Connecting a channel is the second of the two steps of linking. In the first step you signed in with a Google account and thereby gave gas access to the list of channels you can reach. Only by picking a specific channel and assigning it to a customer account do you decide whose data will actually appear in gas and for whom it will start being downloaded.
Before you start
- A linked Google account. Signing in with Google is described in the article Linking a Google account. Without it, gas has no list of channels for you to choose from. The YouTube service has to be allowed during sign-in, otherwise the YouTube tab will not appear in the account detail at all.
- Access to the channel. gas offers only those channels that belong to the account you used to sign in with Google. For a channel run under a brand account, that is under a separate identity on YouTube managed by one or more Google accounts, your Google account has to be listed as an owner or a manager of that brand account. The communications manager role is not enough, it is not allowed to use YouTube. Channel permissions granted in YouTube Studio (Manager, Editor, Viewer and their limited variants) do not count here: YouTube states that invited users do not have access to the YouTube API, and that is exactly the route gas uses to download data. The Common problems section covers this in more detail.
- A role in the customer account. A user account with the Administrator or User role may assign a channel to a customer account. Only an Administrator may remove the assignment.
- Free capacity in your plan. The number of connected profiles per network is limited by the plan of each customer account.
How to do it
- In the left menu click Settings. A dashboard with three cards opens.
- On the Connected services card click the I want to set up button. The Dashboard opens with tiles for the individual platforms.
- Click the Google accounts tile. A table of your linked Google accounts appears with the Account and Services columns.
- Click the email address of the Google account under which you manage the channel. Its detail opens and a horizontal row of tabs appears above the content. There are as many tabs as the services you allowed during sign-in: Google Ads, Google Analytics and YouTube.
- Switch to the YouTube tab. It contains a table of already connected channels. If you have not connected any channel yet, the table is empty.
- Click the Connect YouTube channel button above the table. The YouTube connection window opens.
- Open the Channel field with the Select a channel hint and pick a channel from the list. gas offers the channels the signed-in Google account can reach. Channels already connected under this account are greyed out in the list and cannot be selected.
- Optionally fill in the Channel name. This is the name under which you will see the channel in gas, and it may be 3 to 100 characters long. An empty field means the name from YouTube will be used.
- Leave the Filtering by destination option unchecked unless you work with the tourism module. When switched on, the option limits the data to the destination the given customer account has access to.
- Select the customer accounts that will get access to the channel. If you belong to a single customer account, gas fills it in for you and the selection is not shown.
- Confirm with the Connect channel button at the bottom right. The window closes and the channel appears in the table on the YouTube tab. At the same time, the notification bell receives a New channel added message saying the channel was connected successfully.
The channel and customer accounts
One channel can be connected to several customer accounts at the same time. The data is downloaded once and every assigned customer account sees it in its own environment.
You change the assignment on the YouTube tab in the Customers column or with the Change customer action on the relevant row. The column and the action are shown only if you belong to more than one customer account.
Your selection always replaces the previous assignment. A customer account you leave unchecked in the window loses the channel and its users stop seeing its data.
A customer account may be unavailable in the list and cannot be checked. The reason is always stated right next to it: Limit exceeded, No permission or Invalid license. What to do about it is described in the Common problems section.
What happens next
The channel is added to the table on the YouTube tab. If the customer account has scheduled reports that do not include the channel yet, gas asks right away with the Add profile to report? window. Select the reports and confirm with the Add to selected button, or postpone the offer with the Not now button.
For the connected channel, gas starts downloading daily values of the metrics Subscribers, Subscribers gained, Subscribers lost, Video views, Likes, Dislikes, Comments, Shares, Average view duration and Estimated minutes watched, plus the Videos list with the performance of individual videos. You will find everything in the YouTube section in the left menu. If you have several channels connected, you switch between them in the page header.
YouTube is one of the networks with the calmest download schedule: the channel and the videos are refreshed roughly once a day. That is why you usually see the first numbers only the next day, not within a few minutes. Also keep in mind that YouTube recalculates view counts retroactively, so the values for the last two or three days still change and gas evens them out during one of the following downloads.
The recalculation is done by YouTube itself and there is a reason for it. It can temporarily slow down or stop counting views until it verifies the numbers, and it excludes playbacks it judges to be low quality (for instance the same video played at once in many windows). Metrics with the word estimated in their name are therefore really an estimate, not an exact sum. For some overviews YouTube states an even longer delay, in the order of 48 to 72 hours for traffic sources and about two days for estimated earnings.
History, on the other hand, is downloaded deep: YouTube Analytics returns daily values for any date after 1 July 2008, so for an established channel even distant years are gradually filled into gas. Newer metrics have their own date from which YouTube keeps them, and they return no value for earlier periods.
In Settings → Customer account → Linked accounts the channel is added to the summary table of the whole customer account. There you can also decide which channel is the default one for the network and change the order by dragging. This is described in detail in the article Linked accounts of a customer account.
Who connected the channel
Linking a Google account belongs to the user account of the person who signed in, whereas a connected channel belongs to the customer account. That is why it commonly happens that you see no Google account in Settings → Connected services even though the data from YouTube in gas is there. It means that someone else on the team connected the channel, not that something is missing.
The full overview is in Settings → Customer account → Linked accounts. The Who links the account column shows the email address of the owner of the link, as a link, so you can write to them right away. The value Nobody together with a highlighted row means the channel has no live link and needs to be connected again. The individual situations are discussed in the article Who linked the account.
Before you create a new link, talk to the administrator of the customer account. In the Customer account section they can see what is connected, who connected it and what state it is in, so they will tell you whether a new link is needed at all. There is no need to create a second link for the same channel.
Renaming a channel and editing its settings
You change the channel name and the Filtering by destination option directly in the table on the YouTube tab.
- In the Actions column on the relevant row click the pencil icon labelled Edit row. The row switches to editing mode.
- Rewrite the name, or switch the checkbox in the Filtering by destination column.
- Save the change with the check mark icon labelled Finish editing. You cancel the edit with the cross icon labelled Cancel editing.
Unlinking a channel
A channel can be unlinked in two places and each one has a different effect.
- Settings → Customer account → Linked accounts, the Unlink account action. The channel disappears from this customer account and remains with the other assigned ones. If any scheduled report uses it, gas lists the affected reports and offers the Remove the profile from these reports too checkbox. Without it, the report stays configured but the channel stops being loaded into it.
- Google account detail → YouTube tab, the Delete channel action (the bin icon). gas asks whether you really mean it, and after you confirm with the Delete button you remove the channel completely, including the data downloaded in gas. The data on Google servers stays untouched. Deletion is scheduled with a 30 day delay, so if you change your mind and connect the channel again within that time, the history comes back.
Common problems when connecting a channel
There is no YouTube tab in the Google account detail
You did not allow the YouTube service during sign-in. Start the Google account linking again and allow the service.
- In Google accounts click Connect Google account.
- In the Google account connection window check YouTube (or use Select all if you are not sure) and continue with the Connect account button.
- On the following Google screen leave all offered checkboxes ticked.
If you allow no service at all, gas does not finish the link and says you did not allow access to any of the Google services.
The channel is missing from the list and I manage it through a brand account
A brand account is a separate identity on YouTube that does not belong directly to your personal Gmail address. gas sees only the channels of the account you used to sign in with Google, so a channel under a brand account will not appear in the list until you sign in as that account. Start Connect Google account again and, when signing in with Google, choose the channel or brand account the channel belongs to. If you sign in with the same Google account as before, the new consent overwrites the original one and no second record is created in the list.
I can see the channel in YouTube Studio but gas does not offer it
Access you were given through channel permissions in YouTube Studio (the Manager, Editor, Viewer roles or their limited variants) works only inside YouTube and YouTube Studio. YouTube explicitly states that invited users do not have access to the YouTube API, that is the route gas uses to download data. For the channel to appear in the list, your Google account has to be either the owner of the channel, or the owner or manager of the brand account the channel runs under. Ask the channel owner for such a role.
Google does not offer the brand account at sign-in at all
Then you do not have a role there that would give you access. For a brand account Google distinguishes the primary owner, owner, manager and communications manager roles. For the channel to be offered you have to be its owner or manager, because a communications manager cannot use YouTube. Only the owner of the brand account may add another person, a manager cannot do it and it cannot be set up in gas. So ask the colleague who owns the brand account for the role and then repeat the linking.
The channel is greyed out in the list and cannot be selected
That channel is already connected under this Google account. You will find it in the table on the YouTube tab.
The message "All channels are already linked. Select a different account."
It means that all available channels under this Google account are connected. You probably manage the remaining channels under a different Google account or under a brand account, so link that one as well.
A customer account cannot be checked
The reason is stated next to an unavailable account. Limit exceeded means the plan does not allow another profile of this network: unlink a channel you do not follow, or ask for an increase in Settings → Customer account → Subscription. No permission means you have the Viewer role in that customer account, which does not allow connecting, so ask an administrator to connect it. Invalid license means the customer account has no valid subscription.
The channel name is not saved
The name has to be 3 to 100 characters long. gas rejects shorter or longer text. If you want to keep the original name from YouTube, leave the field empty when connecting.
Common problems with a connected channel
The channel was connected by a colleague who no longer works here
This is the most common cause of suddenly missing data. Your colleague lost access on the YouTube side, the link stopped working, but you still see the channel in gas. Do not delete the channel and do not create a second one next to it. A colleague who has access to it on YouTube connects it again, using the same steps as above. During the selection the Channel connection window appears with a message that the channel was connected by another user (or that they connected it under a different account) and with the Take ownership button. After pressing it, the channel moves under the new link, the history and settings are kept and data starts coming in again.
I connected the channel long ago, but under a different Google account of mine
gas recognises this and asks whether you want to relink the channel. Confirm with the Relink button. The channel is tied to the account you are signed in with now.
The channel is connected but no data is coming
A yellow tag Missing permission or Paused appears next to its name in the table. The first one means access to Google as a whole works, but you specifically lost the permission for this channel. The second one means the whole Google account link stopped working. In both cases click the tag and then the Reconnect button, sign in with Google again and leave the consent complete. After the first successful download the tag disappears on its own and the missing days are filled in.
The channel connected itself after I signed in again
When you sign in with a Google account that can see the channel, gas ties the previously connected channels to the new link on its own and sends you an Google accounts automatically relinked notification with a list of what it relinked. There is nothing else you need to do.
Yesterday's numbers are still changing
YouTube recalculates statistics retroactively, commonly for two or three days. On top of that it temporarily slows down or stops counting views until it verifies them, and it excludes playbacks judged to be low quality. gas shows what YouTube returns to it at the given moment, so short-term deviations in the last few days are normal and there is no need to report them anywhere.
I cannot see the buttons next to the channels on my phone
On a phone the list of channels is shown as cards with the channel name and has no Customers or Actions columns. So do the connecting, renaming, changing of customer accounts and deleting on a computer or tablet.