Goals, conversion funnels, audiences & the event taxonomy for the guilford.edu refresh — grounded in a live GA4 baseline and built to prove post-launch lift, with the long-missing giving funnel stood up for the first time.
This plan layers custom funnels, dashboards & automated reporting onto Guilford's existing Google Analytics — enhance, don't rebuild. It standardizes a messy event setup, stands up the giving funnel that doesn't exist today, and sets pre-launch benchmarks so the refresh's impact is provable.
The measurement plan for the GA4 implementation: goals & KPIs by audience priority, GA4 segments/audiences, the standardized key-event spec, an event taxonomy tied to the page-type templates, the five funnels, the cross-domain/GTM technical plan, and the Looker dashboard + automated weekly/daily reports. Benchmarks come from a live pull of property 359308554 (last 90 days, pulled Jun 22).
There is zero giving/donation conversion tracking today. Every one of the 7,044 conversions in the baseline is enrollment-flavored (application + RFI clicks). Yet donors are the priority-2 audience and the kickoff wants a far-more-prominent Give CTA. Standing up the cross-domain giving funnel — donation_start → donation_complete — is the marquee new capability of this plan.
The kickoff intuition that ~60% of traffic is direct/repeat holds: Direct is 31.2%, returning sessions 31.2%, and the top pages are dominated by known-audience destinations (/current-students, /faculty-and-staff, /account/login). Do not narrow the site.
A live pull of GA4 property 359308554, last 90 days (pulled Jun 22). These are the benchmarks the post-launch plan proves lift against — annotate the launch date in GA4 for a clean before/after.
| Channel | Sessions | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Organic Search | 62,216 | 51.8% |
| Direct | 37,507 | 31.2% |
| Display (Encoura) | 6,113 | 5.1% |
| Referral | 4,856 | 4.0% |
| Organic Social | 3,721 | 3.1% |
| Paid Other | 3,080 | 2.6% |
Organic + Direct are 83% of traffic; paid (Encoura display + paid social) is a measured, attributable slice to keep clean. The Direct + returning weight, plus the top-page mix, is the current-student/applicant loyalty signal — the site must keep serving them.
| Path | Views | Sess. | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| / | 44,537 | 37,370 | Front door — every audience |
| /current-students | 15,946 | 12,506 | Returning / known audience |
| /faculty-and-staff | 8,193 | 6,542 | Faculty & staff wayfinding |
| /admissions/apply | 7,840 | 7,378 | Enrollment funnel |
| /directory | 7,627 | 2,184 | People directory |
| /program-finder | 6,179 | 4,854 | Program interest |
| /admitted-students | 4,468 | 3,939 | Yield / known audience |
| /account/login | 4,027 | 2,700 | Current-student re-entry |
| /apply/status | 2,677 | 1,665 | Applicant re-entry |
| Event | Conv. | Type |
|---|---|---|
| guilford_college_application | 2,842 | Enrollment |
| guilford_application_button | 1,889 | Enrollment |
| guilford_app_click_to_apply_site | 1,068 | Enrollment |
| click_to_email | 483 | Micro / contact |
| request_information_click | 481 | RFI (click, not submit) |
| application_page_visit | 183 | Enrollment |
| click_to_call | 98 | Micro / contact |
Plus un-keyed: form_start 15.8k · form_submit 12.7k (generic, not segmented by purpose) · site_search/view_search_results 1.3k.
Each KPI ties to a real baseline number and a post-launch target. Targets are framed as relative lift; absolute targets get set at the next pass against a full-year pull (admissions seasonality). "New" KPIs have no baseline — standing them up is the goal.
| KPI | Baseline (90d) | Target / threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Apply starts | ≈1,889+1,068 (overlapping legacy) | +15% on a clean single apply_start |
| Apply submits | ≈2,842 guilford_college_application | +10%; start→submit ratio measurable for the first time |
| RFI submits | 481 + 478 (click-level only) | establish true submit metric; +20% vs click proxy |
| Visits scheduled | 0 tracked (/visit traffic exists) | stand up; baseline first 90d, then +10% |
| Program interest | not segmented (finder 6,179 pv) | stand up; leading indicator of apply_start |
| KPI | Baseline (90d) | Target / threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Give CTR | 0 tracked | stand up; homepage + footer Give-CTR baseline |
| Donation starts | 0 tracked | stand up cross-domain; baseline first 90d |
| Donation completes (+ value) | 0 tracked | stand up; report gift count + revenue — headline new capability |
| Alumni / community engagement | partial (file_download 660) | stand up email_signup + event_rsvp |
| KPI | Baseline (90d) | Target / threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Wayfinding success | /current-students 15,946 pv; high direct/repeat | hold/grow engagement on these paths; don’t regress |
| Site-search efficacy | view_search_results 1,349 (no zero-result signal) | stand up site_search {results_count}; zero-result < 15% |
| KPI | Baseline (90d) | Target / threshold |
|---|---|---|
| F/S re-entry | /faculty-and-staff 8,193 pv; /work-here 2,741; /directory 7,627 | hold engagement; don’t regress wayfinding |
| KPI | Baseline (90d) | Target / threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Sessions | 120,036 | hold/grow; watch for migration dips (annotate) |
| Engagement rate | 45.0% | ≥ 47% (consistency / IA / mobile) |
| % Direct + % Returning | Direct 31.2% · Returning 31.2% | hold — signals retained loyalty |
| Mobile engagement | Mobile 35.3% / Desktop 63.9% | grow mobile engagement (mobile-first refresh) |
Automated weekly (account lead + Guilford marketing) and daily (internal ops watch) Looker email. Every KPI gets a named owner; any KPI without an owner and a decision attached gets cut.
Built in Ty's locked order (confirmed by Jean), each twice-purpose: a reporting segment now, and a publishable GA4 Audience for future personalization & remarketing. Defined by the baseline behaviors actually observed in the pull.
DEFINED BY /admissions*, /apply/*, /program-finder, program/major pages, /visit*; or firing apply_start / request_info_submit / program_interest.
DEFINED BY Give-CTA clickers, donation_start (cross-domain), giving-landing viewers; alumni/community via news engagement, email_signup, event_rsvp.
DEFINED BY Direct + returning sessions on /current-students, /account/login, /apply/status; portal.mist.com referrers.
DEFINED BY Sessions on /faculty-and-staff, /work-here, /directory; internal-tool referrers.
A clean, standardized key-event set replaces the overlapping vendor names. The primary events drive the north-star and the funnels; micro events are leading indicators.
| Key event | Trigger | Key parameters | Reconciles / retires |
|---|---|---|---|
| apply_start | Click into the application from any Apply CTA / apply portal handoff | cta_type · template · audience_priority · apply_level | Replaces guilford_application_button / app_click_to_apply / application_page_visit |
| apply_submit | Application submitted (apply-portal confirmation, cross-domain) | apply_level · source_template · device | Replaces guilford_college_application |
| request_info_submit | RFI form submit (form_submit {form_type:rfi}) | program_interest · audience_priority | Replaces request_information_click / request_info |
| visit_scheduled | Visit / tour scheduled (form or scheduler confirmation) | visit_type · date · template | NEW — no current equivalent |
| donation_start | Give flow begins on giving.guilford.edu / GiveCampus (cross-domain) | gift_designation · source_template · entry_cta | NEW — biggest gap |
| donation_complete | Donation confirmation page (cross-domain) | value · currency · gift_type · gift_designation | NEW — biggest gap |
Fire both the legacy guilford_* events and the new standardized events in parallel for ~30 days; build a legacy↔new mapping in Looker so the pre-launch baseline stitches cleanly to post-launch. Then retire the legacy events from "key" status (keep collecting briefly for audit). Never delete history — annotate the cutover date.
Instrument once, globally. One standardized event schema is baked into the shared component kit that powers P0 + T1–T5 and the portable T6 frame. A CTA, card, filter or form emits the same event with the same params no matter which template renders it — the direct synergy with the page-type inventory.
| Shared component | Event | Note |
|---|---|---|
| CTA system / bands | cta_click (+ apply_start / donation_start when it’s the funnel entry) | Give CTR + all CTA reporting |
| Card grids | card_click | card_type · label · position |
| Filter / sort + Load More | filter_use · load_more | filter_type · value · results_count |
| Forms | form_start · form_submit {form_type} | fixes the generic 15.8k/12.7k problem |
| Article body / media | video_play · video_progress · file_download · scroll | engagement on the highest-volume type |
| Stat / promo banner | cta_click · viewbook_view | giving + viewbook promos |
| Global search | site_search | search_term · results_count |
| Parameter | Values / format | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| template | P0, T1–T6 | which template fired it |
| page_type | homepage · hub · article · listing · profile · program · event · interior · landing · external | maps to the 10 page types |
| audience_priority | 1–4 | powers audience-priority dashboards |
| cta_type | apply · give · visit · rfi · login · learn | CTA classification (Give CTR) |
| position | hero · nav · body · sidebar · footer · banner | did the prominent Give placement work? |
| device | mobile · desktop · tablet | mobile-first validation |
| form_type | apply · rfi · visit · contact · newsletter · event_rsvp | the fix for generic forms |
| value · gift_type · gift_designation | amount · one_time/recurring · fund | giving revenue reporting |
Five funnels expressed as the standardized events. Most ratios are first-measurable post-launch — that's the point. Highlighted steps are key events.
BASELINE /admissions/apply 7,378 sessions; legacy app events ≈2,842 conv. True start→submit ratio not currently computable — standardization makes it computable.
NET-NEW Zero giving tracking today. Stand up the full cross-domain funnel; first 90d post-launch is the giving baseline. Prominent homepage Give CTA (P0) is the top-of-funnel lever.
NET-NEW /visit + /visit/campus-map rank in the top ~15 pages but no visit_scheduled event exists — net-new conversion.
BASELINE Click proxies 481 + 478; generic form_start 15,767 / form_submit 12,708. Segmenting forms gives the first true RFI start→submit rate.
BASELINE /current-students 12,506 sessions; login 2,700; Direct 31.2% + Returning 31.2%. Metric is engagement + low search-refinement; guardrail is no regression post-refresh.
What makes off-domain conversions (giving, apply_submit) measurable and attributable — and how the refresh's component kit + T6 frame carry consistent tracking everywhere.
Deploying one GTM container + the T6 dataLayer/GTM snippet on the apply portal, giving platform, catalog & events requires IT sign-off (Gloria Thornton) plus GiveCampus tag access. Without it, the giving funnel and a true apply_submit can't be measured.
A Looker Studio dashboard organized by audience priority, plus automated weekly + daily email — satisfying the kickoff's "automated reporting" ask.
Enrollment: apply_start +15%, apply_submit +10%, RFI submit +20%. Giving: Give CTR + donation funnel established from zero. Quality: engagement ≥ 47%, mobile up, no wayfinding regression. Comparability: standardized events live, legacy reconciled, forms segmented.
GiveCampus tag access & confirmation-page reachability · legacy guilford_* event ownership (Encoura) for retirement · GTM container ownership · apply-portal submit signal · visit-scheduler platform · full-year pull for seasonality-anchored absolute targets · Guilford consent/privacy posture.