If you’re using Google Tag Manager, Vimeo tracking doesn’t come out of the box like YouTube. So you need a custom listener to capture video engagement properly.
In this guide, I’ll show you exactly how to implement it—including the full working code—so you can track starts, progress, and completions.
What You’ll Track
With this setup, you’ll capture:
- Video start
- Progress (10%, 25%, 50%, 75%)
- Video complete
- Title, URL, duration, and playback time
All pushed into the dataLayer for GTM.
Step 1: Add the Full Vimeo Tracking Code
Add this inside a Custom HTML tag in GTM (trigger: All Pages or DOM Ready)
Here is the complete working code:
<script src=”https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js”></script>
<script>
(function() {
var videoProgress = [10, 25, 50, 75];
function handlePlayer(player) {
var triggeredSteps = {};
var video_title = ”;
var video_url = ”;
var isStarted = false;
var upperRange = 2;
player.getVideoTitle().then(function(title) {
video_title = title;
});
player.getVideoUrl().then(function(url) {
video_url = url;
});
player.on(‘play’, function(data) {
if (!isStarted) {
if (data.duration < 30) {
upperRange = 6;
}
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
dataLayer.push({
event: ‘Vimeo Video’,
video_status: ‘start’,
video_current_time: 0,
video_duration: data.duration,
video_percent: 0,
video_provider: ‘Vimeo’,
video_title: video_title,
video_url: video_url
});
isStarted = true;
}
});
player.on(‘ended’, function(data) {
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
dataLayer.push({
event: ‘Vimeo Video’,
video_status: ‘complete’,
video_current_time: data.seconds,
video_duration: data.duration,
video_percent: 100,
video_provider: ‘Vimeo’,
video_title: video_title,
video_url: video_url
});
});
player.on(‘timeupdate’, function(data) {
var actualPercent = data.percent * 100;
videoProgress.forEach(function(targetPercent) {
if (
!triggeredSteps[targetPercent] &&
actualPercent >= targetPercent &&
actualPercent <= targetPercent + upperRange
) {
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
dataLayer.push({
event: ‘Vimeo Video’,
video_status: ‘progress’,
video_current_time: data.seconds,
video_duration: data.duration,
video_percent: targetPercent,
video_provider: ‘Vimeo’,
video_title: video_title,
video_url: video_url
});
triggeredSteps[targetPercent] = true;
}
});
});
}
function findVimeoPlayer(node) {
if (node.tagName === ‘IFRAME’ && node.src.includes(‘player.vimeo.com/video’)) {
var player = new Vimeo.Player(node);
handlePlayer(player);
} else if (node.querySelectorAll) {
var iframes = node.querySelectorAll(‘iframe’);
iframes.forEach(function(iframe) {
if (iframe.src.includes(‘player.vimeo.com/video’)) {
var player = new Vimeo.Player(iframe);
handlePlayer(player);
}
});
}
}
var observer = new MutationObserver(function(mutationsList) {
mutationsList.forEach(function(mutation) {
if (mutation.type === ‘childList’) {
mutation.addedNodes.forEach(function(node) {
findVimeoPlayer(node);
});
}
});
});
observer.observe(document.body, { childList: true, subtree: true });
var existingPlayers = document.querySelectorAll(‘iframe[src*=”player.vimeo.com/video”]’);
existingPlayers.forEach(function(playerNode) {
handlePlayer(new Vimeo.Player(playerNode));
});
})();
</script>
Step 2: Create GTM Trigger
Inside Google Tag Manager:
- Trigger Type → Custom Event
- Event Name → Vimeo Video
This will listen to all dataLayer pushes from the script.
Step 3: Create Data Layer Variables
Create these variables in GTM:
- video_status
- video_percent
- video_title
- video_url
- video_duration
- video_current_time
Step 4: Send to GA4
Create a GA4 Event Tag:
Event Name:
vimeo_video
Parameters:
| Parameter | Value |
| status | {{video_status}} |
| percent | {{video_percent}} |
| title | {{video_title}} |
| url | {{video_url}} |
Step 5: Test Everything
Use Preview mode in GTM:
- Play video
- Watch events fire
- Confirm values
You should see:
- start
- progress (10, 25, 50, 75)
- complete
Final Thoughts
This setup gives you full Vimeo tracking control inside Google Tag Manager—something most setups miss.
Once implemented, you can:
- Build video engagement funnels
- Optimize content performance
- Use video as conversion signals