Google Analytics helps businesses gauge their video return on investment.
- Sign in or create a Google Analytics account.
- Click on your listed website.
- In the left-hand column, click on “Traffic Sources.”
- Click on “Sources.”
- Click on “All Traffic”
- In the middle of the page, under the column “Source/Medium,” Google Analytics shows what source visitors use to reach your website. How many visits came via YouTube? What percentage is that number of the total visits? The upper right corner allows you to adjust the date range you want to analyze.
- Then back on the left-hand column, click on “Social” and then “Overview.” Scroll down under “Social Value.” Of your social networks, see which ones are sending the most visitors to your website. How many social media visits come via YouTube? What percentage is that number of the total?
These are basic steps that help businesses indicate how much video is driving traffic to their websites. The steps are basic but important. Driving traffic to your website is a key goal. Google Analytics and other, more in-depth sites offer more statistics. As we discussed in a previous post titled “Are Some Video Analytics Beneficial Or B.S.?,” some insights supposedly indicate what percentage of the videos viewers actually watch and what sections viewers skip. Some organizations offering such additional insights argue about the importance of these statistics. But we’re often skeptical about what real conclusions we can draw from some of this extra information. Remember, some websites have financial motivations to overhype their analytics.
Many businesses, especially smaller ones, want to start with some basic information that doesn’t require a leap of faith to believe in. As we move forward, we imagine more types of video analytics will hold greater meaning.