• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Social Media Examiner

Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

  • 🔥 Free Newsletter
  • ⭐ FREE Web3 Course
  • 💡 Society
  • 🗓️ Our Events
    • Social Media Marketing World 2024
    • Other Industry Events
  • ⚙️ Tools
  • 🎙️ Podcasts
    • Social Media Marketing Podcast
    • Social Media Marketing Talk Show
    • Web3 Business Podcast
    • Our YouTube Channel
  • 🎯 Partner With Us
    • Podcast Sponsorship
    • Email Sponsorship
      • Email Newsletter
      • Dedicated Email Blast
    • Event Sponsorship
      • Social Media Marketing World
    • Tools Sponsorship
  • 👋 About Us
    • Our Story
    • Articles
      • Web3
      • Instagram Marketing
      • Facebook Marketing
      • YouTube Marketing
      • LinkedIn Marketing
      • TikTok Marketing
      • Expert Interviews
  • Search
  • How to Analyze Your YouTube Marketing With Google Analytics

    by Kristi Hines / October 18, 2016

    social media how toDo you use YouTube for business?

    Want to connect Google Analytics to your YouTube channel?

    Google Analytics can show you how people find and engage with your channel, and how YouTube drives traffic to your website.

    In this article, you'll discover how to set up Google Analytics to track and measure the impact of your YouTube marketing efforts.

    measure youtube marketing effectiveness using google analytics
    Discover how to track and measure your YouTube marketing efforts with Google Analytics.

    #1: Set Up Google Analytics for Your YouTube Channel

    To track your YouTube marketing with Google Analytics, first you need to actually set up Google Analytics for your YouTube channel. The process is similar to tracking a website with Google Analytics.

    To get started, create a new property in your Google Analytics account.

    google analytics create property
    Create a new property.

    Set up that property as a website. Use your YouTube channel URL as the website link.

    add youtube url as website in google analytics
    Use your YouTube channel URL as the website link.

    Next, you'll find your Google Analytics tracking ID, which usually starts with “UA-,” followed by some numbers.

    google analytics tracking id
    Find your Google Analytics tracking ID.

    Go to your YouTube channel and open your Advanced Settings. At the bottom of this page, you'll see a field where you can enter your Google Analytics tracking ID.

    google analytics tracking id in youtube settings
    In the Advanced Settings, you'll see a field at the bottom to enter your tracking ID.

    This ID will allow you to track your YouTube channel visitors similarly to how you track website visitors inside Google Analytics. Note: The analytics inside YouTube still provide the best data for the videos themselves.

    Google Analytics will track the visitors to your YouTube channel's homepage (youtube.com/username) and clicks to specific tabs on your channel, such as About, Discussion, Videos, Playlist, and other tabs. You can see this data in the Behavior > All Pages report below.

    traffic to youtube channel in google analytics
    Google Analytics tracks visitors to your channel homepage.

    To find out how people discover your YouTube channel, go to the Acquisitions > All Traffic > Source / Medium report.

    youtube traffic sources in google analytics
    See how people discover your channel.

    You can see the geographic breakdown of channel visitors in the Audience > Geo > Location report.

    3 Days of World-Class Training—Zero Travel!

    Social Media Marketing World

    Travel to Social Media Marketing World off the table? Get all of the great content at a fraction of the price with an On-Demand ticket.

    That’s full access to recordings of every keynote, workshop, and session—the ones people travel thousands of miles to see. Don't wait. Get your On-Demand ticket and enjoy actionable content that you can watch anytime, anywhere.

    GET YOUR ON-DEMAND TICKET NOW
    geographic breakdown of youtube channel visitors in google analytics
    Geographic data is also provided.

    In short, you run the same reports about your YouTube channel as you would with your website.

    #2: Track Traffic From Your YouTube Channel Profile Link

    The second way to use Google Analytics to track the impact of your YouTube marketing is to measure how much traffic you're getting from YouTube to your website. In general, Google Analytics will track YouTube traffic to your website like this:

    track youtube traffic in google analytics
    Measure the amount of traffic you're getting.

    From there, you won't get much additional detail to see if it was a link from your channel, your videos, someone else's video, a video embedded on someone else's website, and so forth.

    This is where using UTM parameters helps. You can add UTM parameters to most of the links on your YouTube channel and videos to ensure that every click from your channel and videos can be specifically linked to its source.

    Here's an example of how it works on my own channel. I start by editing the link to my main website that appears at the top of my channel.

    edit youtube website link
    Start by editing the link at the top of your channel.

    Instead of just linking to my website, I append the following UTM tags to my URL.

    Tools Resource Guide

    Looking for something to make your life easier?

    Discover the tools we recommend to drive engagement, save you time, and boost sales across your entire marketing funnel or business.

    Whether you need help planning content, organizing social posts, or developing your strategy, you’ll find something for every situation.

    FIND YOUR NEXT FAVORITE TOOL
    use utm parameters with youtube channel link
    Append the UTM tags to your URL.

    The full link looks like this:

    `http:__abENT__#8260;__abENT__#8260;kristihines__abENT__#46;com__abENT__#8260;?utm_source=youtube__abENT__#46;com__abENT__amp;amp;utm_medium=referral__abENT__amp;amp;utm_campaign=website__abENT__amp;amp;utm_content=profile+link`

    Here's the info provided by the various parameters:

    • “utm_source=youtube.com” tells Google Analytics the click came from YouTube.
    • “utm_medium=referral” tells Google Analytics the click is a referral traffic source.
    • “utm_campaign=website” is a custom campaign name for tracking general website traffic.
    • “utm_content=profile+link” tells Google Analytics the click is a general profile link.

    Combined, these parameters indicate this click came from my YouTube channel's profile link. You'll learn how to do this later in the article.

    #3: Track Traffic From Each YouTube Video

    Next, you'll want to track the traffic from your YouTube videos inside Google Analytics. The same tactic applies: you'll just use UTM parameters with your video links.

    For example, in the following video, I use an annotation spotlight.

    use utm parameters with youtube video links
    The same UTM tactic applies to videos.

    The full link looks like the one below and sends the same information to Google Analytics. Except this time, the UTM parameters tell Google Analytics the traffic came from an annotation link in the video instead of a profile link for my promotion campaign.

    `http:__abENT__#8260;__abENT__#8260;kristihines__abENT__#46;com__abENT__#8260;blog-post-ideas__abENT__#8260;?utm_source=youtube__abENT__#46;com__abENT__amp;amp;utm_medium=referral__abENT__amp;amp;utm_campaign=promotion__abENT__amp;amp;utm_content=video+annotation+link`

    You can also use shortened links on the video and in the video description text below the video. For example, there are two shortened links above. The one on the video, “kristihines.com/ideas,” is short and easy to type in. It redirects the visitor to the following UTM parameter tagged URL:

    `http:__abENT__#8260;__abENT__#8260;kristihines__abENT__#46;com__abENT__#8260;blog-post-ideas__abENT__#8260;?utm_source=youtube__abENT__#46;com__abENT__amp;amp;utm_medium=referral__abENT__amp;amp;utm_campaign=promotion__abENT__amp;amp;utm_content=video+noclick+link`

    The second one below the video is “http://bit.ly/2bkwkds.” This one is a clickable link in the video's description. It uses the Bitly URL shortener service to create a shorter link so that no one misses it in the URL. It will redirect visitors who click it to the following UTM parameter tagged URL:

    `http:__abENT__#8260;__abENT__#8260;kristihines__abENT__#46;com__abENT__#8260;blog-post-ideas__abENT__#8260;?utm_source=youtube__abENT__#46;com__abENT__amp;amp;utm_medium=referral__abENT__amp;amp;utm_campaign=promotion__abENT__amp;amp;utm_content=video+description+link`

    These URLs tell Google Analytics that the traffic came from either the text link in the video that visitors typed into their browser's address bar or a click on the link in the video description.

    #4: View Overall YouTube Traffic

    Once you've set up all of your UTM parameter tagged URLs, all you have to do is wait for visitors to start clicking them.

    To find out if they have, go to the Acquisition > All Traffic > Source / Medium report. Use the search box above the table to search for “youtube” and your YouTube traffic will appear.

    view youtube traffic in google analytics
    Search for “youtube” in the box above the table.

    From here, use the Secondary Dimension drop-down list to add the Ad Content column.

    add column to google analytics
    Add the Ad Content column.

    Now you can see the traffic from YouTube that came from your channel and videos or someone else's. (Other traffic will typically show “not set” in the Ad Content column.) More importantly, you'll know exactly which links are most effective.

    view youtube traffic sources in google analytics
    Quickly see which links are most effective.

    In the above report, you can see that two visitors came by clicking video annotation links, one visitor came by clicking the link on the channel profile, one visitor came by clicking a video description link, and one visitor came by typing in a link from a video.

    This report also shows conversion data (percentage rate, completions, and value), so you can see which YouTube links result in actual conversions (sales, leads, etc.).

    If you want to get more specific data, you could include the name of the video in the utm_content parameter so you can find out which video each video click comes from.
    Want more like this? Explore YouTube for Business!
    .
    In Conclusion

    With Google Analytics, you can gain insights into your video marketing in two ways. First, you can learn more about how people find and engage with your YouTube channel. And second, you can learn how your YouTube channel drives traffic to your website.

    What do you think? Which metrics do you find most valuable when it comes to your YouTube marketing? Please let us know in the comments below!

    Tips for using Google Analytics to analyze your YouTube marketing efforts.
    Tips for using Google Analytics to analyze your YouTube marketing efforts.

    Get Your FREE Course: Web3 for Beginners

    Web 3 for Beginners

    Curious about Web3, but don't know where to start or who to trust?

    Introducing Web3 for Beginners, a course taught by Michael Stelzner, the founder of Social Media Examiner.

    Learn the basics of Web3 and apply it to your business with this FREE comprehensive course.


    CLICK HERE TO GET FREE ACCESS

    Tags: Google Analytics, YouTube

    About the authorKristi Hines

    Kristi Hines is a freelance writer, ghostwriter, and copywriter who develops blog content, ebooks, emails, lead magnets, and website copy for marketing agencies, B2B, and SaaS.
    Other posts by Kristi Hines Âť

    Get Social Media Examiner’s Future Articles in Your Inbox!

    Get our latest articles delivered to your email inbox and get the FREE Social Media Marketing Industry Report (39 pages, 50+ charts)!

    Industry Report Cover

    Worth Exploring:

    Facebook

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Instagram

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    YouTube

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Linkedin

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Web3

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Social Media Marketing Industry Report

    Get Free Report →

    Social Marketing Trends

    The data you've been missing!

    Need a new plan? Discover how marketers plan to change their social activities in the 14th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report. It reveals what marketers have planned for their social activities, content marketing, and more! Get this free report now and never miss another great article from us. Join more than 400,000 marketers!

    Enter your email to get
    our free report:


    Footer

    Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
    Copyright © 2023 Social Media ExaminerÂŽ
    All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy.

    Helpful Links

    • About us
    • Our content via email
    • Our podcasts
    • Our YouTube channel
    • Our live show
    • Our industry report
    • Sponsorship opportunities
    • RSS
    • Accessibility