Leads that come from YouTube enter Zendesk Sell, but there's no way to track them to individual YouTube ads. Even after a lead converts to a customer, connecting them back to their YouTube ad remains impossible.
Not being able to track YouTube ads results in limiting your ability to evaluate their success, so you can’t tell which ads are bringing in leads and customers. As a result, you continue investing in ads without understanding their effect.
Fortunately, you can easily trace each lead back to the precise YouTube campaign, ad group, and ad that produced it.
Let's walk through it slowly, step by step!
How to Track YouTube Ads in Zendesk Sell
Step 1: Add Leadsources in the head tag of your website
Leadsources is a tool that easily tracks where your leads are from. Add it to your site, and it gathers up to 7 data points on each 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
To track YouTube ad data, add UTM parameters to your ad URL to capture campaign, ad group, and specific ad info. You can try using this format:
UTM_source=YouTubeUTM_campaign=campaign-nameUTM_term=ad-group-nameUTM_content=ad-name
The URL in the end should look like this:
https://www.yourdomain.com/?&UTM_source=youtube&UTM_campaign=campaign-name&UTM_term=ad-group-name&UTM_content=ad-nameNote: Even without UTM parameters, Leadsources tracks lead sources in detail for complete lead tracking.
Step 3: Add the hidden fields in your form
In forms, hidden fields store data that users cannot see but are sent along with the rest of the form's information.
Leadsources saves lead source data within these hidden fields. As soon as the lead submits the form, the fields are automatically populated with YouTube Ads information.
Step 4: Capture the YouTube Ads data in Zendesk Sell
Leadsources fetches the YouTube campaign, ad group, and ad data, as well as more details, when users click your ads and land on your site.
Leadsources places the YouTube ad data directly into the hidden fields of your form.
When the form is submitted, the YouTube ad data along with lead details will be shown in Zendesk Sell (a form connection to Zendesk Sell is required).
How does Leadsources work?
When someone lands on your website, Leadsources fetches YouTube ad data and populates it into the hidden fields of the form. Once submitted, this data and lead information like name and email are transferred to Zendesk Sell.
The source data for each lead is thoroughly tracked by Leadsources:
| Lead source data | Fetched automatically |
| Channel | ✅ |
| Source | ✅ |
| Campaign | ✅ OR use UTM_campaign |
| Content | UTM_content parameter is required |
| Term | UTM_term parameter is required |
| Landing page | ✅ |
| Landing page subfolder | ✅ |
As the table above explains, when UTM parameters aren't applicable—such as with organic sources like Google search or when your website appears in an article—Leadsources still tracks the following lead source data:
- Channel
- Source
- Campaign
- Landing page
- Landing page subfolder
Unlike other tracking systems, Leadsources tracks lead sources across all channels, whether paid or organic.
Choose a channel to see what lead source data is included in your form by Leadsources.
Performance reports: Lead, sales, and revenue by source
When you track YouTube Ads data in Zendesk Sell, you can create performance reports that look at:
- 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 enables you to make better decisions for your YouTube Ads budget by concentrating on the campaigns, ad groups, and ads that result in the most leads, sales, and revenue.
Here are some reports that can help you track your performance!
1. Lead source reports
Create reports that quantify the 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 reveals which channel is delivering the most leads.
Example #2: Leads by YouTube campaign
Now, you can track leads for a specific lead source (e.g., YouTube) and monitor the effectiveness of each YouTube campaign.
Example #3: Leads by YouTube ad
After discovering which YouTube campaign produces the highest number of leads, you can analyze the ad group or ad that’s generating them.
2. Sales and revenue source reports
After identifying the YouTube campaign, ad group, and ad that generate leads, our next step is to determine whether these leads lead to sales and revenue.
To monitor sales and revenue effectively, connect your leads to a CRM like Zendesk Sell. This allows you to track how different channels, sources, YouTube campaigns, ad groups, ads, landing pages, and subfolders contribute.
With this data, you can refine your YouTube Ads strategy to focus on the most effective channels, sources, campaigns, ad groups, and ads for maximizing sales and revenue.
There are several sales and revenue reports you can create, such as:
- Sales and revenue by channel
- Sales and revenue by source
- Sales and revenue by campaign
- Sales and revenue by term (e.g., YouTube ad group)
- Sales and revenue by content (e.g., 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 |
Once the ads launched on YouTube and Google, the first "Leads by Channel" report showed that YouTube's Social Paid ads led to more leads than Google’s Search Paid ads.
When analyzing the sales and revenue data in Zendesk Sell, you found that the Search Paid channel generated more revenue with fewer leads than the Social Paid channel. You then adjusted your budget, shifting resources towards the Search Paid channel.
