Feature Guide

Custom Events

Measure the clicks and signups that matter to your business — with one line of code.

The moment a visitor becomes a customer usually isn’t a page view — it’s a click. “Book now.” “Get a quote.” “Add to cart.” Custom events let you record exactly those moments, so your dashboard measures business results, not just reading habits. Track button clicks, form submissions, video plays, or any other action that standard page-view tracking can’t see.

Sending an event takes a single JavaScript call (a short instruction added to your page) — one line, placed where the action happens. Events appear alongside your page views in the Events card on your Analytics page, next to the four events Crafty Meerkat already tracks automatically: outbound clicks, downloads, 404 hits, and site searches.

Custom events become truly powerful when you connect them to Goals. Make “quote-request” a goal and every report — including your weekly AI report — starts speaking in conversion rates: not “the services page got 312 views” but “the services page turned 4.8% of its visitors into quote requests.” That’s the number a business owner can act on.

How it works

Once the tracking snippet is installed, your pages have access to a small JavaScript function: window.craftymeerkat.event. Call it with an event name and, optionally, a set of extra details (called properties), and the event is recorded for the current visitor’s session. You — or your web developer, or your AI coding tool — wire that call to the moment you care about: a form’s success handler, a button’s click, a video’s play. If a page-visit goal covers your need (like reaching /thank-you), you don’t even need this; custom events are for actions that don’t change the page.

The custom events JavaScript API

// Track a conversion when a form is submitted
window.craftymeerkat.event('signup', { plan: 'growth' })

// Track an outbound click or download
window.craftymeerkat.event('download', { file: 'pricing.pdf' })

Step by step

1
Pick one action that means real business value
A completed contact form, a “call us” tap on mobile, an order placed. Start with one — you can add more any time.
2
Choose a short, stable event name
Lowercase and unambiguous: signup, quote-request, add-to-cart. You’ll filter and set goals by this exact name, so pick it once and keep it.
3
Add the one-line call where the action happens
Place it in the code that runs when the action succeeds — for example a form’s submit handler. If you don’t write code, this is a 5-minute task for your developer or AI coding tool.
```
window.craftymeerkat.event('signup', { plan: 'growth' })
```
4
Verify it in your dashboard
Trigger the action on your own site, then check the Events card on your Analytics page — the event should appear within seconds.
5
Promote it to a Goal
Create a custom-event goal with the same event name. From then on you get a conversion rate, week-over-week comparisons, and AI recommendations focused on improving it.

Tips from the den

◆Fewer, well-named events beat many noisy ones. Five events you check weekly are worth more than fifty you never look at.
◆Use properties for detail instead of new event names: one “download” event with a file property is easier to read than a separate event per file.
◆Never put personal details (names, emails) in event properties — you don’t need them, and keeping events anonymous keeps your analytics worry-free.
◆Remember the freebies: outbound clicks, downloads, 404s, and site searches are tracked automatically — save custom events for actions those don’t cover.

See it live — no signup

The demo dashboard runs on a real site with real traffic.

Open the live demo →

Common questions

Do I need to be a programmer to use custom events?

The call itself is one line, and the Track Custom Events guide walks through it step by step. If you’d rather not touch code, it’s a small, well-defined task to hand your developer — or an AI coding tool — along with the snippet above.

Are custom events available on every plan?

Yes. Custom events, the Events card, and custom-event goals are included on Starter, Growth, and Agency plans alike.

What’s the difference between a custom event and a goal?

An event is the raw action being recorded (“signup happened 12 times”). A goal is the success metric built on top of it (“3.1% of sessions converted to signup”). Events count actions; goals measure how well your site turns visitors into those actions.

Can I send extra details with an event?

Yes — pass a set of properties as the second argument, like { plan: 'growth' } or { file: 'menu.pdf' }. Keep properties non-personal: describe the action, never the person.