A goal in gas is a specific number you want to reach for one metric by a certain date. For example, you enter that by the end of the year you want 12,000 followers on your Facebook page, and gas keeps an eye on the current value for you and continuously shows how far you are from the goal. You do not have to write anything down in your own spreadsheet or recalculate anything by hand.
Every goal consists of four things:
- the metric, that is what is measured (followers, reach, views, ad spend and others),
- the profile or ad account the metric is measured on,
- the goal value, that is the number you want to reach,
- the date by which it should apply.
You pick metrics from a list that gas builds according to the networks linked to your customer account. The groups offered are Facebook, Instagram, Meta Ads, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Pinterest Ads, Google Ads, Sklik and Website (data from Google Analytics). One goal always tracks one metric on one profile or account, it is not summed across networks.
Goal, or campaign?
Goals and campaigns are often mixed up, because both have a name and a time period. However, each of them answers a different question.
A campaign tracks one marketing activity across networks. It collects data from ad accounts (Meta Ads, Google Ads, Sklik, Pinterest Ads), adds organic posts and website sessions and shows them together: the budget and how much of it has been used, reach, impressions, clicks, engagement rate. It answers the question "how did our spring activity do as a whole".
A goal watches a single metric on a single profile or ad account and compares it with the value you entered. It does not add anything up and does not deal with how much the activity cost. It answers the question "are we already at the number we set, and will we make it by the deadline".
You can use both side by side, one does not replace the other. A campaign tells you what the activity brought. A goal tells you whether you are meeting what you set out to do.
Before you start
- Your plan must include the Goals feature. The plan also determines how many goals a customer account can have at the same time. You will find the current status in Settings → Customer account → Subscription. Only goals whose deadline has not passed yet count towards the limit, so an old completed goal no longer takes up space.
- Goals may be created by the Administrator and User roles. These two roles can create, edit, duplicate and delete them. The Viewer role sees goals and can open their detail, but cannot create or change any of them.
- You must have a linked profile or ad account the metric comes from. As long as there is, for example, no Facebook page linked in the customer account, Facebook metrics will not appear in the goal options. Profiles are linked in Settings → Customer account → Linked accounts.
Who will see the goal is decided when you create it. In the Goal is for... field you choose between the whole customer account and the only for me option. A goal created only for yourself is not visible to anyone else on the team.
How to do it
This is how you get to your goals and read their status:
- In the left menu click Goals. A list opens with all the goals you can see in the currently selected customer account.
- Set the period in the page header. The list shows goals that at least overlap the selected period. With the Only goals in this period switch you narrow the list down to goals that fall entirely within the period.
- Go through the table columns: Goal name, Metric, Group (network), Profile / account, Progress, Progress value and To, that is the date by which the goal should be met.
- With the Columns button above the table you can also switch on columns that are hidden in the default view: Goal value, From and Last update time.
- Click the goal name to open its detail with a graph.
What happens next
The most important column is Progress. It shows what percentage of the goal value you already have, and below the percentage there is a coloured bar. The colour always has the same meaning:
- purple bar: the goal is running and the goal value has not been reached yet,
- green bar: the goal value has already been reached, that is progress is 100 % or more,
- red bar: the deadline has passed and the goal value was not reached,
- no percentage and no bar: the progress value has not been calculated yet.
Next to it, the Progress value column shows the actual number you reached, for example the number of followers or the spend.
In the goal detail you will find two cards at the top. The left one reminds you what the goal tracks (Group, Metric, Profile / account and Time period), the right one shows the progress percentage, below it the value in the form "reached value out of goal value", the same coloured indicator as in the list, and in the footer the Last update time and the goal end date.
Below the cards there is a graph with three series:
- Actual: how the metric really grew,
- Goal value: where you should be for the goal to work out,
- Forecast: where you will get if the pace stays the same as so far.
How often progress is recalculated. For a running goal, gas refreshes the value several times an hour, roughly every fifteen minutes. Whenever you open a goal detail, the recalculation runs right away, so you see the freshest possible value there. Once the deadline has passed, the goal is no longer recalculated automatically, the final state stays captured. For about a week after the deadline the value is still refreshed when you open the goal detail, after that it stays frozen for good.
The data from the networks themselves, however, arrives more slowly than the progress recalculation. The networks deliver it several times a day and some metrics have an additional delay on their side, so today's numbers tend to be incomplete. That is why the last update time in the detail footer can change even at a moment when the value itself does not move.
For goals on ad spend, progress is evaluated in CZK, even though for an ad account kept in a foreign currency the form offers that currency and suggests you should enter the value in it. Spend from Meta Ads and Google Ads is loaded into gas already converted to CZK. So if you have an ad account in euros, for example, enter the goal value in CZK, otherwise the progress will come out absurdly high. Spend is also calculated without VAT.
Common problems
I cannot see a goal in the list that I know a colleague created
The goal was created with the only for me option, so only its author can see it. Ask your colleague to edit the goal in the list (the pencil icon in the Actions column, labelled Edit goal) and switch the Goal is for... field to the whole customer account. From that moment the whole team will see it.
The goal list is empty even though we have some goals
The list follows the period selected in the page header. Set a wider period, or switch off the Only goals in this period switch, which narrows the list down to goals falling entirely within the period.
The goal has no percentage and no coloured indicator
It means the progress value has not been calculated yet, or it is still zero. For a goal you have just created this is normal, the first calculation runs shortly after creation. Open the goal detail, that triggers the recalculation immediately.
The progress value does not change
Most often because the network has not delivered newer data yet. The networks send it several times a day, not immediately. The other option is that the goal is already past its deadline: for such a goal the value is no longer updated after it ends, so that the final result stays preserved.
The progress indicator has turned red
The red colour means one single thing: the goal deadline has passed and the goal value was not reached. While the goal is running, the indicator never turns red, even if progress is low. If you want to continue with a new deadline, click the Duplicate goal icon in the Actions column in the list and set a new period in the copy.
For a spend goal, progress comes out many times higher than I expect
The goal value was probably entered in the currency of the ad account, while gas compares progress in CZK. In the list click the pencil icon in the Actions column (Edit goal) and rewrite the goal value as an amount in CZK.
I cannot see the Create goal button at all
Either you have the Viewer role in the customer account, which only displays goals, or your plan does not include the Goals feature. Your role can be changed by the customer account Administrator, for a plan change write through the contact form.
The Create goal button is unavailable and hovering over it shows a message about a limit
You have used up the number of goals your plan allows. The message states how many goals out of how many are taken. Either delete a goal you no longer need (only goals whose deadline has not passed count towards the limit), or write through the contact form to have your plan increased.
For an existing goal I cannot change the metric or the profile
This is on purpose: the metric and the profile cannot be switched for an existing goal, because the progress history so far would stop making sense. What can be changed is the name, who the goal is for, the goal value and the period. If you need the same goal for a different profile, use the Duplicate goal action in the list and select a different profile in the copy (the metric stays the same in the copy too). For a different metric, create a new goal with the Create goal button.
After downgrading the plan, the value stopped updating for some of the goals
When there are more active goals than the plan allows, gas keeps calculating only the oldest of them up to the limit and does not get to the rest. Customer account administrators also receive an alert about it. The solution is to delete the goals you no longer need, or to have the limit increased through the contact form.
The goals disappeared after switching the customer account
Goals always belong to a specific customer account. After switching to another account you will see its own goals, and an open goal detail takes you back to the list. Switch back to the original customer account and the goals will appear.