You obtain leads via Paperform for YouTube campaigns, yet they cannot be linked to specific ads. Similarly, when a lead converts into a customer, the specific ad’s impact remains unknown.
The absence of a tracking mechanism makes evaluating YouTube ad performance and identifying productive ads a challenge. As a result, ad spend could be allocated inefficiently.
Luckily, there’s a reliable method to track each lead to the exact YouTube campaign, ad group, and ad that produced it.
Let’s break it down step by step to make it clearer!
How to track YouTube Ads in Paperform
Step 1: Add Leadsources in the head tag of your website
Leadsources is a simple tool for understanding lead sources. Once integrated, it tracks up to 7 key details about where each lead comes from.
➡️ 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 URL to track YouTube ad data, including the campaign, ad group, and ad. Here’s an example you can follow:
UTM_source=youtubeUTM_campaign=campaign-nameUTM_term=ad-group-nameUTM_content=ad-name
The completed URL will be formatted like this:
https://www.yourdomain.com?UTM_source=youtube&UTM_campaign=campaign-name&UTM_term=ad-group-name&UTM_content=ad-nameNote: With Leadsources, all lead source data is tracked automatically, so even if UTM parameters aren’t included, no data is lost.
Step 3: Add the hidden fields in Paperform
A hidden field is a type of form field that is not displayed to the user, but stores data submitted with the form.
Once your Paperform is submitted, Leadsources automatically places YouTube ads data into the hidden fields. This allows the YouTube ads data to be saved directly within your Paperform submission.
Step 4: Capture the YouTube Ads data in Paperform
When a user clicks your ads and lands on your website, Leadsources gathers the YouTube campaign, ad group, ad data (and more).
Leadsources populates the YouTube ads data in Paperform’s hidden fields, as shown in these examples.
After submitting the form, you can directly view both the YouTube ad data and lead details in Paperform.
How does Leadsources work?
Whenever a visitor accesses your site, Leadsources fetches YouTube Ads data and places it into the hidden fields of your form. When the form is submitted, this data and the lead details, such as name and email, are sent to Paperform.
Each lead’s source data is automatically tracked by Leadsources:
| 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 the table above illustrates, when UTM parameters are unavailable—such as with organic sources like Google search or referrals—Leadsources continues to gather some lead source data:
- Channel
- Source
- Campaign
Content(UTM parameter required)Term(UTM parameter required)- Landing page
- Landing page subfolder
What makes Leadsources stand out is its ability to track lead sources from all marketing channels, both organic and paid.
Choose a channel to reveal the lead source data that Leadsources inserts into your form.
Performance reports: Lead, sales, and revenue by source
By tracking YouTube Ads data via Paperform, you can generate performance insights such as:
- 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 gives you the flexibility to adjust your YouTube budget based on which campaigns, ad groups, and ads bring the greatest return in leads, sales, and revenue.
Let’s look at the different reports you can generate!
1. Lead source reports
Create detailed performance reports showing 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
This report provides insights into which channel is generating the most leads.
Example #2: Leads by YouTube campaign
You can focus on a specific lead source (e.g., YouTube) and track the lead generation for each campaign.
Example #3: Leads by YouTube ad
After recognizing the YouTube campaign that generates the most leads, you can assess which ad group or ad is driving the best results.
2. Sales and revenue source reports
Now that we have identified the YouTube campaign, ad group, and ad driving leads, we need to evaluate if these leads are translating into sales and revenue.
To measure sales and revenue, transfer your leads into a CRM like GoHighLevel. It will help you track data from multiple sources, including YouTube campaigns, ad groups, landing pages, and their subfolders.
With these insights, you can optimize your YouTube ad strategy, giving priority to the channels, sources, campaigns, ad groups, and ads that produce the most sales and revenue.
Various sales and revenue reports can be created, such as:
- 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 placing ads on Google (Search Paid) and YouTube (Social Paid), the initial “Leads by Channel” report indicated that YouTube (Social Paid) ads generated more leads than Google Search ads.
When you analyzed sales and revenue data in your CRM, you realized that the Search Paid channel generated higher revenue from fewer leads than Social Paid. With this insight, you allocated more of your budget to Search Paid.