Google Analytics provides a number of powerful features that allows you to get a good understanding of the user journey across all of your digital properties. The Datazoom Google Analytics Connector helps fill in the blanks when it comes to video consumed on your digital properties.

This document assumes you have a Google Analytics account and have deployed the requisite Global Site Tag (gtag.js) as per Google's instructions.

Datazoom → Google Analytics

Datazoom passes collected FluxData and Metadata data points to Google Analytics via custom mappings that you will need to configure in your account to enhance the data collected. Event data points get passed automatically. In addition, if you don't already have this configured, you'll need to enable the User-ID feature in order to align user sessions with player sessions.

User-ID

You'll need Administrative rights to enable the User-ID feature of Google Analytics.

The following screens are displayed when clicking on User-ID:

Please review the User-ID policy then enable if you agree. Click "Next step"

Scroll to the bottom of the page then click "Next step"

Click "Create"

Give the reporting view a name. It's good practice to include the term "User ID" in the name to help you remember that this is a special User-ID view.

Set the location and time zone.

Enable "Show User-Id Reports"

Scroll down and click "Create View"

Custom Dimensions and Custom Metrics:

You'll need Administrative rights to setup your Custom Dimensions and Custom Metrics.

The following screens are displayed when clicking on Custom Dimensions or Custom Metrics.

Example Custom Dimensions:

Example Custom Metrics:

Setting up Custom Dimensions:

Navigate to the Custom Dimensions screen. When you click the + New Custom Dimension button you will see the following item:

Refer to the Data Dictionary of all available data points that Datazoom captures.  Pay attention to the Type column and scroll to the Metadata section. These are the Metadata types that you can add as Custom Dimensions. Once you locate the one you want, look at the value in the JSON Key Name column. That will be the value you enter in the Name field in Google Analytics. Set the Scope to Hit and click Create.  Take note of the Index number of the newly created Dimension as that will be needed when you create your Collector.

In order to use Google Data Studio to create metrics, Datazoom requires that you include the following items as Custom Dimensions. 

configuration_id
session_id
sessionViewId

IMPORTANT: Not all video players expose all data points. If there are any questions about your specific video player, find your video player on the list of Supported Data Points and confirm data point availability.

Setting up Custom Metrics:

Navigate to the Custom Metrics screen. When you click the + New Custom Metric button you will see the following item:

Refer to the Data Dictionary of available all data points that Datazoom captures.  Pay attention to the Type column and scroll to the FluxData section. These are the FluxData types that you can add as Custom Metrics. Once you locate the one you want, look at the value in the JSON Key Name column. That will be the value you enter in the Name field in Google Analytics. Set the Scope to Hit, the Formatting Type to Integer and click Create.  Take note of the Index number of the newly created Metric as that will be needed when you create your Collector.

In order to use Google Data Studio to create metrics, Datazoom requires that you include the following items as Custom Metrics.

timeSinceLastFluxData
timeSinceRequested
timestamp
totalPlayTime

IMPORTANT: Not all video players expose all data points. If there are any questions about your specific video player, find your video player on the list of Supported Data Points and confirm data point availability.

Now that you have configured your custom dimensions and metrics in Google Analytics, you need to let Datazoom know where to put each of the data points you want to receive. Read on...

Building the Custom Dimension - Metric Index Mapping:

Using the both Custom Dimension names and Custom Metrics names along with their related Index values, you'll need to setup a text file that follows the formatting illustrated below where "Custom_Dimension/Metric_Name" is the name that you copied from the Datazoom Dictionary, and "1" is the Index number assigned to that Name within Google Analytics.

{"dimensions":{"Custom_Dimension_Name_1":"1","Custom_Dimension_Name_2":"2","Custom_Dimension_Name 3":"3"},"metrics":{"Custom_Metric_Name_1":"1","Custom_Metric_Name_2":"2","Custom_Metric_Name_3":"3"}}

Creating the Connector:

If you are not familiar with the process to add a Connector, follow the directions here on How to Add a Connector.

Select the Google Analytics integration from the Connector setup screen. Be sure to have your Google Analytics Tracking Id and the Custom Configuration created above handy.

Enter your Tracking ID and copy/paste the Custom Dimension - Metric Index Mapping from the text file as created above, then Save Changes

Once complete you can add Google Analytics to a Data Pipe as covered in the How to Configure a Data Pipe document.

Please do select the User Agent data point when configuring your Data Pipe. This will ensure your data is attributed to the correct browser in Google Analytics.

Here are data points that you do not need to select when you configure your Data Pipe. These will be sent automatically as part of your Google Analytics tracking code as configured on the pages hosting your web player.

City
Region (State)
Country
Browser
Browser Version
Device Type
OS
OS Version

Client ID

In some cases you may want to attribute the events and data points that Datazoom collects with a specific user.  In order to do so you will need to include a custom metadata item on your page or app. Please review our Sending Custom Events and Custom Metadata doc at the section titled "Custom Metadata Reserved Names" for more info.