A goal in gas watches one metric on one profile or ad account against a value you want to reach by a chosen date. This article describes what you see on the goal detail, how gas calculates progress, when the value is updated and how to edit, duplicate or delete a goal. Creating a new goal is described in the article Creating a goal.
Before you start
- The goals module must be part of your customer account plan. If you do not see Goals in the left menu, your plan does not include it.
- The Viewer role can only look at goals. Creating, editing, duplicating and deleting is allowed for the User and Administrator roles.
- A goal can belong to the whole customer account, or only to its author. A goal marked as personal appears in the list only for the person who created it.
Where to find goals
- In the left menu click Goals. A table of all goals of the customer account opens.
- Click the goal name, or the metric name in the same row. The goal detail with a graph opens.
The table has the columns Goal name, Metric, Group (the network the metric comes from), Profile / account, Progress (percentage and a colour indicator), Progress value (the current measured value), To (end date) and Actions. With the Columns button you can also show the hidden columns Goal value, From and Last update time.
The page header contains a period selector. By default the list shows all goals that overlap the selected period in any way. The Only goals in this period toggle narrows the list down to goals that lie entirely inside the selected period.
Above the table you will also find the buttons Create goal, Export CSV, Export Excel, Print, Columns, Clear filters, Enter fullscreen, Table view settings and Refresh.
The list does not offer bulk actions over several goals at once. Goals cannot be ticked and then edited or deleted in groups, each goal is handled separately through the icons in the Actions column.
On a phone the list is displayed as cards with the name, metric and progress. The card leads to the goal detail, but it does not contain buttons for editing, duplicating and deleting, those are only in the table on a computer.
What the goal detail shows
The goal name is at the top. For a goal you did not name, the metric name is shown instead. Below it there are two cards:
- The left card summarises the setup: Group, Metric, Profile / account and the Time period of the goal.
- The right card shows the progress: a large percentage, next to it the measured value in the form "value out of goal value" including the unit, and below that a colour indicator. The footer contains the Last update time and the Goal end date. Both values are written as elapsed time ("20 minutes ago"), the exact date and time appears when you hover over them with the mouse.
Indicator colour:
- green: the goal is reached, progress is 100 % or more,
- purple: the goal is running and has not been reached yet,
- red: the end date has passed and the goal was not reached.
The indicator stops at 100 %, but the percentage above it can be higher if you exceeded the goal. As long as the measured value is zero, the indicator is not filled in and only a grey bar remains.
The graph and its three lines
The Progress graph below the cards shows the development over the whole goal period and contains three lines:
- Actual: what was really measured. For metrics that add up (impressions, reach, clicks, spend, views) this is a running total from the start of measurement. For metrics that have a single current value (fans, followers) it is simply that value on individual days. The line ends on the last day for which gas already has data, after that there is a gap.
- Forecast: a grey dashed line going into the future. It shows where you would end up if the pace stayed the same as so far. An explanatory note is also shown directly below the graph.
- Goal value: a red dashed line. For metrics with a single current value it is a horizontal line at the goal value. For metrics that add up it is an evenly rising line from the beginning to the end of the period, so you can see at a glance whether you are ahead or behind.
In the page header you use a toggle to choose the length of the intervals the graph is drawn in: Day, Week, Month, Quarter or Year. For long goals a week or a month is easier to read.
The goal detail can be printed with the Print button in the top right corner (on a computer) or with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+P, on a Mac Cmd+P. Before printing, gas prepares the page itself, which takes a moment.
How gas calculates progress
The progress percentage is the ratio of the measured value to the goal value, that is Progress value divided by Goal value. The only difference is what counts into the measured value:
- For metrics that add up (impressions, reach, clicks, spend, views), the measured value is the total from the Start date until today, at the latest until the end of the goal. That is why a start date is entered for them when creating the goal.
- For metrics that have a single current value (number of fans, number of followers), the measured value is the last known state. No start date is entered for them, the total state is compared with the total goal value.
For the number of fans and followers, what you had before creating the goal also counts into the progress. If a page has 4,500 fans and the goal is 5,000, gas shows 90 % progress right at the start. This is not an error, such a goal is entered as a total state, not as an increase.
When the value is updated
The value is not recalculated at the moment something happens on the social network. It consists of two independent steps:
- gas downloads new data from the platform. How often differs by network, from several times an hour to once a day.
- gas recalculates the goal progress value from that data. For running goals it does this continuously in the background, roughly four times an hour. When you open the goal detail or click Refresh, it requests a recalculation immediately.
This leads to an important point: a recalculation triggered by opening the detail or by the Refresh button can end up with the same number, because new data from the platform has not arrived yet. The Last update time value on the goal detail shows when the value was last successfully recalculated.
Platforms also finalise their numbers retroactively, so values for the last few days may still change. This is common in advertising systems, where conversions are attributed to clicks with a delay.
About a week after the end date gas recalculates the goal for the last time and then leaves its value alone. The result stays fixed as final.
Editing a goal
- Open the goal detail and click the pencil button in the top right corner (Edit goal). In the list the same pencil is in the Actions column under the label Edit goal.
- The Edit goal window opens. You can change the Goal name, the Goal is intended for... option (only for me, or for the whole customer account), the Goal value, the Start date and the End date.
- The Metric and Profile fields are locked during editing. The measured metric and the profile of an existing goal cannot be changed, because the history measured so far would no longer match them. If you need a different metric or a different profile, create a new goal, most quickly by duplicating.
- Save with the Edit goal button.
After you save an edit, the progress value calculated so far is discarded and calculated again. On the detail the recalculation starts immediately, in the list the Progress column may be briefly empty until the recalculation finishes.
A change of the goal value is not saved as history, so later you will not be able to find out that the goal was originally different.
If a goal has ended and you want to continue measuring, move the date in the End date field into the future when editing. This starts the goal again and gas begins recalculating the value once more.
Duplicating a goal
Duplicating is useful when you want the same goal again for another period or for a different profile.
- In the list click the two-sheets icon in the Actions column (Duplicate goal).
- The Duplicate goal window opens with prefilled values. gas adds the word "(copy)" to the name and moves the measurement dates into the current year so that the end lies in the future.
- The metric stays the same, but you can change the Profile. Adjust the goal value and the dates as needed.
- Save with the Create goal button.
Duplicating creates a new goal, so it counts towards the goal limit of your plan.
Deleting a goal
- In the list click the bin icon in the Actions column (Delete goal).
- A question appears: "Are you sure you want to delete the goal ...? This action cannot be undone." It also shows the metric and profile name, so it is clear which goal you are deleting.
- Confirm with the Delete button, or go back with the Cancel button.
Deletion cannot be undone. Neither the goal nor its measured history is stored anywhere and it disappears for your colleagues too. At the same time one place in the goal limit is freed up. There is no delete button on the goal detail, a goal is always deleted from the list.
Common problems
Progress does not move at all for several days
Most often data stopped arriving from the platform, because the account connection expired or was revoked. Check in Settings → Customer account → Linked accounts whether the profile shows a paused connection label, and reconnect it. The other possibility is that the metric really is not changing, for example no new followers are coming in.
The progress value is empty and there is a grey bar instead of the indicator
The measured value is still zero. This happens with a freshly created goal on a cumulative metric where the measurement period has not started yet, or right after editing a goal, when the value is being calculated again. Wait for the next recalculation, or click Refresh.
Progress suddenly jumped up or down
Platforms finalise their numbers retroactively, especially in advertising, where conversions are attributed with a delay of several days. For the number of fans and followers the value can also go down, when people unfollow the page or the platform removes fake accounts. Please report a jump of tens of percent without an obvious reason through the contact form.
The goal disappeared from the list after it ended
The list filters goals by the period selected in the page header, so a finished goal appears in it only if it overlaps the selected period. Set the period so that it covers the duration of the goal, and if you have the Only goals in this period toggle switched on, switch it off.
A finished goal is no longer recalculated
That is intended. About a week after the end date gas recalculates the value for the last time and then fixes it as the final result, so that later adjustments on the platform side no longer change a finished evaluation. If you want to continue measuring, edit the goal and move the End date into the future.
The goal points to a profile we have unlinked in the meantime
When a profile is unlinked from the customer account, gas stops downloading data for it, so the goal progress stops. The goal itself stays in the list, unlinking the profile does not delete it. Either link the profile back in Settings → Customer account → Linked accounts, or delete the goal.
The goal shows the text "not exists" instead of the profile name
The profile the goal points to is no longer in gas. This happens when all customer accounts unlinked it and gas removed it after some time. Such a goal has nothing to measure, delete it and, if needed, create a new one on a profile that is linked.
The metric the goal tracks has been discontinued on the network
Platforms retire some metrics and stop providing data for them. You can recognise it in the graph: the Actual line ends on a specific day and does not continue, even though the goal is running. Such a goal cannot be finished, create a new one on a metric the platform still provides. However, a replacement metric is usually calculated differently, so it will not continue smoothly from the previous numbers.
The word "undefined" appears instead of the group and metric and the graph stays empty
The metric the goal is based on is no longer offered in gas. The detail opens, but there is nothing to calculate or draw. Delete the goal and create a new one on one of the offered metrics. If you are not sure which one to choose, write to us through the contact form.
The Forecast line is missing in the graph
The forecast is drawn only when it has something to calculate from: it needs at least two days with measured data and at least one day must remain until the end of the goal. That is why it is not in the graph for a freshly created goal or for a goal that has already ended. It is also missing when the value does not change at all.
The forecast promises much more than is realistic
The forecast only extends the current pace into the future. It does not know about seasonality, the end of a campaign or an exhausted budget, so after a one-off spike (for example after one very successful post) it shows an overly optimistic end. Treat it as a guide of "at the current pace", not as a prediction.
The percentage is higher than 100 %, but the indicator is completely full
The indicator stops at 100 %, the number above it keeps growing. So the goal is met and exceeded, you do not have to do anything else.
I cannot see a colleague's goal in the list
The goal may have been created as personal. The form contains the Goal is intended for... option, and when it is set to "only for me", the goal appears in the list only for its author. Ask your colleague to edit the goal and switch it to the option for the whole customer account.
The Create goal button is missing or unavailable
Either you have the Viewer role, which can only look at goals, or you have used up the goal limit of your plan. When the limit is used up, gas writes it directly next to the button ("Goal limit reached ... Upgrade your plan or delete an unused goal."). Delete an unused goal, or write to us through the contact form.
We have more goals than the plan allows and some of them stopped being calculated
When the number of goals exceeds the plan limit, gas keeps recalculating only the oldest goals up to the limit and does not get to those above the limit, so their value stays where it is. gas sends a notification about it to the customer account administrators. The solution is to delete goals you do not need, or to upgrade your plan, in which case write to us through the contact form.
An ad spend goal does not match the amount in the advertising system
The goal value for spend is entered excluding VAT, which is also mentioned in the hint below the field in the form. Advertising systems also keep finalising the spend for the last few days, so the numbers even out after a few days. If the difference persists even after a week, write to us through the contact form.
On a phone the goal cannot be edited or deleted
In the mobile view the list is rendered as cards without action buttons. You can start editing from the goal detail with the pencil button, but duplicating and deleting is offered only by the table on a computer.