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Integrations

YouTube Analytics Integration

Connect your YouTube channel to automatically track livestream views, concurrent viewers, and online engagement in your Vitals dashboard.

YouTube Analytics

Track online viewers alongside in-person attendance

What Gets Synced

Live Stream Views

Viewers during your Sunday service livestream

  • Peak concurrent viewers
  • Total unique viewers
  • Average view duration
  • Live chat engagement

Video Performance

Metrics across your uploaded videos

  • Views per video
  • Total watch time
  • Subscriber changes
  • Impressions and click-through rate

Engagement

How your audience interacts with content

  • Likes and reactions
  • Comments on church content
  • Shares and saves
  • Returning vs. new viewers

How to Connect

  1. 1

    Go to Settings → Integrations → YouTube

    From your Vitals dashboard, navigate to the integrations page and find the YouTube card.

  2. 2

    Click "Connect YouTube Channel"

    You'll be redirected to Google OAuth to authorize the connection.

  3. 3

    Sign in with your church's Google account

    Use the Google account that owns your YouTube channel — not a personal account.

  4. 4

    Grant read-only access to YouTube Analytics

    Vitals only requests read access — we never post to your channel or modify any content.

  5. 5

    Select your church's channel from the list

    If the Google account manages multiple YouTube channels, select the correct one for your church.

  6. Done — data syncs weekly

    Historical video data syncs on first connection. Ongoing syncs run every Monday morning.

When Data Syncs

Automatic Weekly Sync

YouTube Analytics data is pulled every Monday morning so your online viewer numbers are ready alongside attendance and giving when your team reviews the week.

  • Livestream data available within 48 hours of the stream ending
  • Historical video data synced on first connection
  • Weekly sync runs every Monday morning

What "Online Viewers" Means in Vitals

The online_viewers canonical metric in Vitals maps to the peak concurrent viewers during your Sunday service livestream — the highest number of people watching at the same moment.

  • Peak concurrent viewers is the industry standard for measuring live church attendance online
  • Historical videos and sermon replays are excluded unless tagged as a live service
  • Vitals pulls data from your most recent Sunday livestream each week

Troubleshooting

Wrong channel connected?

  • Go to Settings → Integrations → YouTube and click "Disconnect"
  • Reconnect and carefully select the correct channel from the list
  • Your historical data will be re-synced from the newly selected channel

No data showing?

  • Ensure your livestreams are set to Public — unlisted and private streams are not included in Analytics API results
  • YouTube Analytics has a 48-hour processing delay — check back after that window
  • Verify the integration is still authorized in Settings → Integrations

Numbers seem lower than expected?

Peak concurrent viewers and total unique viewers are very different numbers:

  • Peak concurrent = the most people watching at one moment (what Vitals tracks)
  • Total unique viewers = everyone who tuned in at any point during the stream (always higher)
  • Peak concurrent is used because it best represents "how many people were in the service" at the same time

Questions about YouTube Analytics? Contact support