You collect leads using Leadpages from YouTube, but there’s no way to trace those leads to individual ads. Likewise, if they turn into customers, the originating ad remains unclear.
Without a tracking system, it’s tough to determine how well your YouTube ads perform or which ads generate valuable leads. This often leads to ineffective ad spending and missed opportunities.
Luckily, there’s an efficient way to trace each lead back to its originating YouTube campaign, ad group, and ad.
Let’s divide it into simple, actionable steps!
How to track YouTube Ads in Leadpages
Step 1: Add Leadsources in the head tag of your website
Leadsources is a simple tool for monitoring where your leads come from. Once added to your site, it collects up to 7 pieces of lead source information for every lead.
➡️ Sign up to Leadsources.io for free
➡️ Add the Leadsources tracking code to your site
Step 2: Add the UTM parameters to your YouTube Ads
Use UTM parameters in your YouTube ad URL to track the campaign, ad group, and ad. Here’s an example configuration:
UTM_source=youtubeUTM_campaign=campaign-nameUTM_term=ad-group-nameUTM_content=ad-name
Here’s an example of what the final URL should look like:
https://www.yourdomain.com?UTM_source=youtube&UTM_campaign=campaign-name&UTM_term=ad-group-name&UTM_content=ad-nameReminder: Leadsources gathers all lead source data automatically, offering full tracking capabilities even when UTM parameters aren’t in use.
Step 3: Add the hidden fields in Leadpages
In forms, hidden fields are invisible to the user, but they store data that is included when the form is submitted.
Leadsources automatically fills the hidden fields with YouTube ads data when someone submits your Leadpages. This means that the YouTube ads data is instantly saved in your Leadpages.
Step 4: Capture the YouTube Ads data in Leadpages
Upon clicking your ads and reaching your site, Leadsources pulls the YouTube campaign, ad group, ad data (and more).
The hidden fields in Leadpages are then populated with YouTube ads data by Leadsources, as shown in these examples.
After the form submission, you can find the YouTube ad data and lead details directly in Leadpages.
How does Leadsources work?
Whenever a visitor clicks on your site, Leadsources collects YouTube Ads data and places it in the hidden fields of your form. When the form is submitted, this data, along with lead details like name and email, is sent to Leadpages.
Leadsources monitors every piece of source data for each lead:
| Lead source data | Fetched automatically |
| Channel | ✅ |
| Source | ✅ |
| Campaign | ✅ OR use UTM_campaign for paid ads |
| Content | UTM_content parameter is required |
| Term | UTM_term parameter is required |
| Landing page | ✅ |
| Landing page subfolder | ✅ |
As shown in the table above, in cases where UTM parameters are not available—such as organic sources like Google search or referrals—Leadsources still captures lead source data:
- Channel
- Source
- Campaign
Content(UTM parameter required)Term(UTM parameter required)- Landing page
- Landing page subfolder
Unlike its competitors, Leadsources monitors lead sources across every type of marketing channel, including both organic and paid.
Click a channel to examine the lead source data that Leadsources places within your form.
Performance reports: Lead, sales, and revenue by source
By recording YouTube Ads data in Leadpages, you can generate valuable performance reports like:
- Leads, sales, and revenue by channel
- Leads, sales, and revenue by source
- Leads, sales, and revenue by campaign (aka. YouTube campaign)
- Leads, sales, and revenue by term (aka. YouTube ad group)
- Leads, sales, and revenue by content (aka. YouTube ad)
This makes it possible to optimize your YouTube budget for campaigns, ad groups, and ads that bring in the highest leads, sales, and revenue.
Let’s examine some of the reports you have the ability to generate!
1. Lead source reports
Build performance reports that capture the number of leads generated by:
- Channel
- Source
- Campaign (aka. YouTube campaign)
- Term (aka. YouTube ad group)
- Content (aka. YouTube ad)
- Landing page
- Landing page subfolder
Example #1: Leads by channel
With this report, you can track which channel generates the most leads.
Example #2: Leads by YouTube campaign
Now, you can narrow your focus to a specific lead source (e.g., YouTube) and track how many leads each YouTube campaign generates.
Example #3: Leads by YouTube ad
Once you’ve identified which YouTube campaign drives the most leads, you can analyze the specific ad group or ad responsible for that success.
2. Sales and revenue source reports
Once we identify the YouTube campaign, ad group, and ad that generate leads, we need to analyze whether these leads are transforming into sales and increasing revenue.
By sending your leads to a CRM like GoHighLevel, you can track sales and revenue across a variety of channels, YouTube campaigns, ad groups, landing pages, and subfolders.
By using this data, you can adjust your YouTube ad approach to target the channels, sources, campaigns, ad groups, and ads that generate the most sales and revenue.
It’s easy to create a range of sales and revenue reports, like:
- Sales and revenue by channel
- Sales and revenue by source
- Sales and revenue by campaign (aka. YouTube campaign)
- Sales and revenue by term (aka. YouTube ad group)
- Sales and revenue by content (aka. YouTube ad)
- Sales and revenue by landing page
- Sales and revenue by landing page subfolder
Example Scenario:
| Channel | Search Paid | Social Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Leads | 50 | 75 |
| Sales | 5 | 6 |
| Average Order Value | $150 | $100 |
| Revenue | $750 | $600 |
After launching ads on both Google (Search Paid) and YouTube (Social Paid), the first “Leads by Channel” report indicated that Social Paid (YouTube) ads produced more leads than Search Paid ads.
After analyzing the sales and revenue data in your CRM, you realized that the Search Paid channel produced higher revenue with fewer leads than Social Paid ads. With this understanding, you adjusted your budget to give more resources to Search Paid.