself: people can copy the number and dial later. If call tracking is connected, calls are tracked with a "Calls" goal, including only those longer than 30 seconds. We explained how call tracking works in a separate article.
• CRM. The lead source should land in the deal record - then a month later you can see not only the number of enquiries but also the payments by channel.
• Cost per lead. Divide a channel's spend by the number of times the main goal was reached. How much you can pay per lead and stay profitable is what unit economics will tell you.

If goals are needed for ad bidding strategies, set them up before the campaigns start: optimising for goals relies on conversion data. That is why goals are usually done together with ad setup. A new website is easy to check against our plan for the first 30 days after launch.

In short

• Without goals, Metrica shows traffic, not leads.
• Main goals are the form, phone click, messenger click and order; keep supporting goals separate.
• Check the automatic goals: they are useful but may collect things that are not leads.
• Choose the goal type to match how the site works: form, thank-you page, target event, composite goal.
• Test every goal with the _ym_debug=2 debugger and test requests from a computer and a phone.
• Look at "Sources, summary" and "Conversions" in one attribution model and compare them with your CRM.

Frequently asked questions

How many goals can one tag have?

Up to 200, and automatic goals do not count towards this limit. If you run out of room, goals you no longer need can be archived: their settings and accumulated statistics are kept, but data collection stops.

Why does Metrica show fewer leads than the CRM?

Some visitors block the tag, some call without tapping the number, some email an address they copied from the site. A small, stable gap is normal. If the gap suddenly grows, check your goals with the debugger: after changes to the site, the form may have stopped sending the event.

Can I fix a goal that was set up wrongly?

Yes, but the data already collected will not change: the Metrica help pages note that editing a tag or a goal leaves the accumulated information as it was. So fix the mistake straight away and write down the date of the change, so you do not compare periods that cannot be compared.