Update time: April 8, 2026
This section explains how to track YouTube video playback on your website using GA4 Enhanced Measurement and Google Tag Manager (GTM).
Suppose now to track the video on https://www.bbccss.com/youtube-test
Method 1：Using GA4 Enhanced Measurement Events
GA4’s Enhanced Measurement includes built-in video engagement tracking, which works for YouTube videos, contains three events：
| Measurement option | Events | Triggered… | Parameters |
| Video engagement | video_start video_progress video_complete |
For YouTube embedded videos that have JS API support enabled, the following events are triggered:
|
video_current_time video_duration video_percent video_provider video_title video_url visible (boolean) |
In GA4 , click 「Admin」——「Data Streams」, open Web stream details：
Click the Settings icon under Enhanced Measurement:
Enable Video Engagement and click Save.
Your GA4 setup is now ready to track YouTube videos.
Read More : GA4 Event Tracking Series ② —— Enhanced Measurement Events
Method 2：Using GTM YouTube Video Trigger
GTM provides a built-in YouTube Video Trigger, making tracking easy and flexible.
Step 1 : Enable Built-In Variables
In GTM , click「Variables」——「Configure」，Enable all Video-related Built-In Variables
So GTM can automatically capture video attributes.
Step 2 : Create the YouTube Video Trigger
In GTM , click「Triggers」——「New」——「Choose a trigger type to begin setup…」——「YouTube Video」，Name it “Youtube”, and make the following settings:
There are 4 types of Capture options:
- Start: Fires when the video starts playing
- Complete: Fires when the video ends
- Pause, Seeking, and Buffering: Fires when the video is paused, scrubbed, or buffering
- Progress: Fires at specified video progress points, configured by percentage or time threshold values:
- Percentages: This value indicates the percentage of the video that has been played. Enter percentages as a comma separated list of one or more integers. Example: 5, 20, 50, 80, which represents 5%, 20%, 50%, and 80% respectively.
- Time Thresholds: This value represents the number of seconds that the video has played. Enter time thresholds as a comma-delimited list of one or more integers. Example: 5, 15, 60, 120, which represents 5 seconds, 15 seconds, 60 seconds, and 120 seconds respectively.
- Advanced——Add JavaScript API support to all YouTube videos： Check this box to enable the YouTube iFrame Player API. If you are copying videos from Youtube, you don’t need to enable it.
- Enable this trigger on: Select the appropriate option, For best results Window Load (gtm.load) is the recommended option.
- Container Load (gtm.js) occurs as soon as possible when the page loads.
- Window Load (gtm.load) (default) occurs after all initial content on the page has loaded.
- DOM Ready (gtm.dom) occurs after DOM is ready to be parsed.
Step 3: Create the GA4 Event Tag
In GTM , click「Tags」——「New」——「Choose a tags type to begin setup…」——「Google Analytics: GA4 Event」，Name it “GA4-Event-Youtube Video Tracking“, and make the following settings:
The event name here is video_{{Video Status}}, where {{Video Status}} is a built-in variable. For example, if the corresponding {{Video Status}} is start when playback starts, then the event name is video_start.
I have set an event parameter video_title here. You can set more. It is recommended to use the event parameter names already in Enhanced Measurement Events, such as video_current_time、video_duration、video_percent、video_provider、video_title、video_url、visible (boolean)
Step 4 : Preview and Publish
Next is the Preview test:
Once verified, publish your GTM container.
Read More：
Step 5: Register Custom Definitions in GA4
The next step is to register event parameters video_title , if you want to use it in GA4, you need to register it in the Custom definitions of GA4.
In GA4，click「Admin」——「Custom definitions」——「Create custom dimension」, then do the following configuration:
Step 6: Verify Data in GA4 Reports
Generally, after 24 hours, we can see the data in GA4, such as:
