Tracking Video in the Gutenberg WordPress editor with GA4
Google analytics 4 supposedly tracks videos straight out of the box. I don't really use videos on my site, so have never really had the need to test this until I came across it on a client site.
So after digging around, you need to enable a parameter called enablejsapi. However, even when this was enabled, the only thing that was showing up in my GA4 was user_engagement.
After a lot of trial and error, I worked out I need to enable all the variables in Tag Manager. I have no idea why that would make a difference but it did.
In the Gutenberg editor is not as simple as just embedding the video. I just placed the Youtube embed iframe in a custom html block and add the parameter to the end.
enablejsapi=1
The code for the video above is
You can now view these events in your GA4.
| Measurement option / event | Triggered… | Parameters |
| Video engagement video_start video_progress video_complete | For embedded videos that have JS API support enabled, the following events are triggered:video_start when the video starts playingvideo_progress when the video progresses past 10%, 25%, 50%, and 75% duration timevideo_complete when the video ends | video_current_time, video_duration, video_percent, video_provider, video_title, video_url, visible (boolean) |
I would have thought this was something straightforward as its one of the enhanced measurement events Google was touting.
Ben Luong is a technical marketing consultant who operates where AI falls short. In a world flooded with cheap, mediocre code and automated strategies, he provides the expert integration, verification, and strategic accountability required to make modern marketing stacks profitable. He specialises in architecting Google Ads, SEO, and GA4 into a single, high-performance system that is accountable to the bottom line.