How to track click through rates on a button in Google Analytics

Question

I am trying to find the number of times a button on my page has been clicked. I can find the In-Page view and track click through rates on links, but the button does not show any sort of click through. Is there a different way to do this? Even if I can't get retroactive information, I'd like to get things moving forward.

Solution 1

It really depends on what happens when you click on that button.

If clicking on the button does something on the page, probably even tracking (suggested above) is the right way to go.

If clicking on the buttons results in navigation to another page, Google Analytics already records this action, and you can see it in the navigation summary from your page to the next page.

If you want to see this information within In-Page Analytics, you'll have to use enhanced link attribution, and will need to set an ID on the button element (if you don't already have an ID). Enhanced link attribution information can be found at: http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2558867

This was just announced at: http://analytics.blogspot.co.il/2012/11/announcing-enhanced-link-attribution.html, and might not be available to you at this moment.

Solution 2

If you're not already doing so, you should use GA event tracking to register such activity.

https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/eventTrackerGuide