How to monitor video clicks in Google Analytics with AJAX content

Other Questions Google Analytics
1

I’m working on a website where videos load dynamically through AJAX calls from a CDN. The video links are structured like this:

<a class="video-trigger" href="/?clip=" + clipData.id + "" onclick="loadClip(" + clipData.id + ", '" + category + "'); return false;"><img src="" + thumbnail + "" width="120" height="80" alt="" /></a>

The problem is that Google Analytics isn’t capturing these clicks because the onclick event loads content through JavaScript instead of navigating to an actual page. The Flash player displays the video without any page refresh.

How can I track these video interactions without redirecting users to separate pages? I’m thinking about adding something to the onclick handler like this:

function monitorClip() {
    linkPath = $(this).attr("href");
    var analytics = _gat._getTracker("UA-12345-67");
    analytics._trackPageview(linkPath);
}

Then modify the anchor tag: onclick="monitorClip();"

Is this the right approach for tracking video engagement? I’m not very experienced with Analytics implementation, so any guidance would be helpful.

2

Events beat pageviews here, but you’ll still hit timing issues and data gaps with manual tracking.

I’ve fought these video tracking battles before. The real headache isn’t just catching clicks - you need play, pause, completion rates, drop-offs, and everything synced up right.

Automated event tracking through Latenode saved my ass. Build workflows that catch video interactions, format the data automatically, and send it to Analytics with proper categories and parameters.

Best part? Same data flows to other tools at once - CRM, email platform, custom dashboards, whatever. Built-in error handling means you won’t lose data when stuff breaks.

I built one workflow tracking video engagement across multiple sites that auto-segments users by viewing behavior. 10 minutes to set up, then it runs itself.

3

your approach looks solid, but Id use gtag events instead of trackPageview for video stuff. try gtag(‘event’, ‘video_play’, {‘video_id’: clipData.id}); - youll get cleaner data since pageviews can screw up your actual page metrics.

4

Been dealing with video tracking setups for years and that onclick approach will work, but you’re overcomplicating it.

Don’t create custom trackers inside your function. If GA’s already loaded, just use the global gtag or ga object:

function monitorClip(clipId, category) {
    gtag('event', 'video_click', {
        'custom_parameter_1': clipId,
        'custom_parameter_2': category
    });
    loadClip(clipId, category);
}

I’ve seen people reinitialize trackers and it causes duplicate data or missed events. One thing that burned me - make sure your tracking fires before loadClip runs, especially if loadClip does heavy DOM manipulation.

For video engagement tracking, this tutorial covers motion tracking but the event handling concepts work perfectly for click tracking:

Also consider adding a small delay if your AJAX calls are fast. Sometimes GA needs a few milliseconds to register the event before page content changes dramatically.