Google Analytics engagement hit. Can I create an "automatic"?

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For those who don’t know, to calculate the "average session time" of a user, Google Analytics proceeds as follows: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1006253?hl=pt-BR

To clarify what an "engagement hit is": http://cutroni.com/blog/2012/02/29/understanding-google-analytics-time-calculations/

I have an Android app that has 2 screens: the first is initial (where the user chooses which content to see), the second has the content chosen. On the home screen, the user spends about 5 seconds to select the content that will see, on the second screen, because it is the content itself, the user spends about 30 seconds. So, the total user session time should be 35 seconds, but unfortunately, since the second screen doesn’t have an "engagement hit", the 30 seconds spent on it are "lost". This is very bad for the statistics of my application.

I was wondering if I could create an event on the second screen that automatically fires every 5 seconds to "force" an engagement hit and get the actual duration of the user’s session. Maybe an automatic shooting of some data or hit to the Analytics through the Event tracker, do not know.

Could someone help me? Any ideas to get around this flaw?

I contacted Google support, but they could not give me satisfactory answers.

Thank you.

android google-analytics

  • My suggestion to give continuity in calculating engagement would be to trigger events of Pageview during the life cycle of Activity. I believe you already do this during the onCreate, but if you do in onPause and onResume for example (instead of onCreate)?. If the user leaves your application, it will generate a record of that output. Now the only problem is whether Pageview’s "duplicates" will not cause problems, because it will always have at least 2 for each Activity.

  • @Wakim Good idea, looked now, the documentation asks to add events in onCreate and onStop (https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/android/v3/#tracking-methods). When onStop occurs, the hit fired should be engagement. My GA session time should be correct then. The definition they give to this "engagement hit" that complicates the understanding of everything. Thank you very much.

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I’ve never used Google Analytics on Android apps, but what if you follow the user scroll by sending an event to Analytics each time?

For example, at 25% then 50%, 75% and finally 100%.

The only problem is that the bounce rate will drop absurdly, so the ideal would be not to send as a user hit.

As I said, being an Android app, I can’t give you 100% certainty regarding deployment, but anything can ask.

  • Maybe it’s a way out. I don’t understand why the bounce rate would drop... and you can tell me if engagement hit only counts if the user necessarily click on on something? If I create a method to return to the previous page in 5 seconds (for example), it would be worth as an engagement hit?

  • The bounce rate drops because even if the user enters, scrolls and leaves without even reading, it would be considered interaction, so there was no rejection.. That’s why I told you to use this method by sending it unintentionally.

  • Answering the second question, Page view is considered a hit, so again the bounce rate would fall, since the user would have seen two pages (even without him wanting)

  • Got it. Thanks for the help, I’ll wait for more answers (if there is one). I’ll test the ideas you gave me. (Obs: I don’t have enough reputation to mark your reply as useful)

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