How do you attach an image to a mask path on text?

Working on creating a text heavy video with lots of little effects. I have created a mask path for the word "COGS" to follow. I've imported a png of wheels that I'd like to attach to the bottom of the word that follow the path along with it, but I'm stumped on how to do it. I've tried copying the mask and pasting it in the wheel's position. It copied the path, but not only is it much smaller, there's no path option to have it follow it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!