How to Get Notified Only for PDF Engagement That Matters

Every automation is three decisions, and the builder lays them out as three cards — “When this happens…”, “Only if… (optional)” and “Then do this…”. The middle card is the one this tutorial is about. Five conditions are available, and they stack (all must hold):

Page number equals            — the event happened on this page
Time on page at least         — seconds spent on that page
Total reading time at least   — seconds across the whole session
Pages viewed at least         — distinct pages this session
Completion rate at least      — % of the document seen this session

The first two look at the triggering event; the last three look at the session so far — which is what lets you say “only tell me about real reads” regardless of which page tripped the trigger.

1. Go to Documents → Automations → New Automation and pick Page Read under “When this happens…”.
2. Under “Only if…” add “Total reading time at least” 120 seconds and “Completion rate at least” 75%.
3. Under “Then do this…” paste your Webhook URL and save.

Read out loud: “when a page is actually read, but only in sessions that have already spent two minutes and covered three quarters of the document, call my webhook.” A courtesy click can't qualify.

We sent the benchmark report to a reader who skimmed one page for 15 seconds — the webhook stayed silent — and to Elena, who read all eight pages over 2m48s. One notification arrived, carrying everything the follow-up needs:

{
    "automation": {
        "id": "4d9e1-53957-59772",
        "name": "Real reads only"
    },
    "document": {
        "doc_id": "8432e-b4ebb-74433",
        "name": "2026 Client Reporting Benchmark",
        "viewer_url": "https://docs.apdf.io/studio/8432e-b4ebb-74433",
        "file_pages": 8
    },
    "trigger": {
        "matched_event": "page:read",
        "conditions_evaluated": true
    },
    "event": {
        "session_id": "condDeep000000B1",
        "viewer_id": "vDeep0000000000B",
        "recipient": {
            "name": "Elena Novak",
            "email": "elena@novak.example"
        },
        "data": {
            "page": 1,
            "duration_ms": 21000
        }
    },
    "session": {
        "total_duration_ms": 168000,
        "pages_viewed": 8,
        "completion_rate": 100
    },
    "timestamp": "2026-07-23T09:45:34+00:00"
}

Note what didn't happen: Elena's session produced eight qualifying page:read events, and you got one notification, not eight — automations fire at most once per session. The filter controls quality, the dedupe controls volume.

• The pricing stall — Page number equals your money page + Time on page at least 30s. Built end to end in the follow-up timing tutorial.
• The serious read — this tutorial's build: Total reading time + Completion rate. Wire it to CRM tasks and only real reads become follow-ups.
• The thorough committee — Pages viewed at least n−1 on a long document: someone is reviewing, not browsing.
• The re-open — not a condition but a payload field: every open carries a visit_number, so your receiver alerts only when it's >1. The re-open tutorial shows the four-line filter.