Last updated on June 15th, 2024
If you’re a marketer or business owner, it can be hard to track how your leads and sales are coming in via your YouTube videos vs. your websites, social media or ads. But Rosh Sillars of Rosh Media has some good tips on how you can do this using the Assisted Conversions feature in Google Analytics.
GUEST: Rosh Sillars of Rosh Media | YouTube | Instagram | Twitter
HOSTS: The VidAction Podcast is hosted by:
– Dane Golden of VidAction | LinkedIn | | YouTube
– Renee Teeley of VideoExplained and ReneeTeeley.com | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by our affiliate partners, including: TubeBuddy, VidIQ, MorningFame, Rev.com, and other products and services we recommend.
TRANSCRIPT
Dane Golden:
It’s time for the VidAction Podcast. This is the podcast where we help marketers and business owners, just like you, get more value out of your video marketing efforts. My name is Dane Golden from VidAction.tv, where we help you up your game on YouTube for business, and transform your viewers into loyal customers. And I have another business called the VidTarget.io, where we help you save time and money through more targeted YouTube ads. And with my cohost Renee, she’s the powerhouse video marketer from San Francisco, it’s R-E-N-E-E T-E-E-L-E-Y. Renee Teeley from Video Explained, hello Renee.
Renee Teeley:
Hello Dane. I know it’s my name, but wow, so many E’s. Yes, I’m so excited to be co-hosting this podcast with you today.
Dane Golden:
But are you thrilled?
Renee Teeley:
I’m thrilled, I’m excited, I’m over the moon, I’m delighted. I’m all of the things.
Dane Golden:
She is all the things, and Renee, what do you do at Video Explained?
Renee Teeley:
Yeah, so at Video Explained we primarily help companies use video to build credibility, generate leads, and sales. So companies hire us to produce videos and create content strategies for them, but we also offer consulting and training services as well.
Dane Golden:
Okay, and for you, the listener, you should know that as always, you can follow along in your podcast app with the transcript and the link, so please share and review us, it really does help. Today we have a special guest, it’s Rosh Sillars from Rosh Media. Welcome Rosh.
Rosh Sillars:
Hey, thank you for having me on.
Dane Golden:
Thank you for being on. We asked you on today because a lot of marketers have problems trying to track where their leads and sales are coming from with their YouTube videos versus the website, social media ads. But you’ve got some good tips on how to do this using, largely, Google Analytics. Does this topic work for you?
Rosh Sillars:
I think that’ll work great.
Renee Teeley:
Awesome. So, this is such a good topic because I think that being able to track leads and sales and where that’s coming from, is a critical thing for most companies, if not all companies. So it’s one of the best ways to figure out what’s working, so hopefully you can do more of it, and what isn’t working, so that you can do less of it. But I’ve experienced this in my own business, that there’s a lot of challenges when it comes to tracking. So can you talk about some of those challenges at a high level, and walk us through some of the ways that you can use Google Analytics for tracking video marketing performance specifically?
Rosh Sillars:
Sure. We should talk overall, too, along with, as we drill down more into video because it’ll help people understand. I mean, first of all, Google Analytics really is a deep platform, there are a lot of ways in which we can track. And some people think it just shows me how many people came to my website, and maybe how long they’re on and the bounce rate and they’re off. Those are important metrics, but there’s so much more and it goes so much deeper. If we’re using video to advertise, we can certainly use Google ads to help us understand what conversion rates are and so forth.
Rosh Sillars:
But we do need to have all of the code in place in there properly, and then it’ll help Google really take on a deeper level of understanding of the fact is sometimes it’s just not one thing that helps you get the sale. Sometimes it’s a combination of your Google ads or your YouTube ads, maybe even Facebook. It’s quite often a lot of touches along the way, and we usually have a couple different metrics that we look at, and quite often we use the last click metric in terms of what is the last click that got that person to buy, but we’re not always paying attention to what those other clicks were or that there were even other clicks. So people may watch our videos and go to the website, and then they may come back direct or they may search in Google and find you again, so it’s important to know what role, ultimately, does your video play in the sales process.
Dane Golden:
Great. And so YouTube has Analytics, and I’m very familiar with YouTube Analytics, and less so with Google Analytics because I don’t focus on the end result of the website as much. Could you tell us how there is sort of a crossover between how they dovetail together and how they’re not similar overall?
Rosh Sillars:
Well, I think Google Analytics is more about what’s happening on your website, and quite often that is where the sales happen. YouTube Analytics is going to tell you how well your video is doing, are you getting their attention and keeping them, which is very important, how well does that video connect with people. So that’s highly valuable, especially if you’re driving paid traffic to that video, it’s also helpful to see where people are clicking off, and YouTube Analytics will help you do exactly that. But once you have convinced them to buy, quite often you’re sending them to the website, and we need to know which traffic source actually got their attention, and we use Google Analytics to help us do that. They’re really very different in terms of what they’re showing you because they have really different purposes, but as far as conversions go, it’s definitely analytics that you want to pay attention to with Google, I would say more so than YouTube. YouTube is going to give you performance, but Google Analytics is going to show you what’s helping you sell.
Renee Teeley:
Yeah, it’s a nice overview of using the two together and why one versus the other. In terms of Google Analytics, diving into that a little bit deeper, what is time lag in Google Analytics and what do the measurements mean?
Rosh Sillars:
Sure.
Dane Golden:
That’s the flux capacitor, right?
Rosh Sillars:
Exactly. Dane just covered it, we’re good. So there’s a little area in Google Analytics, and I think this is where a lot of our conversation has come from. When we’ve been going back and forth about what’s this area of under conversions, that people can pay attention to and realize what’s really happening and can see, actually visually see, this ad led to people coming to the website, which then led to them using a search to find them again, or just happened to find them again through search. And then they came through direct, and then there’s a referral, sometimes there are multiple ways in which people come to the site in that sales process, but that sales process doesn’t necessarily happen on the same day. And that’s where that time lag comes in. So Google Analytics actually will show you, again, this is under conversions, multichannel funnels, and you’ll find time lag, and it will show you, did people buy the day they came to your website or was it the next day or was it 10 days later?
Rosh Sillars:
That’s helpful, especially when you may want to consider a re-targeting program, a re-marketing program. Sending maybe videos out to people who have landed on the page, but maybe you feel they need a little bit more information, so you can have some videos follow them around to possibly overcome those objections. So if you know it takes about seven days before a good portion of the people actually buy, you can develop a plan around that.
Dane Golden:
So, talk a bit about assisted conversions, why are they important and how are they shown exactly in Google Analytics?
Rosh Sillars:
So Google Analytics actually will show you… First there are a couple ways to go about it, but they’ll show you based totally on ads and metrics and so forth like that, you can be very specific. But the first one, and again, this is under multichannel funnels, and it’s called assisted conversions, straight up, and it’ll show you how many conversions or sales. So your conversion can be really anything you want it to be, I mean, a conversion can be a download of an ebook, it could be so much time on site, but for most of us it’s actually a sale. And what this will show is what are the top channels that have driven those sales, and assisted conversions will show you how many times direct has been involved or organic search or email or social media.
Rosh Sillars:
And if you want to see how your YouTube channel is doing, or maybe Instagram or Facebook or whatever it may be, you would click on the social media, and then it will show you how many assisted conversions you received from those platforms. And that can be really interesting to see how that came about, but there’s also a really nice, and something that I use a lot is the next one down, which is called top conversion path. Which is related to the assistant conversions, and it actually shows you where they found you first. Was it an ad, was it organic search, maybe they found you via organic search and then left and then came back via an ad and then maybe were referred by somebody else. So it’s nice to see what that pattern is, and that will be there under top conversion paths.
Renee Teeley:
Yeah, I think it’s very important to start mapping out what those trends are so that you can capitalize on that and improve upon it too. And I think it’s also a really good point that you made in terms of conversions, that conversion doesn’t have to just be an actual sale, there are different ways to convert. In terms of, kind of switching gears a little bit and focusing on just a little bit more on YouTube, what are some of the other challenges with tracking leads that originate on YouTube?
Rosh Sillars:
Well, sometimes I have trouble… One thing you’ll find, especially in Analytics, under acquisition you’ll have the opportunity to see all the traffic and sources and medium of traffic. When you will hook all this up right, it’ll actually show you, especially if you have an e-commerce site or something like that, or you add a value to each thing, it’ll show you how much you’re making. So there is actually data that shows me right here, I’m looking at one right now, Google organic traffic and their revenue that’s created by that. And I think it’s really important that you add that, and you can do that in many different ways. If you want to get into that later, we can do so.
Rosh Sillars:
But sometimes it’s hard to parse these things out, and Google uses direct, you’ll see direct quite a bit, and that tends to be like a catchall, that could be from SEO, it could be from other sources they just can’t identify or somebody blocking. One of the nice things… And I think Google Analytics could do a much better job of giving us a good sense of what’s happening from these ads. For the most part, I use the section that I mentioned earlier for conversions, and going under the multichannel and then just looking at the assisted conversions under social media, and that we’ll line item out which traffic was from YouTube. And that includes mobile too, it will define if it was mobile or if it was YouTube, the website.
Rosh Sillars:
Based on the work I’ve done, and maybe there’s somebody out there that has seeing this more than I, I have not seen it from a Google ad, because YouTube ads come from the Google platform. And for some reason I have not seen many conversions directly that way, I’ve seen them come through as YouTube or YouTube mobile, but I have not, based on the client work that I’ve done, seen that very often. And somebody is probably screaming right now, “Well, it’s right there,” but I want to be straight up of how many times I’ve actually seen it. Usually I see it as part of a path, part of the process, and then maybe it’s ultimately referral in the end through the system that gets the sale. But I like to see how well YouTube is doing, and again, I do that under assisted conversions and the under the social media area.
Dane Golden:
And I wanted to add, Rosh, and get your feedback on this, even with the tracking and we love tracking, but there’s always going to be, particularly with YouTube, there’s going to be ways that are just not trackable. And often those are when a client calls and they say a whole bunch of things, “Oh yeah. I clicked and downloaded this thing on your website.” And then they may say as a side, “Oh yeah, I love that video of yours.” And yet you may have never seen any tracking from them, directly from YouTube to the website. Some marketers say, “Well, you also have to track, once we start doing a lot of videos, how much traffic from Google goes up or direct traffic goes up to your URL, because it’s not being reported that way. But what someone does is they watch a video and then they Google your business.”
Rosh Sillars:
Right. Exactly right, that’s the same with, let’s say, display ads. And the nice thing is you can use video with display ads now, and that works really well. But yeah, to your point, Dane, I can’t tell you how many times I have just worked with a client and they say… after I quiz them deeper, because they came into my store, and I asked them how do you find this? So they said, “I saw your sign.” But before that, once they started quizzing them, well actually they Googled them, they looked them up, they did all this research a few days ago or maybe a week ago, and they just happened to be going by and saw the sign. The trust had been developed, they wanted to go there. It just happened to be that day they saw the sign, they had the time, they went inside. And so the sign got the credit.
Rosh Sillars:
And it’s true with what you said with the video and so forth. So that’s why having those assisted conversions is part, at least of your review, to be able to see everything that’s playing a role in getting that customer. Because quite often, again, it’s that last click that everything is set up for. And so last click in that scenario would have been the sign, although it could have been SEO, could have been the video on your website, it could have been a number of things. So it’s helpful. I often like to use first click also, you have many options in your advertising in how Google will actually count a conversion. But that I do like the first click model because I do know then they originally found my client via my advertising, whether it’s a YouTube video, a display ad, a video, or whatever it may be, and then I can go down the path of what else supported that sale.
Dane Golden:
Excellent, Rosh Sillars. Tell us how we can find out more about you and what you’re up to with Rosh Media. And also, please spell your full name, because people will want to Google you.
Rosh Sillars:
Sure. Rosh Sillars is R-O-S-H, Sillars is S-I-L-L-A-R-S, and pretty much all my social is exactly that, same with my YouTube channel where I have a lot of videos related to creative entrepreneurs. I do share some of the tutorials related to this stuff on all my channels, and so that’s the best way to go about it, Rosh Sillars. Thank you.
Dane Golden:
Excellent. Thank you, Rosh Sillars. My name is Dane Golden with my co-host, she’s R-E-N-E-E T-E-E-L-E-Y, Renee Teeley.
Renee Teeley:
You misspelled my name.
Dane Golden:
She’s R-E-N-E-E something. And we want to thank you, the listener, for joining us today. Don’t we, Renee?
Renee Teeley:
Yes, absolutely. And today I want to leave you with a quote, as I once told my good friend, Joey Tribbiani, it’s a moo point. It’s like a cow’s opinion, it doesn’t matter, it’s moo. So pay attention to the things that actually do matter, and you’ll have a better chance of success.
Dane Golden:
How you doing? I want to thank you, and invite you to review us on Apple podcast. And if you can’t find that review button, click the share button instead. Renee and I do this podcast, and our various other YouTube videos and projects because we love helping marketers and business owners, just like you, do YouTube and video marketing better. Thanks to our special guest, Rosh Sillars.
Rosh Sillars:
Thank you so much.
Dane Golden:
Thank you. Until next week, here’s to helping you help your customers through video.