In addition to using our Analytics dashboard, you can connect a playout to your Google Analytics 4 account to fully integrate your video analytics with your overall web traffic analysis.
1.0 | Connect to Google Analytics 4
To connect a Google Analytics 4 account to a playout:
- Select a playout.
- Navigate to the Miscellaneous tab and scroll down to Google analytics.
The Google Analytics 4 settings may not be available by default. Please contact your account manager or support@bluebillywig.com to access these settings.
- Enable Google Analytics 4 logging by supplying a Google Tag ID (format:
G-XXXXXXXXXX) (read more on finding your Google Tag ID).
The player automatically enables IP anonymisation and respects the playout’s cookie settings. If cookies are disabled in the playout, GA4 tracking is also disabled. Read more about player cookies.
2.0 | Event Logging
For each event, the following details are logged in Google Analytics 4.
2.1 | Event Categories
- Video
- Audio
2.2 | Event Actions
The following events are logged for media clips:
- Init: fired when the player loads a clip (non-interaction event; does not affect bounce rate)
- Session_Start: fired at the start of a new player session
- Play: playback started
- Finish: playback finished
- Replay: the same clip is played again
- Progress_[percentage]: progress milestone reached (see section 3.0)
For interactive projects, the following additional events are logged:
- Project_Init: project loaded
- Project_Start: project playback started
- Project_Finish: project playback finished
2.3 | Event Labels
- For media clips:
{clip_id} - {clip_title} - For interactive projects:
{project_id} - {project_title}
2.4 | Custom Dimensions
For each event, five custom dimensions are logged:
| Dimension | Parameter name | Value |
|---|---|---|
| dimension1 | clip_id | Clip ID |
| dimension2 | clip_title | Clip title |
| dimension3 | clip_duration | Clip duration in milliseconds |
| dimension4 | clip_source_type | Clip source type |
| dimension5 | clip_creation_date | Clip creation date |
Custom dimensions must be registered in the GA4 Admin interface before they appear in your reports. See Google’s documentation on custom dimensions for setup instructions.
2.5 | Additional Custom Dimensions
In addition to the five built-in dimensions, it is possible to log additional clip metadata fields as custom dimensions. Contact your account manager or support@bluebillywig.com to have this configured for your playout.
When configured, extra fields are mapped to dimension6 and above (up to a maximum of 15 additional fields). The parameter name in GA4 is derived from the clip metadata field name: spaces and hyphens are converted to underscores, and any other non-alphanumeric characters are removed.
Example:
If the fields content_type and author are configured, they will be logged as:
| Dimension | Parameter name | Value |
|---|---|---|
| dimension6 | content_type | Value from the clip’s content_type field |
| dimension7 | author | Value from the clip’s author field |
3.0 | Quartile Progress Logging
By default, the player logs viewer progress at every 10%.
Example:
A viewer watches a 1-minute video and closes the browser at the 0:45 mark. The player logs progress events at 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, and 70%.
It is also possible to enable quartile progress logging, in which case the player logs viewer progress at every 25%.
Example:
A viewer watches a 1-minute video and closes the browser at the 0:45 mark. The player logs progress events at 25% and 50%.
Quartile progress logging requires a small change to your embed code. When embedding a media clip, project, or playlist, add the following query string to the src attribute:
?logProgressAsQuartiles=trueExample embed code (default):
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://yourcompanyname.bbvms.com/p/default/c/1234567.js" async="true"></script>With quartile progress logging enabled:
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://yourcompanyname.bbvms.com/p/default/c/1234567.js?logProgressAsQuartiles=true" async="true"></script>The same applies when embedding a playlist or project.