Content Engagement

Content engagement events measure what users do with your content beyond the page view. Did they read the article or just scroll past? Did they watch the video or click play and immediately stop? Did they share or save the piece? These events transform your content analytics from “how many people visited” to “how many people engaged.”

Article read event

Fire when a user has meaningfully engaged with an article — not just scrolled past it. The most defensible trigger is scroll depth, typically 75–90% of the article body height.

// User has scrolled to 90% of the article
dataLayer.push({
  event: 'content_article_read',
  content_type: 'article',
  content_id: 'article-how-to-choose-a-leather-jacket',
  content_title: 'How to Choose the Perfect Leather Jacket',
  content_author: 'Alex Morgan',
  content_category: 'Style Guide',
  content_word_count: 1850,
  content_publish_date: '2024-02-15',
  reading_depth_percent: 90
});

Event Schema content_article_read

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
event	string	Required	"content_article_read" or "article_read" depending on your namespace convention.
content_type	string	Required	Type of content: article, guide, review, news.
content_id	string	Required	Unique identifier for the content piece — URL slug or CMS ID.
content_title	string	Required	The article title.
content_author	string	Optional	Author name.
content_category	string	Optional	Primary content category.
content_word_count	number	Optional	Word count of the article — helps normalize engagement by length.
content_publish_date	string	Optional	ISO 8601 publish date: 2024-02-15.
reading_depth_percent	number	Optional	Scroll depth percentage at which the event fires. Typically 75 or 90.

Video play event

For custom video players (not YouTube or Vimeo with GA4’s Enhanced Measurement enabled), implement video tracking manually.

// Video play started
dataLayer.push({
  event: 'content_video_play',
  content_type: 'video',
  content_id: 'video-summer-lookbook-2024',
  content_title: 'Summer Lookbook 2024',
  video_duration: 187,        // total duration in seconds
  video_current_time: 0,      // position when play was clicked
  video_provider: 'self_hosted'
});

// Video progress milestone
dataLayer.push({
  event: 'content_video_progress',
  content_id: 'video-summer-lookbook-2024',
  video_percent: 50,           // 25, 50, 75, 100 are standard milestones
  video_current_time: 93
});

// Video completed
dataLayer.push({
  event: 'content_video_complete',
  content_id: 'video-summer-lookbook-2024',
  content_title: 'Summer Lookbook 2024',
  video_duration: 187
});

Note

If you use YouTube embeds with GA4’s Enhanced Measurement enabled (and the video has enablejsapi=1), GA4 automatically tracks video_start, video_progress (at 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%), and video_complete. Use your own events only for custom players or when you need more granular data than Enhanced Measurement provides.

Content share event

// User shares content via a share button
dataLayer.push({
  event: 'content_share',
  content_type: 'article',
  content_id: 'article-how-to-choose-a-leather-jacket',
  content_title: 'How to Choose the Perfect Leather Jacket',
  share_method: 'twitter',    // twitter, facebook, copy_link, email, whatsapp
  share_location: 'article_end'
});

Event Schema content_share

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
event	string	Required	"content_share" — or GA4 recommended "share" if you prefer.
content_type	string	Required	Type of content being shared.
content_id	string	Required	Unique content identifier.
content_title	string	Optional	Title of the content.
share_method	string	Required	Platform or method: twitter, facebook, copy_link, email, whatsapp.
share_location	string	Optional	Where in the page the share action occurred: article_top, article_end, sidebar.

File download event

// User clicks a download link
dataLayer.push({
  event: 'file_download',
  file_name: 'heritage-co-style-guide-2024.pdf',
  file_extension: 'pdf',
  file_size_kb: 2400,
  content_id: 'style-guide-2024',
  content_title: '2024 Style Guide',
  link_url: '/downloads/heritage-co-style-guide-2024.pdf'
});

Note

GA4’s Enhanced Measurement tracks file downloads automatically for standard file extensions (pdf, xlsx, docx, etc.) by detecting clicks on links to files. If you have dynamically generated downloads or non-standard extensions, use a custom event. If Enhanced Measurement covers it, disable the duplicate by not pushing a custom event.

Content save / bookmark event

dataLayer.push({
  event: 'content_save',
  content_type: 'product_guide',
  content_id: 'sizing-guide-jackets',
  content_title: 'Jacket Sizing Guide'
});

Time-on-content events

Instead of a single “article read” event, you can fire time milestones to measure genuine engagement. This is more nuanced but harder to implement.

// After 30 seconds on the article (tab must be active)
dataLayer.push({
  event: 'content_time_spent',
  content_id: 'article-how-to-choose-a-leather-jacket',
  content_type: 'article',
  time_spent_seconds: 30
});

// After 60 seconds
dataLayer.push({
  event: 'content_time_spent',
  content_id: 'article-how-to-choose-a-leather-jacket',
  content_type: 'article',
  time_spent_seconds: 60
});

Time-based events should only count active time (tab in focus). Use the Page Visibility API to pause counting when the tab is hidden.

let activeTime = 0;
let lastActivated = Date.now();
let isActive = !document.hidden;
const milestones = [30, 60, 120, 300]; // seconds
const firedMilestones = new Set();

function tick() {
  if (isActive) {
    activeTime += (Date.now() - lastActivated) / 1000;
    lastActivated = Date.now();

    milestones.forEach(milestone => {
      if (activeTime >= milestone && !firedMilestones.has(milestone)) {
        firedMilestones.add(milestone);
        window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
        window.dataLayer.push({
          event: 'content_time_spent',
          content_id: window.__CONTENT_ID__,
          content_type: 'article',
          time_spent_seconds: milestone
        });
      }
    });
  } else {
    lastActivated = Date.now();
  }
}

document.addEventListener('visibilitychange', () => {
  isActive = !document.hidden;
  lastActivated = Date.now();
});

setInterval(tick, 1000);

Common mistakes

Firing article_read on page load. A page view is not a content engagement event. Fire content engagement events only after the user has demonstrated engagement through scroll depth, time, or explicit action.

Tracking every scroll position as an event. Scroll depth events should fire at milestones (25%, 50%, 75%, 90%) — once per threshold, once per page load. Firing on every percentage point floods GA4 with low-value events.

Not normalizing by content length. A 90% read rate on a 200-word page is meaningless. On a 2,000-word article it’s meaningful. Include content_word_count so you can segment engagement by content length.

Search Tracking what users search for — a complement to content engagement data.

Error Events Tracking content load failures and media playback errors.

Custom Event Design Framework for designing content events that fit your specific content types.