Form analytics is sold as dashboards and it comes down to four numbers: how many people saw the form, how many started it, how many sent it, and on which field the rest gave up. The first three are the inputs to the free contact form design sheet on this site, which turns them into the entries a month the page should produce and what the abandoned starts were worth; the fourth is the one that says what to change. This page says where each of the four comes from on a small business site, what a good reading of each looks like, and how the sheet and the register turn the numbers into a decision about the form rather than a chart about it.
Views and starts: the page and the first field
Views are the page's visitors, from the site's own analytics. Starts are the visitors who typed into the first field, which the form's own analytics or the site's enhanced measurement records as a form start; the measurement guidance linked below is the reference for what is recorded automatically. On the contact form design sheet 1,200 views and a 5% start rate is 60 starts a month, and a low start rate is a placement problem, not a form problem: the form is not being found, or the reason to send it is not on the page.
Entries and the finish rate
Entries are the sends that arrived, and the finish rate is entries over starts. On the sheet 60 starts and a 60% finish rate is 36 entries a month and 24 abandoned starts, worth $1,920 at an $80 enquiry. A low finish rate is a form problem: too many fields, too many required marks, a field that asks for something the visitor does not have. The sheet prints the required share and the seconds to fill beside the entries so the three are read together.
The field where they stop, and the register
The fourth number is the field on which starts most often end, and it is the one that names the change: a required phone field on a form answered by email, an upload asked for too early, a dropdown with the wrong options. Change that field, wait a month, read the finish rate again. In Shortcodo Pro each form's design is kept beside its entries with the date it changed, so the finish rate before and after a change is on the list, which is the whole of form analytics for a small site.
Questions people ask about form analytics
Do I need a form analytics add-on?
For views, starts and entries, no: the site's analytics and the form's entry count give them. For the field where people stop, the form's own analytics or an add-on is needed.
What is a good finish rate?
Last month's plus something. The sheet takes your own start and finish rates, and a benchmark from another site's forms says nothing about yours.
How often should the numbers be read?
Monthly, after each change to the form. A form changed twice in a month cannot be measured.