Know your Metrics : Page Depth and Scroll Depth

Measuring user engagement on a website goes beyond just tracking page views and unique visitors. Two important metrics that help assess how users interact with content are Page Depth and Scroll Depth.

These metrics provide insights into how far users navigate into a site (Page Depth) and how much of a single page they consume (Scroll Depth). Understanding these metrics can help businesses optimize user experience, improve content strategies, and enhance conversion rates.

What is Page Depth?

Page Depth is a built-in metric provided by Adobe Analytics that measures how deep a visitor goes into a website within a single session. It is essentially the number of pages viewed during a visit.

Formula: Page Depth = Total number of pages viewed in a visit

Example:

• A user visits the homepage (1), navigates to the product page (2), checks the pricing page (3), then exits. Their Page Depth is 3.
• Another user browses five different pages before leaving, resulting in a Page Depth of 5.

Scenarios where Page Depth is useful:

• E-commerce: Understanding how many pages users typically visit before making a purchase. If Page Depth is low, it may indicate a poor browsing experience or lack of engaging content.
• Content websites: Tracking how deep readers go into blog sections to evaluate engagement with articles.
• Marketing campaigns: Analyzing how deeply visitors from a specific ad campaign navigate the site.

What is Scroll Depth?

Scroll Depth measures how far down a user scrolls on a webpage. Unlike Page Depth, which is an Adobe-provided metric, Scroll Depth needs to be implemented using Adobe Launch with Custom Event Tracking. It is usually tracked as a percentage (e.g., 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) to determine how much of the content a user consumes before leaving the page.

Implementation: To track Scroll Depth in Adobe Analytics, you need to set up an event-based rule in Adobe Launch in the following manner:

1. Create a rule in Adobe Launch that listens for scroll events.
2. Configure thresholds (e.g., 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%).
3. Fire an event when a user reaches each threshold.
4. Capture these values in Adobe Analytics for reporting.

Example:

• A user lands on a blog post but only scrolls 30% of the page before leaving.
• Another user reads the full article, reaching 100% scroll depth.
• By analyzing this data, marketers can determine if users are actually engaging with long-form content.

Give scenarios where Page & Scroll depth help in data analysis.

Both Page Depth and Scroll Depth can uncover critical user experience issues:

1. Low Page Depth but High Scroll Depth: Users may be highly engaged on one page but not navigating further. This could indicate strong single-page content but poor site structure. A solution could be adding better internal linking or calls to action.
2. High Page Depth but Low Scroll Depth: Users are moving through multiple pages but not engaging deeply with each one. This may indicate low content quality or poor user experience.
3. Both Low Page and Scroll Depth: Indicates that users are bouncing quickly, possibly due to irrelevant content or poor page load speeds. Optimizing content and improving site performance could help.

Analysis Example: Optimizing a Blog Section

A content team wants to analyze engagement with their blog section. They use Adobe Analytics to track:

• Page Depth: Average of 3 pages per visit.
• Scroll Depth: Only 40% of readers scroll beyond 50% of an article.

Example Insights:

• Since users visit multiple articles but don’t fully read them, content might be too long or not engaging enough.
• The team can introduce shorter summaries, better formatting (bullet points, images, videos), or clearer CTAs to encourage full content consumption.
• A/B testing different layouts could also help improve Scroll Depth.

What is the difference between Page Depth, Visit Depth & Hit Depth in Adobe Analytics?

• Page Depth: The order of a page view within a visit. It tells you how deep a user goes into your site.
• Visit Depth: The total number of pages a user viewed in a session (visit).
• Hit Depth: The count of server calls (hits) sent during a session, including page views, clicks, and events.

Example Analysis: User Journey on an E-commerce Website

Imagine a user visits your clothing store website and takes these actions:

1. Lands on Home Page → Page Depth = 1
2. Clicks on Men's Clothing → Page Depth = 2
3. Views a T-shirt product page → Page Depth = 3
4. Adds T-shirt to cart (this triggers an event hit but not a page view) → Hit Depth increases but Page Depth stays the same
5. Proceeds to checkout page → Page Depth = 4
6. Completes purchase (event hit recorded but no page load) → Hit Depth increases again
7. Leaves the site → Visit ends.

Now, let’s summarize:

• Page Depth: Tells us how deep into the site the user went (Home → Category → Product → Checkout).
• Visit Depth: The total number of pages viewed (4 in this case).
• Hit Depth: Total number of server calls (Page Views + Events). If they had extra event-based hits (like clicks or form submissions), this number could be higher than Visit Depth.

In Summary,

• Use Page Depth to track how deep users go on a page level.
• Use Visit Depth to analyze the total engagement in a single session.
• Use Hit Depth to get a detailed view of all interactions (including non-pageview hits).

Page Depth and Scroll Depth are valuable metrics that help measure how users engage with content and navigate a website. While Page Depth is a built-in Adobe Analytics metric, Scroll Depth requires custom implementation.

By leveraging these metrics, businesses can enhance user experience, improve content strategies, and drive higher conversions.

Additional Article to explore the topic in-depth:

1. Average Page Depth
2. Scroll depth tracking in Adobe Analytics
3. Visit Depth
4. Hit Depth