Google Analytics Will No Longer Collect New Data From YouTube Channels

After deprecating the link between the two services, Google Analytics has stopped collecting new data from YouTube channels on 1st February 2021.

It will no longer gather data from YouTube channels. Users can still access their historical data, but no new data will be tracked.

The ability to link YouTube channels to Google Analytics was removed last year, in November itself. However, users who had established a link between their YouTube channel and Google Analytics could see the new data up until 1st February 2021.

Surprisingly Google has made no efforts to convey this change to the users. In fact, we would have entirely missed out on these changes if it weren’t for a notification at the top of the YouTube Help page.

However, Google’s lack of efforts to announce these changes could also be an indication that most creators did not utilize the link between YouTube channel pages and Google Analytics.

YouTube creators always had the option to access a more comprehensive set of analytics data in YouTube Studio. Therefore, creators had little to no motivation to link their YouTube channel to Google Analytics unless it was already part of their workflow.

So basically, connecting YouTube channel to Google Analytics has always been more of an option and less of a necessity that was offered to the creators out of convenience just in case they were using GA to track other analytics data already.

Nevertheless, it looks like now YouTube Analytics is the single best source for creators to access up-to-date analytics data.

Marketers and creators who relied on Google Analytics completely earlier will now have to familiarize themselves with this new tool. And if this happens to be the case with you, you can continue reading the next section for a brief overview of YouTube Analytics.

A Brief Summary of YouTube Analytics

You can use YouTube Analytics to track the performance of your channel and videos using up-to-date reports and metrics.

The platform automatically collects the data on all channels and videos, unlike Google Analytics, where the website owners have to install a tracking code.

Users can access this data in YouTube Analytics by signing in to YouTube Studio and then clicking on the Analytics option from the navigation menu present on their screen’s left side.

You will see multiple tabs in this section. Besides the overview tab, all the other tabs are customized to help the users view data that is relevant to their goals.

Here is everything you should know the various tabs and the data they provide:

• Overview: This tab displays key metrics for your YouTube channel, including subscribers, viewers, and watch time. You will find four reports in this tab – top videos, latest videos, realtime activity, and typical performance.
• Reach: This tab displays the overall reach of your content, which is represented by the total number of impressions and clicks. Here you can discover reports for impressions, top YouTube search terms, traffic source types, and top external sources.
• Engagement: This tab displays what your audience is watching through total watch minutes. You will also see reports for top videos and playlists and top cards and end screens within this tab.
• Audience: This tab displays who is watching your videos through the number of unique viewers, average number of videos watched per viewer, and subscriber growth or decline. You can explore reports on demographics, audience location, other channels and videos your audience watched, when your viewers are on the platform, etc.
• Revenue: This tab displays the total earnings of your channel on YouTube. Therefore it is only available to creators in the YouTube Partner Program. If you fall into this category, you will also see reports for monthly estimated revenue, revenue sources, ad types, transaction revenue, and top-earning videos.

Wrapping It Up

Google Analytics will not be collecting new data from YouTube channels anymore. Creators were able to see the up-to-date data until the beginning of the month, but now it has stopped fetching new data. While this was always an additional option offered to creators, YouTube Analytics has always provided more detailed insights into the performance of your channel and videos. If you have never tried your hands on YouTube Analytics before, it is time to familiarize yourself with this new tool.