By: Robert Soares | You can track a lot of things. Open rates. Time on page. Scroll depth. Device type. Location. Return visits. Forwarded views.
But more data isn't always better data. Some metrics tell you exactly what you need to know. Others look impressive and mean nothing.
Here's what actually matters when measuring document engagement.
The Core Metrics That Drive Decisions
Let's start with the numbers that change how you work.
1. Opens (View Rate)
How many people opened your document divided by how many received it. If nobody opens, nothing else matters. This is your baseline.
Aim for 60%+ on direct sends. Mass distributions will run lower. For context, B2B email benchmarks from beehiiv show average open rates around 32%, so targeted document sends should beat that by a wide margin.
But here's the catch: opens don't mean reads. Someone who opens for 2 seconds and someone who reads for 10 minutes look identical in this metric. That's why opens are a starting point, not the answer.
2. Time Spent (Engagement Duration)
This is where opens become meaningful. Time spent separates actual readers from quick glances.
A 10-page document with images should take 5-7 minutes to read properly. If your average viewer spends 45 seconds, they're not reading. They're scanning and leaving.
The math is simple: total viewing time divided by total pages gives you time per page. Under 30 seconds per page? Skimming. Over 60 seconds? Careful reading. Somewhere in between usually means they're interested but moving quickly.
Analytics expert Avinash Kaushik has been blunt about this for years: "Dump the vanity metrics. Why be less smart for even one more day?" Time spent is one of the metrics that actually tells you something. Page views and opens, on their own, don't.
3. Completion Rate (Scroll Depth)
Starting is easy. Finishing means your content actually held attention. That's what completion rate measures: the percentage of viewers who reached the end.
40-60% completion is solid for longer documents. Above 70% is excellent. Below 20%? Something is broken. Too long, too boring, or the wrong audience.
Completion rate often matters more than open rate. Think about it: 50 people who read everything are more valuable than 200 who glanced at page one. Research from Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs shows that 73% of B2B marketers use conversions as their top content metric, but completion rate is the leading indicator that predicts those conversions.
The real power here isn't the aggregate number. It's finding where people drop off. If 80% of readers bail at page 6, page 6 has a problem. Fix that page and your completion rate jumps.
4. Page-Level Engagement
This is where things get interesting. Page-level data shows which specific pages got viewed and for how long. Not just "did they read it," but "what did they care about?"
Here's a real example. Your proposal has 12 pages:
- Pages 1-2: 90% viewed (intro, everyone starts here)
- Pages 3-5: 45% viewed (methodology, many skip)
- Pages 6-8: 75% viewed (case studies, solid engagement)
- Pages 9-10: 85% viewed (pricing, high interest)
- Pages 11-12: 30% viewed (team bios, most skip)
Now you know what to do. Pricing and case studies are what people came for. Methodology and bios could be shorter, moved to an appendix, or cut entirely. Without page-level data, you'd just see "average time: 4 minutes" and have no idea what to change.
5. Return Visits
Someone comes back to view the same document twice. Then a third time. Then again on Friday.
That's not casual browsing. That's active consideration. Maybe they're comparing you to a competitor. Maybe they're showing it to their boss. Maybe a buying decision is in progress.
Two or more visits usually means serious interest. Five or more? They're probably in final consideration or circulating it internally. Gartner research on the B2B buying journey shows that typical buying groups include 6 to 10 decision makers, so multiple views from the same link often mean your document is making the rounds through a team.
A prospect who opens your proposal three times over a week is telling you more than someone who opened once for the same total duration. Repeat attention beats single-session time almost every time.
Secondary Metrics Worth Watching
These matter, but they support the core metrics rather than drive decisions alone.
Device Type
What it is: Desktop vs. mobile vs. tablet.
Why it matters: Context affects engagement. Mobile readers might be distracted or time-pressed. Desktop readers might be working.
What to do with it: If 60%+ of your views are mobile, make sure your documents are mobile-friendly. Large tables and tiny text don't work on phones.
Location
What it is: Geographic location based on IP address.
Why it matters: Can reveal unexpected patterns.
Example use cases:
- Prospect in New York views from London. Maybe they forwarded it.
- Training document gets views from an office you didn't know existed.
- Proposal views cluster in a city where your competitor is headquartered. Could be competitive research.
Caveat: VPNs and remote workers make this less reliable than it used to be.
Time of Day
What it is: When people view your documents.
Why it matters: Viewing patterns tell you about context.
What it tells you:
- 9 AM Monday: They're working through priorities
- 10 PM Thursday: Personal research or overtime
- Weekend views: Either very interested or catching up on backlog
What to do with it: If most views happen in early mornings, schedule your follow-ups for that window.
Unique Viewers vs. Total Views
What it is: One person viewing three times = 1 unique viewer, 3 total views.
Why it matters: Helps you understand reach vs. depth.
Example:
- 100 total views from 20 unique viewers = high engagement, smaller reach
- 100 total views from 90 unique viewers = broad reach, low repeat engagement
Both can be good depending on your goal.
Metrics That Look Important But Usually Aren't
Not everything that can be measured should be measured.
Downloads
High downloads feel like success. They're not. Downloads mean someone saved a copy. That's it. They might never open the file. They might be archiving it "for later" (a later that never comes). If you're gating content, download count tells you lead volume. But it says nothing about whether those leads are any good.
Shares
One share that leads to a purchase is worth more than 100 shares that go nowhere. Shares feel viral, and virality feels good, but unless you can track what happens after the share, it's vanity dressed up as reach.
Bounce Rate
This one gets borrowed from website metrics and misapplied to documents. For a web page, bouncing is usually bad. For a document, it's ambiguous. Someone who reads page one and leaves might have gotten exactly what they needed.
A better signal: time on first page. Ten seconds and gone? That's a real bounce. Two minutes on page one before closing? They engaged with your content, even if they didn't continue.
Building a Metrics Dashboard That Works
Don't track everything. Track what changes behavior.
For Sales Documents
Primary metrics:
- Open rate by prospect
- Time spent
- Page-level engagement (especially pricing)
- Return visits
What to do with it:
- Prioritize follow-ups by engagement level
- Tailor conversations to what they focused on
- Time outreach to fresh views
HubSpot research shows that 54% of salespeople say selling got harder in 2024, yet those who use data to focus on engaged prospects still exceed their targets at higher rates.
For Marketing Content
Primary metrics:
- View-to-completion ratio
- Drop-off points (which page loses people?)
- Time spent on key sections
What to do with it:
- Improve or cut sections with high drop-off
- Double down on topics with high engagement
- Shorten or restructure underperforming content
For Training Materials
Primary metrics:
- Completion rate by employee
- Time spent (minimum threshold for meaningful engagement)
- Who hasn't started yet
What to do with it:
- Send targeted reminders to non-completers
- Identify sections that need clarification
- Prove compliance with timestamps
Turning Metrics Into Action
Data without action is just numbers. The point of tracking engagement isn't to fill a dashboard. It's to change what you do next.
Start with the basics: who's hot right now? Check your high-engagement viewers every few days and follow up while they're still thinking about your content. A prospect who read your proposal yesterday is warmer than one who downloaded it last month. This takes 15 minutes and directly affects revenue.
Then zoom out. Once a month, look at trends. Are completion rates climbing or falling? Which documents get read and which get ignored? If your pricing guide has a 70% completion rate but your case study booklet sits at 25%, that's telling you something about what your audience values. Update or retire the stuff that isn't working.
The bigger strategic questions come up less often but matter more. Are the documents people engage with actually leading to closed deals? Are you tracking the right things, or just the easy things? SparkToro's Rand Fishkin put it directly: "Traffic is a vanity metric. Growing it is unlikely to help your business compared to many other marketing things you could do." The same applies to document metrics. Chasing opens when you should be watching completion rates is optimizing the wrong number.
Getting Started With Measurement
You don't need sophisticated analytics from day one. Start simple: did they open it, how long did they spend, and did they reach the end? Those three numbers tell you more than most marketers know about their content.
Once you're comfortable reading those basics, you'll naturally start wondering which pages got attention and whether people came back. Then comes the specifics: who exactly viewed it, from what device, and did they eventually convert? Each question builds on the last. You'll know when you need the next level because you'll start asking questions your current data can't answer.
What This Comes Down To
Most people who send documents have no idea what happens after they hit send. That's the real problem. Not which specific metric to watch, but whether you're watching anything at all.
Start with opens, time spent, and completion. Those three numbers will immediately put you ahead of anyone still sending blind PDFs and hoping for the best. Add page-level data when you want to know what's working. Add return visit tracking when you want to know who's seriously considering.
The documents you send are already telling a story about your audience. The question is whether you're listening.
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