Form Analytics

Understand how visitors interact with your forms.

Overview

Form Analytics tracks every aspect of how visitors engage with forms on your website — which fields cause problems, where users abandon, and how to improve completion rates. For healthcare organizations, this is critical for optimizing appointment requests, contact forms, and patient intake processes.

Form tracking starts automatically as soon as the Ghost Metrics tracking code is installed: new forms are discovered on your pages and added to your reports without any setup. Reports live under Forms in the left reporting menu, adding more than 50 metrics and 15 reports.

What’s Tracked

Form-Level Metrics

• Form viewers and views — How many visitors saw the form, and how often
• Form starters — How many began filling it out
• Form submitters — How many submitted the form (visitors often submit more than once while fixing validation errors)
• Form conversions — How many successfully completed the form
• Conversion rate — Percentage of starters who converted
• Hesitation time — How long visitors wait before starting the form
• Time to first submit / time to conversion — How long completion takes
• Re-submissions — Repeated submits, often a sign of validation problems

Field-Level Metrics

• Entry fields — Which fields visitors interact with first
• Drop-off fields — The last field visitors touch before abandoning
• Field timings — Time spent and hesitation per field
• Most corrected fields — Fields where visitors amend what they typed
• Field size — How much text visitors type (the amount only — never the content)
• Unneeded fields — Fields most visitors leave blank when converting

Viewing Form Analytics

1. Navigate to Forms in the reporting menu
2. The Overview summarizes all forms; real-time reports show form usage in the last 30 minutes, 60 minutes, and 24 hours
3. Click a form to view its detailed report
4. Explore field-level reports, form usage by page URL, and evolution over time

You can segment any report by form engagement — for example, visitors who started but didn’t convert a specific form — and add form widgets to your dashboards.

How Forms Are Detected and Managed

Forms are discovered automatically and identified by their name or id attribute. If a page contains only one form, no identifier is needed. You can also set an explicit tracking name with the data-matomo-name attribute:

<form name="f49b2" data-matomo-name="appointment_request">...</form>

Managing Forms

Go to Administration (gear icon) → Websites → Forms to manage your forms:

• Create New Form — Add a form manually and define matching rules based on form name/ID, optionally restricted to specific pages
• Edit — Rename a form, adjust which pages it’s tracked on, and map raw field names to readable ones (e.g., display input_4 as “Insurance Provider”) — no code changes needed
• Archive — Stop tracking a form you no longer need

Some embedded third-party forms (for example, HubSpot embeds whose form IDs start with hs) are excluded from auto-detection and need to be added manually.

Automatic form discovery can be turned off instance-wide; that’s a system-level setting, so contact support if you need it changed.

Defining a Conversion

When editing a form you choose when it counts as converted:

1. Whenever the form is submitted — Easiest, but inflates conversions since failed validation attempts count
2. When visitors view a conversion page — Recommended if you have a thank-you page
3. Manually via JavaScript — Full control:

_paq.push(['FormAnalytics::trackFormConversion', 'appointment_request']);

Special Cases

• Forms not built with <form> elements — add data-matomo-form to the container element to track it like a form
• Multi-page forms — give every page’s form the same data-matomo-name so steps are combined into one form (each page’s fields need unique names)
• Single page applications — after rendering new content, re-scan for forms:

_paq.push(['FormAnalytics::scanForForms']);

Understanding Form Metrics

Starter Rate

Percentage of form viewers who began filling it out.

Low starter rate indicates:

• Form looks too long or complex
• Form isn’t visible enough
• Visitors don’t understand the form’s purpose

Hesitation Time

How long visitors look at the form before their first interaction. Long hesitation suggests the form looks intimidating or its purpose is unclear.

Drop-Off Fields

The last fields visitors touch before abandoning.

High drop-off at a specific field indicates:

• Field is confusing
• Field asks for sensitive information
• Field has validation issues
• Field isn’t applicable to many visitors

Field Corrections

How often visitors change what they entered (amendments).

Many corrections indicate:

• Field instructions aren’t clear initially
• Validation errors forcing rework
• Confusing format requirements (dates, phone numbers)

Unneeded Fields

Fields that converting visitors usually leave blank.

High blank rate indicates:

• Field isn’t necessary for most users
• Consider removing it or making it clearly optional

Analyzing Your Forms

Step 1: Identify Problem Forms

Start with forms that have:

• Low conversion rates
• High abandonment
• Strategic importance

Step 2: Find Problem Fields

Look for fields with:

• High drop-off rates
• Long field timings
• Many corrections
• Frequently left blank

Step 3: Diagnose Issues

Use additional tools:

• Session recordings — Watch visitors fill out the form
• Heatmaps — See where attention goes on the form page

Step 4: Implement Improvements

Common fixes:

• Remove unnecessary fields
• Improve field labels and instructions
• Fix validation issues
• Reorder fields logically
• Make optional fields clearer

Step 5: Measure Impact

After changes, compare:

• Conversion rate before and after
• Time to conversion
• Drop-off patterns

Common Form Issues

Too Many Fields

Problem: Long forms discourage completion.

Solution: Remove fields that aren’t essential — your Unneeded Fields report shows exactly which ones converting visitors skip.

Confusing Labels

Problem: Visitors don’t understand what’s being asked.

Solution: Use clear, simple labels. Add helper text where needed.

Missing Feedback

Problem: Visitors don’t know if they made errors — watch for high re-submission counts.

Solution: Add inline validation. Show errors immediately and clearly.

Poor Mobile Experience

Problem: Forms are hard to complete on mobile devices.

Solution: Use appropriate input types (tel, email). Make buttons tap-friendly. Test on mobile.

Asking Too Early

Problem: Sensitive questions at the start cause abandonment.

Solution: Start with easy fields. Move sensitive questions later.

Privacy Considerations

Form Analytics never records what visitors type. It tracks how visitors interact with forms — focus, timing, corrections, and at most the amount of text entered — never the content:

• Text entered into fields is not captured or stored
• Only interaction behavior is tracked (focus, changes, timing)
• To exclude a form or an individual field from interaction tracking entirely, add the data-matomo-ignore attribute:

<input type="text" name="notes" data-matomo-ignore>

This makes Form Analytics safe to use on healthcare forms: you can optimize an appointment-request form’s completion rate without any of the entered patient information ever reaching analytics.

Best Practices

Regular Review

Check form performance monthly:

• Are conversion rates stable?
• Have new issues appeared?
• Are improvements working?

Compare Forms

Benchmark similar forms against each other:

• Which contact form performs best?
• What makes high-performing forms different?

Test Changes

Don’t assume fixes will work. Use A/B testing to validate improvements.

Mobile First

Always analyze mobile form performance separately. Mobile conversion rates are often lower and problems are different.

Consider Context

Form performance depends on:

• Traffic source
• Page placement
• Visitor intent

Segment your analysis for better insights.

Healthcare Form Considerations

Appointment Request Forms

Key fields to optimize:

• Service/department selection
• Provider preference
• Date/time preferences
• Insurance information
• Contact information

Contact Forms

Keep it simple:

• Name
• Contact method (phone or email)
• Message/question
• Best time to contact

Pre-Registration Forms

For longer intake forms:

• Show progress indicators
• Group related fields
• Explain why information is needed
• Track each page of a multi-step form as one form with data-matomo-name

Next Steps

• Session Recordings — Watch form interactions
• Heatmaps — See where attention goes on form pages
• Goals — Track form submissions as conversions
• Funnels — See the path to your forms