GA4 Video Tracking: How to Report on Video Starts and Video Completes
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Want to know how to report on your video views in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)? If so, you've come to the right place. You can see the total number of video plays in your standard event reporting, but you'll need to use the Explorations feature and build a custom report in order to see what videos were actually played, completed, etc.
That's what we're doing in this video here. Check it out!
Have questions or comments? Leave them in the comments. I've been learning / struggling with GA4 over the couple of years, and I'm always up for learning more...and for new video ideas.
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Thanks for coming by!
Awesome content! Thanks ❤
Thanks Anthony! 🙌
Hi. Do you need to do anything in Google Tag Manager? PS: Your videos are great and have been helping me a lot! Thank you :)
Melissa, hello! Nope, there's nothing you need to do in GTM since this is an "enhanced measurement" event that GA4 can track on its own. That is, assuming it's an embedded TH-cam video. (If it was Vimeo the built in enhanced measurement event wouldn't work and then you would need to use Tag Manager).
If you're looking to report not just on starts and completes, this other video shows how to report on video progress (25%, 50%, etc). th-cam.com/video/gcLxerwDAZc/w-d-xo.html
And thanks for the kind words. I'm glad to hear you've been finding this helpful. It has certainly helped me as well to try and learn a little more of this (often confusing) platform.
How did you actually set up the "video_start" and "video_progress" events? Do you have a video event set-up tutorial available?
Hi there. As long as you have the "video engagement" event toggled on in your enhanced measurement (within your data stream settings), you will automatically track video_start and video_progress for embedded TH-cam video plays on your site.
Pretty cool, right?
This blog has an overview of the types of events in GA4 (automatically collected events, enhanced measurement events, recommended events, custom events) and you can see the Video engagement event in the screenshot of enhanced measurement about 40% of the way down the page: www.rootandbranchgroup.com/events-in-ga4-vs-ua/
Hope that helps!
@@rooted-digital For some reason even though I have the video engagement event on, the video-start is not showing up in the explore section
@@ReclaimDesign I have the same problem
I've enabled Video tracking but still I do not see video events listed. Any suggestions?
Hi there, and thanks for the question.
When you say you don’t see any video events listed do you mean in that in your standard GA4 events report you don’t see the video_start event listed along with your other events?
Or that you’re able to see the total count of video_start events but you’re not able to see what specific videos were played?
If it’s the former, I’d say here’s my top 3 list:
- double check that you have this enhanced measurement event turned on (I’m guessing you’ve checked this a few times already!)
- make sure embedded TH-cam videos on your site have played since you’ve tuned on the enhanced measurement video events. Give it a little time (24 hrs max)
- Your standard GA4 events report will only show 10 event types by default. You may need to change this to display more events in order to see your video events.
Let me know if this does it for you. Best of luck!
Zack
@@rooted-digital I don’t see the video_start event listed along with your other events at all...
@@BadGirl-pn3qu if you're not seeing the video_start event in your GA4 event reporting (same place as in minute 2:07 on my screen in this video), the only thing I can imagine is that either the embedded video is not TH-cam or there have been no plays. If it is a TH-cam embed and it's been played, unfortunately, I can't offer any help. I'd be stumped!
The only other thing I'd mention is that if you've been playing your own embedded TH-cam videos to test the event and you're not seeing any video_start events, you might want to check to see if you have filtered out your internal traffic from GA4. If you have an active internal traffic filter, you won't see any video_start events that you have personally initiated because they will have been removed from that filter.
I'm sorry I couldn't be more help and I wish you all the best.
@@rooted-digital hi, thanks for your video! I have the same issue as this user :( Enhanced measurements are enabled but it looks like there are no video-related events being tracked at all...Could it be due to the fact that I embed TH-cam videos in privacy-enhancing mode?...
@@juliadanilyuk2478 I'm sorry for the delay in getting back to you.
I must say that the answer to this is "I don't know...but it does seem plausible that privacy mode in TH-cam would be related."
To confirm, this means you've set your video status to "Private" rather than "Published" in TH-cam, correct? Have you tested temporarily publishing the videos and seeing if that changes things?
I have been doing some research and haven't found anything that really answers the question. I do wish you all the best and I'd be eager to hear if you end up testing what I mentioned above.
Best of luck.
Zack
Great video for me
Great, I am glad to hear it!
Hi! Great video again. I would like to know how to track video percentage? This is my case: The video percent trigger fired when I preview in google tag manager , and I have also added the custom definitions parameter in GA4. However, the video percentage is shown as (not set) in the report, Any suggestion on fixing that? Thank you so much!
Hi Chloe,
Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad this was useful for you.
Regarding video percentage, I'm using the built in enhanced measurement event to track video progress. Here is a video I had made showing how I made an Explorations report showing video progress.
th-cam.com/video/gcLxerwDAZc/w-d-xo.html
I hope it's helpful!
Hi, thank you for the video. I would like to know if you happen to know how to track Vimeo videos on the website? Thank you.
Hi Min, I haven't done this myself but this resource might be helpful for you --> www.analyticsmania.com/google-tag-manager-recipes/vimeo-ga4/
Best wishes!
Thanks for the awesome video. Any ideas on how I would track whether a user has rewinded or fast forwarded through my video?
Hi Oliver, for that I think you'd need to set up a custom GA4 event tag with the help of Google Tag Manager. This video shows how I had done this: th-cam.com/video/f8QjfoiFc6g/w-d-xo.html
The video is for UA, but I believe the trigger configuration would work just as well for GA4. You'd want to make sure you select "Pause, Seeking, and Buffering" in what you want to capture (pretty sure Seeking is the rewind and fast forward behavior you're looking for).
Best of luck and Godspeed to you!
Zack
Shouldn't all this be done in GA4 rather than export to Excel, seems unnecessary
Hello there! You certainly could work on manipulating things in GA4 only. Or maybe even Looker Studio. Personally, I think it's easier in some cases to export to Excel and do further analysis there.
...although that might just mean I feel more comfortable in Excel still than those other tools.
In any event, thanks for watching and for the thoughtful question. Best wishes.
Fantastic video!!! Quick question - where can I see the average watch time of the videos on GA4????
Great question. It’s not quite “average watch time” but you can use video progress to see the percentage of your viewed videos (25%, 50%, etc).
Here’s a link to a video I had made on that: m.th-cam.com/video/gcLxerwDAZc/w-d-xo.html
Let me know if this does what you’re looking for. Best wishes!
@@rooted-digital Understood...but where can I see that on GA4??? I have a web page with an embedded TH-cam video on my website which is currently being used as a landing page for am ongoing LinkedIn campaign. On GA4 I can't see the progress % (25%, 50%) anywhere on GA4
@@adityapatra9183 I'm not sure I understand. The video link I had shared does show how to do that in GA4 (in GA4 Explorations). You can register the event parameter called video_percent as a custom dimension and then it should show you what you need.
One note: the custom dimension part now happens in the admin section of GA4 (not in the "Configure" menu that is shown in the video). That was a GA4 change since the video was made.
What is the solution if we want to analyze the video with Google Analytics 4 without uploading it to TH-cam?
Hi there. The video tracking would be based on what video player you are using. For example, if you're using Vimeo there is a different process. This blog post has information about multiple --> www.analyticsmania.com/post/track-videos-with-google-analytics-4-and-google-tag-manager/
@@rooted-digital thanks so mush