{"id":117126,"date":"2025-03-07T05:44:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T05:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/analytics\/the-youtube-video-trigger-in-google-tag-manager\/"},"modified":"2025-03-07T05:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T05:44:11","slug":"the-youtube-video-trigger-in-google-tag-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=117126","title":{"rendered":"The YouTube Video Trigger In Google Tag Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Last updated 20 April 2020<\/strong>: Clarified how lazy-loaded videos<\/a> can be tracked with this trigger.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Let\u2019s cut straight to the chase. Google Tag Manager<\/a> has just released the YouTube Video<\/strong> trigger, which gives you native support for YouTube video tracking. And it\u2019s great! Even though we\u2019ve been more than satisfied with the excellent tracking scripts provided by e.g. Cardinal Path<\/a> and Bounteous<\/a> (with a small modification<\/a> from yours truly), this is a no-brainer<\/em> for native support in Google Tag Manager.<\/p>\n

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The YouTube Video trigger checks pretty much all the boxes I\u2019d expect in a video tracking trigger. It has built-in events for things like Start, Progress (e.g. 25%, 50%, 75%), and Complete. You can also use it to decorate the embedded YouTube URLs with the required enablejsapi=1<\/code> query parameter, if they don\u2019t already have it.<\/p>\n

The YouTube Video trigger supports tracking lazy-loaded<\/em> or dynamically inserted videos, too, which will be a relief to sites that defer loading videos until they are actually interacted with by the user.<\/p>\n


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Create and configure the trigger<\/h2>\n

To create the trigger, scroll to Triggers in the Google Tag Manager user interface, and create a new trigger. You\u2019ll find the YouTube Video option in the sidebar that flies out when you click to choose a trigger type.<\/p>\n

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Once you\u2019ve selected the YouTube Video trigger type, it\u2019s time to configure it. Here are the options.<\/p>\n

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  1. \n

    Capture – Start<\/strong> – collects a start<\/code> when the user starts watching the video.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Capture – Complete<\/strong> – collects a complete<\/code> when the user reaches the end of the video.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Capture – Pause, Seeking, and Buffering<\/strong> – collects a pause<\/code> when the user pauses the video or jumps forward or back, and buffering<\/code> when the video starts buffering due to lack of bandwith.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Capture – Progress<\/strong> – collects a progress<\/code> the moment the user passes either a percentage or time threshold (e.g. 25%, 50%, 75% or 10 second mark, 30 second mark, one minute mark).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Advanced – Add JavaScript API support to all videos<\/strong> – if your YouTube embeds lack the necessary enablejsapi=1<\/code> parameter, you can check this to automatically add it to all your videos. NOTE!<\/strong> This reloads the iframe, so users might see the video flicker when they first load the page. This option, when checked, also adds the required https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/iframe_api<\/code> library to the page.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Here\u2019s what the dataLayer<\/code> payload looks like whenever a YouTube event is triggered.<\/p>\n