Optimizing Engagement and Insights: Tracking User Behavior on The News Minute’s Drupal Platform

Akhildev Cs | Updated 05 Oct 2025 | 4 min read

Introduction

The News Minute (TNM) is a leading Indian digital news platform that offers comprehensive coverage of national, international, and regional news. The platform covers a wide array of topics, including politics, business, technology, sports, entertainment, and culture, with the aim of providing in-depth and accurate news to its readers.

As part of their ongoing efforts to enhance user experience and optimize their content strategy, TNM seeks to gain deeper insights into how users interact with their platform. Specifically, they are focused on understanding the engagement levels of their audience, including which pages users visit, the time spent on each page, whether subscribed users are engaging with the content, and if users are scrolling to the bottom of the pages to access additional content.

This project aims to address these needs by implementing robust tracking mechanisms that will provide detailed analytics on user behavior across the platform, allowing TNM to make informed decisions that will improve content delivery and increase user engagement.

Challenges

The project presented several challenges in capturing and analyzing user interactions accurately across The News Minute (TNM) platform. The primary challenge was tracking detailed user behaviors such as the pages visited, time spent on each page, scroll depth, and distinguishing between subscribed and non-subscribed users. Additionally, ensuring that this data was captured consistently across various pages, without causing performance issues, required a precise and robust tracking solution.

Another key hurdle was integrating the tracking system with TNM's existing infrastructure while ensuring that the data was correctly reflected in Google Analytics (GA) for actionable insights. Mapping the data through multiple systems (Datalayer, GTM, and GA) while ensuring smooth functionality and minimal disruption to existing workflows was a complex task that required careful planning and testing.

Our Approach

A solution was implemented to track detailed user activities on The News Minute (TNM) platform, following a structured approach encompassing design and implementation phases. The steps employed in the development and deployment of the tracking system are outlined below:

Solution Design

Key Tracking Parameters:
The solution identifies essential user activities for monitoring, including page visits, time spent on pages, scroll depth, and user engagement differentiated by subscription status.
Data Layer Requirements:
A comprehensive data layer structure is defined to capture relevant parameters in real time. The data layer acts as a central repository, enabling the transfer of user activity data to Google Tag Manager (GTM) for subsequent processing.
Tools and Technologies:
JavaScript is used to track user actions on the platform; Google Tag Manager (GTM) facilitates tag management, and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) provides analytics and reporting capabilities.

Solution

Solution Implementation

JavaScript Tracking Integration:
Custom JavaScript code monitors user activities such as page visits, time spent per page, scroll depth, and engagement status.
Google Tag Manager Integration:
Data collected using JavaScript is pushed to the Data Layer, which is then integrated with GTM. GTM is configured with triggers and variables to transmit data to GA4 without modifying the platform’s codebase.
Google Analytics Configuration:
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is set up to receive data from GTM. Key variables, including time on page, scroll depth, and subscription status, are mapped as custom events for reporting and analysis.
Drupal GA Module Setup:
The Drupal GA module incorporates the GA4 tracking code and configures event-based tracking, including e-commerce tracking if required. The module also assigns appropriate GA4 keys for comprehensive tracking and reporting.
Testing and Validation:
Extensive testing ensures the accuracy and reliability of captured data, verifying that all key user interactions are monitored across diverse devices and browsers. Data consistency is validated within Google Analytics.

The combined use of JavaScript for activity tracking, Google Tag Manager for tag management, and Google Analytics 4 for reporting yields a robust solution. This architecture supports real-time insights into user behavior on the TNM platform and enables data-driven content optimization strategies.

Result

The project successfully enhanced the overall user experience for The News Minute (TNM) by enabling detailed tracking of user interactions across the platform. By implementing a robust tracking solution, TNM now has the ability to monitor key behaviors such as time spent on each page, scroll depth, and the activity of subscribed users. This data empowers TNM to make informed decisions, improve content targeting, and better engage their audience, leading to a more personalized and efficient user experience.

The effectiveness and efficiency of the solution were demonstrated through the seamless integration of Google Tag Manager (GTM) and Google Analytics 4 (GA4), which allowed for real-time tracking and data visualization. The Datalayer module played a key role in pushing accurate data, ensuring minimal disruptions to the existing system while providing valuable insights.

Quantitative results included:

Enhanced user engagement, with increased interaction metrics due to optimized content delivery.
Better content targeting, as user behavior data enabled TNM to focus on the most relevant content for their audience.
More precise conversion tracking, helping TNM understand how subscribed users engage and convert on the platform.

CONCLUSION

This project achieved key milestones in improving the user experience for TNM by offering actionable insights into user behavior. The implementation of a comprehensive tracking solution using GTM, GA4, and the Datalayer module allowed TNM to refine its content strategies and enhance user engagement. As a result, TNM gained a better understanding of its audience, leading to more tailored content and higher user satisfaction.

The benefits to TNM were clear: optimized content targeting, improved user interaction, and better conversion insights. These outcomes have not only enhanced the user experience but also provided TNM with valuable data to guide future decisions and further optimize its platform.

For businesses looking to optimize user engagement, streamline data tracking, and gain actionable insights into customer behavior, we invite you to contact us. Let us help you achieve similar results and unlock the potential of your digital platform.