Published on 2025-06-22T05:08:14Z

What is Rich Media? Examples of Rich Media in Analytics

Rich Media refers to interactive or multimedia content—videos, audio clips, animations, and interactive graphics—that engages users beyond static text and images. In analytics, tracking rich media events enables deeper insights into how users interact with content, capturing play, pause, completion, clicks, and other custom events. Tools like Google Analytics 4 (GA4) provide built-in event parameters (e.g., video_start, video_progress, video_complete), while PlainSignal offers a lightweight, cookie-free script for easy custom event tracking. By analyzing rich media interactions, teams can optimize content strategy, improve user experience, and measure engagement more accurately than simple pageviews or clicks. Implementing rich media analytics involves best practices around event naming, tagging, and reporting across different platforms.

Illustration of Rich media
Illustration of Rich media

Rich media

Rich Media includes videos, audio, and interactive content tracked by analytics tools like GA4 and PlainSignal to measure engagement.

Understanding Rich Media

A foundational look at what qualifies as rich media and why it matters for analytics teams.

  • Definition

    Rich media encompasses multimedia and interactive elements—such as video, audio, animations, and interactive graphics—that go beyond static text and images.

  • Business value

    Tracking rich media interactions uncovers deeper engagement signals that inform content strategy, user experience improvements, and marketing ROI.

Types of Rich Media

Common rich media formats and their unique tracking considerations in analytics platforms.

  • Video and audio

    Metrics include play, pause, seek, buffering events, and completion rates to gauge consumption and drop-off points.

  • Interactive graphics

    Infographics, maps, and charts that respond to hover, click, or drag events require custom event handlers.

  • Expandable ads

    Expandable or overlay advertisements track impressions, expansions, clicks, and close events to optimize ad performance.

Implementing Rich Media Tracking

Best practices and code snippets for capturing rich media events using GA4 and PlainSignal.

  • Google analytics 4 (GA4)

    GA4 leverages an event-based model: use gtag.js or Google Tag Manager to send events like ‘video_start’, ‘video_progress’, and ‘video_complete’ with relevant parameters.

  • PlainSignal (cookie-free analytics)

    PlainSignal provides a minimal, privacy-focused script to define and capture custom events without cookies.

    • Tracking code example

      <link rel="preconnect" href="//eu.plainsignal.com/" crossorigin />
<script defer data-do="yourwebsitedomain.com" data-id="0GQV1xmtzQQ" data-api="//eu.plainsignal.com" src="//cdn.plainsignal.com/plainsignal-min.js"></script>

Analyzing Rich Media Data

How to interpret rich media interaction metrics and apply insights.

  • Engagement metrics

    Assess playthrough rates, interaction counts, and dwell time to understand content effectiveness.

  • A/b testing with rich media

    Experiment with different media formats, durations, and placements to optimize user engagement.

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