How to See If Clients Actually Read Your Monthly Reports

Each client's report is its own private document; each person on the client side gets their own link. That's what turns “the report was viewed” into “Priya read it Monday, Dev caught up Tuesday”:

curl -X POST https://apdf.io/api/docs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN" -H "Accept: application/json" \
  --data-urlencode "file=https://your-site.example/reports/july-meridian.pdf" \
  --data-urlencode "name=July Report — Meridian Labs" \
  -d "is_public=0"

curl -X POST https://apdf.io/api/docs/0e4b8-25426-cdb90/links \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN" -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -d name="Priya Raman" -d email="priya@meridianlabs.example"

One analytics call per client report, and the portfolio sorts itself:

# July Report — Meridian Labs
{ "sessions": 2, "unique_viewers": 2, "avg_duration_ms": 111500, "completion_rate": 88, ... }

# July Report — Brightpath Studio
{ "sessions": 1, "unique_viewers": 1, "avg_duration_ms": 15000, "completion_rate": 50, ... }

# July Report — Okafor Capital
{ "sessions": 0, "unique_viewers": 0, "avg_duration_ms": 0, "completion_rate": 0, ... }

• Meridian is healthy — two stakeholders, nearly two minutes each, 88% completion. The retainer is read, literally.
• Brightpath is drifting — one 15-second flick over two pages. Not angry, not engaged — the most dangerous state, because it looks like silence until renewal.
• Okafor is a flare — zero opens, five days after sending. Check the contact still exists, then pick up the phone. This is next quarter's churn call, available early.

Reports usually end with a decision request — ours is page 4, “one decision we need from you.” The per-page session data answers a question no reply-silence can: did they even see it? Priya spent 45 seconds on page 4 — she saw the ask and hasn't answered, which is a nudge. Marcus never reached it — his silence isn't a decision, so the ask goes into the body of the next email instead.

Same silence, two completely different follow-ups — that's the difference per-page data makes. (The drop-off tutorial turns this into a habit across all readers.)

Come renewal, the reading history argues for you in both directions: for the engaged client, “your team read every report cover to cover” is evidence the retainer delivers value someone consumes. For the quiet one, three months of unread reports reframes the conversation — not “please renew” but “let's change what we send you, because this format isn't serving you.” Either way you're negotiating from data, not hope.