Engagement Time tracking and calculation in Marfeel Analytics
Engagement Time measures how long a user actively interacts with your content through actions such as scrolling, clicking, moving the mouse, watching videos, listening to audio files, typing, or filling out forms. Unlike passive metrics such as pageviews, Engagement Time captures sustained attention and helps you understand how well your content resonates with your audience.
Presence tracking methodology
Section titled “Presence tracking methodology”Marfeel Javascript SDK constantly listens for acts of engagement based on user presence events. Marfeel starts, stops, and restarts the clock according to a series of events that define the user as either active or inactive:
- Active
- The actions
mousedown,mouseup,mousemove,keydown,keyup,scrolldetect user interactions on a page visibilitychange: visibledetects when the contents of a browser tab has the focus of the user, i.e. is open and in front of other windows.
- The actions
- Inactive
visibilitychange: hidden,mouseleaveto detect when a browser tab loses the focus and sits in the background. The clock immediately stops and only begins counting again when the user returns to the tab.
Whenever a presence event triggers, engagement time is increased by:
- 0 if the last event was inactive
- The time difference since the last active event, up to a maximum of 5s
When the “engagement time clock” is running, each active event adds time to the clock. The clock does not reset after a period of inactivity, but rather pauses and is primed to resume if the user becomes active again during the same session.
Common scenarios
Section titled “Common scenarios”Below are details on how engagement time is computed in several common situations.
1. Tab closure after reading
Section titled “1. Tab closure after reading”In this common scenario, a user opens a page, scrolls through it, and closes the browser tab.
| Time | Engagement time |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | 0 s - User lands |
| 00:02 | 2 s - User interacts |
| 00:04 | 4 s - User interacts |
| 00:14 | 9 s - A maximum of 5 s is added, counted from the last interaction |
2. Coffee break with open tab
Section titled “2. Coffee break with open tab”A user opens a page and starts reading. She leaves the browser tab open and focused for 10 minutes to get a coffee before coming back to continue reading.
| Time | Engagement time |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | 0 s - User lands |
| 00:02 | 2 s - User interacts |
| 00:04 | 4 s - User interacts |
| 00:14 | 9 s - Interacts up until going for a coffee |
| 05:14 | 9 s - User stops counting as concurrent after 5 min since last interaction. The five elapsed minutes are not added to the total engaged time. |
| 15:14 | 9 s - User is back from her coffee break. She starts counting as concurrent again. |
| 15:16 | 11 s - User interacts |
3. Open multiple links from the homepage
Section titled “3. Open multiple links from the homepage”It’s quite common that power users open the home page of a newspaper and proceed to open several articles that interest them as background tabs.
Marfeel only counts one [concurrent user](marfeel-concurrents-real-time-engaged-users-metric.md) when a user has multiple browser tabs open, whereas other platforms count open browser tabs as multiple concurrents.
| Time | Engagement time |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | 0 s - User lands home page |
| 00:02 | 2 s - Home - User opens several tabs: Page-1, Page-2, Page-3 |
| 00:04 | 4 s - Home |
| 00:14 | 9 s - Home |
| 00:14 | User switches to Page-1 tab |
| 00:16 | 9 s - Home 3 s - Page-1 |
| 00:20 | 9 s - Home 7 s - Page-1 User switches to Page-2 tab |
| 00:25 | 9 s - Home 7 s - Page-1 5 s - Page-2 |
| 00:30 | 9 s - Home 7 s - Page-1 10 s - Page-2 User switches to Home tab |
| 00:33 | 12 s - Home 7 s - Page-1 10 s - Page-2 |
4. Background tab inactivity after reading
Section titled “4. Background tab inactivity after reading”A user opens a page, scrolls through it, and opens a new tab with a new Google search.
| Time | Engagement time |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | 0 s - User lands on home page |
| 00:05 | 5 s - User interacts |
| 00:10 | 10 s - User interacts |
| 00:20 | 15 s - User opens and focus a new tab on google.com |
| 05:20 | Marfeel discounts the concurrent 5 minutes after the last action The total engaged time remains at 15 s |
5. Tab gets focus after inactivity
Section titled “5. Tab gets focus after inactivity”When an already opened tab gets focus back after an inactive period, the clock picks up where it left off.
| Time | Engagement time |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | 0 s - User lands home page |
| 00:05 | 5 s - User interacts |
| 00:10 | 10 s - User interacts |
| 00:20 | 15 s - User opens and focuses on a new tab on google.com |
| 05:10 | 5 minutes after the last action Marfeel discounts the concurrent |
| 10:10 | 15 s - User focuses back on the tab Clock resumes |
| 10:15 | 20 s - User interacts |
6. Switch to another application
Section titled “6. Switch to another application”A user opens a page on her phone and reads through it. The user switches to another app without explicitly closing the tab or the browser.
| Time | Engagement time |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | 0 s - User lands on the home page |
| 00:05 | 5 s - User interacts |
| 00:10 | 10 s - User interacts |
| 00:20 | 15 s - User switches to Twitter native application without closing the tab |
| 05:20 | Marfeel discounts the concurrent 5 mins after the last action The engaged time remains at 15 s |
Marfeel discounts non-engaged users after 5 mins (or the selected time window) of inactivity whether they explicitly close a tab or leave it open. There are other real-time platforms that wait two hours to discount inactive tabs from concurrents.
7. Locking the phone after reading
Section titled “7. Locking the phone after reading”A user opens a page and reads through it. Once she’s done, she locks her phone.
| Time | Engagement time |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | 0 s - User lands on home page |
| 00:05 | 5 s - User interacts |
| 00:10 | 10 s - User interacts |
| 00:20 | 15 s - User puts the phone in her pocket without closing the tab |
| 05:20 | Marfeel discounts the concurrent 5 mins after the last action The engaged time remains at 15 s |
How to optimize engagement time
Section titled “How to optimize engagement time”Higher engagement time means more sustained interest in a piece of content and is a stronger indicator of audience quality than pageviews, which reflect acquisition rather than the depth of the interaction. For a full breakdown of engagement KPIs and how they relate to each other, see engagement metrics and KPIs.
As a digital publisher, it’s important to have a mix of both light and long-form content to reach different stages of the funnel and engage your audience. Light content is crucial for attracting new visitors and acquiring traffic, while long-form content is important for engaging loyal users and moving them towards conversion. By understanding the role of each type of content and creating a mix of both, you can create a comprehensive content strategy that drives traffic, engagement, and conversions.
Measuring engagement time gives you insight into how well your content resonates with your audience. You can use this information to make improvements and drive even more engagement. Here are a few actions you can take:
- Provide high-quality, relevant content. This is the foundation for engagement. Make sure your content is well-researched, well-written, and addresses the needs and interests of your audience.
- Use images, videos, and other multimedia elements. These elements help break up the text and make your content more visually appealing. They can also help convey information in a more engaging way.
- Make your content easy to navigate. Use headings, subheadings, and bullet points to break up the text and make it easy to scan. Make sure your content is organized and well-structured.
- Optimize your pages for readability. Make sure your pages have a clear and consistent layout. Use font sizes and colors that are easy to read.
- Encourage user interaction. Add calls-to-action that encourage users to engage with your content, such as commenting, sharing, or subscribing.
Debugging
Section titled “Debugging”Marfeel Javascript SDK sends presence events every 5 s back to Marfeel servers. Presence events are sent less frequently the longer a user remains engaged, up to a maximum window of 20 s.
Presence events can be debugged at the network level to pinpoint any anomalies.