Track PDF's in Google Analytics

[WeAreDigital_BE]

Hi Mozzers,

Is it possible to track PDF's via Google Analytics/Google tag manager? I'm not only looking for PDF downloads but for the actual activity when someone opens an interactive PDF document. So would it be possible to have onclick events on buttons in the PDF etc...

Many thanks!
Sander

[LynnPatchett]

Hi,

Interesting thought, but one that it seems at first glance technically impossible to do. There are some conversations here and here about using javascript events inside interactive pdfs but aside from immediate technical block points (would need a js enabled pdf viewer and an internet connection at the time of viewing) having a quick look at the acrobat js documentation here seems to imply that acrobat js functionality does not support standard http queries which is probably want you would want to use to send events via the  Analytics Measurement Protocol. I suppose you might be able set up your own web service to receive a call and then send the http request to analytics.... but that just sounds like way too much work (with still doubtful results). If you do decide to give it try and it works it would probably be worthy of a moz blog post!

[JordanLowry]

Short of tracking pageviews, downloads and clicks on links within the PDF I am not too sure how you would track an interactive PDF. I would still want to put tracking parameters on all links within the PDF and track traffic coming back into your website.

[WeAreDigital_BE]

Hi Jordan,

Thank you for your answer. I'm looking more for an option to track interactive PDF's. Any suggestions for that?

Thanks

[JordanLowry]

First I would recommend tagging all your links you include in your pdf with Google's URL builder tool to track engagement and activity once someone is in a pdf. You could also track pdf's as events or a download as a goal with Google analytics. Here is a more in depth article discussing how to track pdf's with a variety of methods.

Hope this helps some.