Video Tracking COVE using Google Analytics Incubators: Libby Peterek, KLRU Rich Baniewicz, WHYY Erika Kachama Nkoy, Marcus Steed, David Dickinson,

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1 Video Tracking COVE using Google Analytics Incubators: Libby Peterek, KLRU Rich Baniewicz, WHYY Erika Kachama Nkoy, Marcus Steed, David Dickinson, Wisconsin Public Television Max Duke, PBS Interactive Presented by the Incubation Lab March 2011

2 CONTENTS Summary and Introduction 3 Incubator Comments 4 Installation Instructions 5 Reported Metrics Information 6, 7 Quickly access useful COVE video metrics 8, 9 Combining COVE video and page view metrics 10 More Resources 11

3 Summary and Introduction It is possible to track various video usage behavior of users in your portal using event tracking features in Google Analytics that are supported in the COVE video playback environment. COVE supports various tracked events including type of player, duration viewed, overlay menu interactions and sharing behaviors. In a comparative analysis of video usage statistics through Google Analytics event tracking versus specific video tracking services, Google Analytics was shown to be an accurate reporting tool for video events in COVE, with only a slight deviation. Advantages/Disadvantages: + Local video usage behavior for all COVE video products (all portals and players), including referrals from other PBS station portals + Impressive set of dashboard tools + Valuable usage statistics such as most popular videos, sharing and player products used + Track video usage by Program and Episode Title + Free, easy setup Complex playback duration statistics Cannot track national content usage for your station portal Small margin of reporting error This feature was created for COVE by PBS Interactive, the documentation, best practices and video tutorials were created through collaboration KLRU, WHYY and Wisconsin Public Television.

4 Incubator Comments Comments from the early adopting incubator stations that helped test and document this new feature. From David Dickinson, Wisconsin Public Television: Having access to these numbers is great. The documentation on how to look at the numbers (choose either [Media]Load or [Media]Start, why [Media]Complete doesn t capture folks who watched 99%, etc.) will be really important for stations to understand moving forward. From Rich Baniewicz, WHYY: It is critical to have this functionality. Since we use COVE in a variety of ways portal site, partner player, embedded player are all used having data related to these instances will help inform our tactics. Frankly, just being able to id the video asset by title and not by id number as in the main GA account is worth it. Trying to wrestle the page view numbers from our main GA account and the numbers spit out by theplatform was an issue. Set up was a breeze, and it is important to read and understand documentation as mentioned by David. We are also very excited to have access to share metrics. We're planning to use this data as we flesh out a larger "impact of our social media efforts" report. From Libby Peterek, KLRU: I cannot sing the praises of the new analytics enough. So much more info! We can see when, where, and how our traffic spikes are occurring and use that info to support cross departmental collaboration. COVE had proved invaluable throughout its iterations. First, it gave us a systemwide CMS for uploading and viewing our local content along side national programs. Now, it continues to serve its original purpose, while the analytics we re collecting are helping inform our promotion and production decisions.

5 Installation Instructions What you will need: COVE Pro account (with local content added to your portal) COVE Admin Tool access Program Page(s) created in COVE Google Analytics account How to setup Google Analytics and COVE for Video Tracking: You will need to set up a new profile in Google Analytics to create a new tracker code. This will keep your event tracking for video separate from other tracking activity enabled through your Google Analytics account. Click here to watch WHYY s video setup tutorial Note: It will take 24 hours before you begin to see tracking information reported. Step 1 Create a new Google Analytics report/tracker code A. Login to your Google Analytics account and navigate to the account that you use for your portal. B. Click on + Add new profile link in the grey header area C. Select the radio button for Add a Profile for new domain (if not already selected) D. Enter your video portal address in the empty field Example: video.station.org and click Finish E. On the next page, you will see a new Web Property ID (tracker code) has been created. Copy or record this ID for Step 2. Step 2 Add your new Google Analytics tracker code to COVE Admin Tool A. Login to your COVE Admin tool at B. Click the Edit/Manage button for Program Page under the Programs menu C. Select the page for the program you want to track videos for, and click Next D. Scroll to the bottom of the page and type/paste your new Google Analytics tracker code in the Google Analytics video tracker code field. Note: This is the only Google Analytics field in the COVE Admin that will allow you to track video behavior. All other Google Analytics fields are used to track page usage behavior. E. Click Submit and then click Done F. Repeat Steps 2.B 2.E with the same Google Analytics tracker code for any other programs for which you would like video usage reporting.

6 Reported Metrics Information The follow COVE usage events are tracked by Google Analytics. Usage statistics will be displayed only if the event is triggered by a user. What video product was used to watch my video? (Player ID) Categories: Video Portal (video.station.org) Video Partner Player (embedded content full length, local; from Admin Tool) Video Viral Player (embedded video content 20 min. limit, any; from Portal/Partner Player) Actions: MediaLoad When a video loads MediaStart When a video starts playing MediaComplete When a playback reaches the end of the video Label: Program Title Episode Title (e.g. "NOVA The Pluto Files") Example: The Video Portal category has 5,100 MediaLoads, 5,000 MediaStarts and 1,000 MediaCompletes. This means that the video was loaded 5,100 times, but the video actually started playing 5,000 times (not including pre roll messaging). The video reached the absolute end point 1,000 times. Tip: When reporting usage metrics, do not add MediaLoad and MediaStart, as this will create duplicative information. MediaComplete only count MediaStarts that watched the complete video, including credits, post video branding, etc. Are people using the overlay menu on the video player? Category: MenuView Actions: Share Menu Embed Menu Menu Buy Menu Details Menu Label: Program Title Episode Title (e.g. "NOVA The Pluto Files") Example: If Share Menu has 100 events and Menu has 50 events, this means that the Share button in the overlay menu was clicked on 100 times and the button was clicked on 50 times.

7 How are people sharing my content? Category: Share Action: Particular Share Method Embed copied Copying of the video embed code through overlay menu (if available) Post Various options under Share overlay menu (e.g. Facebook, Google, Digg, etc.) sent Sharing the video via option in the overlay menu Label: Program Title Episode Title Chapter Title (e.g. "NOVA The Pluto Files Chapter 1") Example: Facebook Post has 100 events, Embed Copied has 90 events, and sent has 50 events. This means the video was shared with Facebook 100 times; the embed code for the video (viral player) was copied 90 times and an was sent with the video URL (through the overlay menu) 50 times. How long is my video being watched for? Category: Duration Viewed Action: Program Title Episode Title (e.g. "NOVA The Pluto Files") Label: Histogram Bucket: "Less than 5 seconds"; "5 seconds 1 min"; "1 min 5 min"; "5 min 10 min"; "10 min 15 min"; "15 min 20 min"; "20 min 25 min"; "25 min 30 min"; "30 min 45 min"; "45 min 60 min"; "More than 60 min"; Value: Number of seconds viewed (integer) Note: Tracking in Google Analytics Duration based events is a complex process. The duration viewed metrics should be used as way to identify viewing trends rather than exact duration numbers.

8 Quickly access useful COVE video metrics in Google Analytics By David Dickinson, Wisconsin Public Television & Dan Haggerty, PBS Producers Products & Services Google Analytics allows you to customize the information presented on your dashboard. Individual stations should decide what's most important to them to have in their dashboard. Below are a few suggestions, but there are many dashboard options. First, remove any modules from your dashboard (like Content Overview) that won't generate data or display information you care about. Tip: The dashboard can also be scheduled to be ed as a regular report. How to see Video Views for your COVE content. 1. Log into your Google Analytics account. 2. Select your COVE Event Tracking report in the walkthrough video, this is named at the 3:00 mark and will be unique to your station. 3. You will be brought to your Event Tracking dashboard. Note: the main graph that you see on this page does not represent your video metrics. 4. Select Content from the left hand navigation. That section will expand. 5. Select Event Tracking from the expanded left hand navigation. 6. Select Actions from the left hand navigation. 7. Under the Event Action column select MediaStart 8. This opens up a page that will show you all of your videos that have had been played within the selected window of time. a. At the top of the report you ll see the Total Events and Unique Events for the window of time you ve selected. This is the total number of video views and total number of unique video views (respectively) that all of your content in COVE has gotten, across all video players. b. The first column ( Event Label ) has the title of the video. c. Another column gives you the total number of events. This is the number of times your video has been played. d. There is also a Unique Events column. This represents the unique number of plays for a video. For example, if one user starts the same video 5 times in a single session, the total number of MediaStart events associated with that video is 5, and the number of unique MediaStart events is If you want to add this report to your Event Tracking dashboard, click the Add to Dashboard button at the top of the report. 10. You can also add the line chart to your Dashboard by clicking the Details button in the Views section of the page. Then click the Add to Dashboard button.

9 a. Adding the line chart to your Dashboard is helpful because it helps you to see spikes in your traffic and it shows you your total number of Video Views. 11. To see the reports on your dashboard click the Dashboard link in the left hand navigation. You should see the reports in two of the modules on this page. Both will have title Event Tracking Action: MediaStart. Note: Dashboard customization is based on login. Each user with access to GA customizes their individual dashboard. 12. To get back to a report from any dashboard module all you have to do is click view report at the bottom of the module. How to see Video Views by Player type 1. Log into your Google Analytics account. 2. Select your COVE Event Tracking report in the walkthrough video, this is named at the 3:00 mark and will be unique to your station. 3. Select Content from the left hand navigation. That section will expand. 4. Select Event Tracking from the expanded left hand navigation 5. Select Actions from the left hand navigation. 6. Under the Event Action column (in the main report area) select MediaStart 7. Right below the Graph area, and above the events table, is a section called Detail Level, select the Event Category option 8. The table will display all the different COVE powered players your video is playing in and the number of views each player has gotten. 9. If you want to add this report to your Event Tracking dashboard, click the Add to Dashboard button at the top of the report. 10. To see the reports on your dashboard click the Dashboard link in the left hand navigation. You should see the reports in two of the modules on this page. Both will have title Event Tracking Action: MediaStart. Note: Dashboard customization is based on login. Each user with access to GA customizes their individual dashboard. 11. To get back to a report from any dashboard module all you have to do is click view report at the bottom of the module. Here are a few of the reports stations could add to the dashboard using steps similar to those detailed above: Sources driving the most popular video content Most popular viral player videos Most popular videos watched between 5 10 minutes (for trending purposes)

10 Combining COVE video and page view metrics By Libby Peterek, KLRU COVE page view metrics can be a beast due to the numbered URLs that surface in Google Analytics reports. Unfortunately, that portion of analytics report generation is unchanged... for now. But, used in conjunction with the video metrics, we can get a much more comprehensive look at how our viewers are absorbing our content. In our experience thus far, there have been two main scenarios for pulling both sets of metrics. The first occurs when we see a spike in our video views, the second, when we have to pull numbers for underwriters for a particular show. In both cases we narrow our date range to include the day(s) of the spike or the time period the underwriter is requesting on both our page view analytics AND our video analytics, then... Video metrics: 1. Login to your video analytics account, select Content > Event Tracking > Overview, and select view all below Duration Viewed from the main content area. This will give you a better view of what people are watching and give you a general idea for how long (presented in seconds, so divide by 60). a. To narrow your results based on program, enter your program name (i.e., daytripper ) in the search box at the bottom of the page labeled Filter Event Action: It s possible to get much more granular with your view sorting, but this is a good start. 2. To see just where people are watching your video, go back to the left nav and select Traffic Sources > Referring Sites. This is where tracing the catalyst for the spike can get really interesting, especially if your date range is very small. From this information, strategic decisions can be made about how to reach your viewers for pledge and beta testing or where you might expand a local program to a new market. Page view metrics: 1. After logging into your Google Analytics COVE page view account, and choosing your timeframe, select Content > Content by Title from the left navigation. Then search for the title of your show in the search box at the bottom of the page. 2. To view traffic sources, follow the same steps as for your video metrics. If you are feeding your COVE videos into Merlin, this is the best way to track your PBS referrals, as opposed to using the video metrics report... We re still in the early stages of collecting and managing these analytics. I look forward to hearing about innovations in video metrics collecting from the rest of the system.

11 More Resources Below are more related resources COVE Resource Center (requires SRC login) Overviews, FAQs, Video Tutorials Google Analytics Official Site Official Google Analytics Blog Google Analytics YouTube Tutorials KLRU WHYY Wisconsin Public Television Station Products & Innovation lab.html (Incubation Lab) PBS