Short answer: not really. HubSpot can tell you when someone clicks a link to your PDF. It can't tell you what they read, what they wanted to know, or who they shared it with. That's a pretty big blind spot if you're trying to understand buyer interest.
Ask how this would work in your HubSpot →
Imagine sending a research report to 2,000 contacts in a HubSpot email. Let's use our own Buyer Answer Gap Index as an example. The next morning, HubSpot reports 180 clicks. Not bad. But what did those 180 people actually do?
Did they read the report or close it after the first page? Did it raise questions? Did they forward it to a colleague who's involved in the decision? You have no idea.
That's the problem with measuring clicks. They tell you someone showed up, not whether your content helped move a buying decision forward.
Ask our agent: what happens after the click? →
A request to track files stored in HubSpot has 605 votes on HubSpot's Ideas forum. It was first posted in March 2017 and is still marked "Idea Submitted."
In July 2025, a HubSpot program manager posted an update: the feature isn't on the immediate roadmap because it would need significant backend changes.
I found a similar frustration in a recent r/hubspot discussion. One commenter called knowing that someone opened a PDF "near useless." More interestingly, three of the five people who responded brought up the same issue: someone forwards the file, and the next reader disappears from view.
That second reader could be far more important than the person you emailed in the first place.
A former HubSpot Support rep asked a good question in that thread: why does it matter if someone read the PDF? It's the right question. Tracking is only valuable if it helps you decide what to do next.
There are a few workarounds. Each can tell you something about file views, but they generally leave you guessing about who's involved and what questions your content raised.
| Fix | What you learn | Where it stops | Captures what they asked? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Put the file on a landing page (HubSpot's usual advice) | Visits and time on page for the person who clicked | A forward arrives anonymous. Scroll tracking needs custom events, a Marketing Hub Enterprise feature. | No, unless you add chat to the page |
| Sales Hub Documents tool | Who viewed the file and time spent per page | HubSpot asks any viewer it doesn't recognize for an email before showing the file. | No |
| Email gate on the file | The second person's name, if they give it | People who won't trade an email leave. | No |
| "Was this useful?" widget at the end | A pulse from readers who reach the end | You only hear from people who finish, and only a yes or no. | Only a yes or no |
| Ask on the next sales call | Who else has seen it | Works only for deals already talking to sales. | Only for active deals, and only what they remember |
| Document-tracking apps | Views, time and pages per contact | Built to measure reading, not to capture what readers want to know. | No |
These are all reasonable approaches. But they're mostly measuring content consumption, not helping you understand the buying conversation.
What if your PDF could start a conversation? Here's how we approach this at SlateCX. Rather than sending someone a PDF link, we give them a personal workspace, called a Slate, with the report already there. They can read it, ask questions, and bring colleagues into the discussion without starting over.
That changes a few things:
A test buyer's Slate. Our Buyer Answer Gap Index study is open on the right, the agent is on the left, and the buttons to invite a colleague sit at the top right.
You can set it up from HubSpot. One workflow action creates the Slate and saves its link on the contact record. Another adds a file from HubSpot. You can also upload files to SlateCX or import them from Google Drive.
Ask our agent: how do colleagues end up in HubSpot? →
Use an entry point link in the email. Everyone who opens it gets their own Slate, including a colleague who was forwarded the email. When they save the Slate or give the agent their email address, SlateCX matches them to an existing HubSpot contact or creates a new one.
So the person you emailed and the colleague they forwarded it to show up as two separate Slates, each with their own questions. You learn who the colleague is as soon as they save or share their email.
Ask our agent: what happens when an email is forwarded? →
The value looks a little different depending on who's looking at the data.
Clicks tell you which headline caught someone's eye. SlateCX lets you see what happened when they got to the content:
In SlateCX Insights, you can compare asset performance and review the questions people asked. That's much more useful when you're deciding what to create next.
Content performance in SlateCX Insights, filtered to our own PDFs. Each row shows how many people opened the asset and how many in-card interactions, like paging through or zooming, it got.
What people are asking, from SlateCX Insights on our own account. Buyer questions are grouped into topics, so you can see what your content raises. Questions about the Buyer Answer Gap and website grading came up in 88 conversations.
Reps can see these signals right in HubSpot, alongside their normal contact activity. They can also open a SlateCX card to review the Slate and the buyer's questions.
SlateCX events on a test contact's HubSpot timeline.
Message history from the SlateCX card, opened on the same test contact's HubSpot record. The agent led with the Buyer Answer Gap Index, and the buyer came back with a question.
Our own version, built from the same SlateCX actions. If the contact has a Slate, add the Card. If not, create the Slate first, then add it.
Ask our agent: how do I set up the workflow? →
Here's what our own account has shown in recent months, across everyone who's reached a Slate:
There's another practical benefit: automated email security scanners don't count as engaged buyers just because they clicked a link. That matters more than it sounds. In one test published this May, 71% of a campaign's reported clicks came from bots, not people.
SlateCX looks for actions such as messages, saves, and invitations. A scanner click might register as a visit, but not as meaningful engagement.
Meaningful interactions in SlateCX Insights, from our own account. These are the actions that count as engagement. Opening a Card on its own doesn't count, and neither do the agent's own messages.
Here's what we do with this information:
Start with one asset that matters: a case study, a pricing guide, or a report your sales team shares all the time. Send one audience segment to a Slate and keep the usual experience for a comparable group.
After two weeks, look beyond clicks. How many people asked questions? How many invited someone else? And how many of those conversations prompted a useful sales follow-up?
If you don't learn anything new, fine. Keep doing what works. But if you discover new stakeholders, questions, and opportunities that never appeared in your click reports, that's worth paying attention to.
Curious what this would look like with one of your own PDFs?
Ask our agent how to set it up →