If you’re using presentation decks to close sales, it’s tough to know what actually lands and what gets ignored. Are prospects even opening your fancy Pitch slides, or are they just clicking through? This guide is for sales teams and enablement folks who want real answers—not just “views” counts. Here’s how to get actual engagement analytics from Pitch, skip the vanity metrics, and focus on what helps you close more deals.
Why Engagement Analytics Actually Matter
Let’s be honest: “X people viewed your deck” is almost useless by itself. What you really want to know: - Who looked at your deck? - How long did they spend on each slide? - Where did they drop off? - Did they share it with colleagues?
Knowing this lets you separate hot leads from tire kickers, find slides that work, and stop sending decks into the void. Otherwise, you’re just guessing.
1. Set Up Your Pitch Account for Tracking
First up, you’ll need to be using Pitch’s paid plans—free accounts get very limited analytics. If you’re on a team plan, check you’ve got the right permissions to view analytics and share decks outside your org.
- Check your plan: Only Pro and Business plans have full analytics. If you’re on the free tier, you’ll see almost nothing.
- User permissions: If you can’t see analytics, ask your workspace admin. Pitch is pretty strict about who can see what.
Pro Tip: Don’t bother trying to hack together tracking with free Pitch accounts and third-party tools. It’s more trouble than it’s worth and rarely accurate.
2. Share Presentations with Analytics in Mind
Pitch gives you two main ways to share presentations: - Workspace sharing: Just for people in your Pitch workspace. No analytics here. - Public/private links: Send these to prospects. This is where analytics kick in.
To get the most useful data, always share via a private link with “collect viewer info” enabled. Here’s what that does:
- Enables tracking: Pitch will ask viewers for their email before they view your deck. This ties engagement data to real people—not just “anonymous user.”
- Keeps it private: Only people with the link (and who enter their email) can access the presentation.
How to set it up: 1. Open your presentation in Pitch. 2. Click “Share.” 3. Select “Create link” (not “Invite to workspace”). 4. Set link to “Private” (or “Anyone with the link,” if you don’t care who sees it). 5. Toggle on “Collect viewer info.” 6. Copy and send the link to your prospect.
Skip This: Don’t just export as PDF. You’ll lose all analytics—and it’s a pain to update slides.
3. Find and Understand Your Analytics Dashboard
Once you’ve shared, Pitch tracks engagement automatically. Here’s how to find your data:
- Open your presentation in Pitch.
- Click the “Analytics” tab (top right).
- You’ll see a dashboard with:
- Total views
- Unique viewers
- Time spent per slide
- Drop-off points
- Viewer identities (if you required email)
What actually matters: - Time on slide: If someone spends 2 seconds per slide, they’re skimming or not interested. If they linger on pricing or technical slides, that’s a buying signal or a sticking point. - Drop-off slide: Where do people stop viewing? That’s often where you lose them—or where you need to clarify. - Repeat views: Someone coming back to your deck (especially sharing with colleagues) is a good sign.
What to ignore: - View count: High views mean nothing if no one reads past slide 3. - Anonymous users: Unless you’re doing broad marketing, these don’t help qualify a lead.
4. Use Analytics to Qualify and Follow Up
The real power is using this data to actually do something:
- Hot leads: Someone viewed the deck, spent several minutes, and revisited? Reach out while you’re top of mind.
- Stuck slides: If prospects keep dropping off after a certain slide, it’s probably confusing or a turn-off. Tweak it, and see if engagement improves.
- Skipped sections: Slides that always get skipped might not be as important as you think. Cut or condense them.
- Multiple viewers: If a deck gets shared internally, you’ve got buy-in—or at least curiosity—from a wider team.
Pro Tip: Don’t overthink. You’re looking for patterns, not obsessing over every single view. Focus on what reliably signals buying interest.
5. Avoid the Analytics Rabbit Hole
Pitch’s analytics are helpful, but they’re not a crystal ball. Here’s what to watch out for:
- Misreading intent: Just because someone spends time on a slide doesn’t mean they’re sold—they might be confused.
- Overemphasizing slides: A single “bad” slide isn’t always the problem. Look for trends over multiple prospects.
- Privacy settings: Some prospects will balk at entering their email. If you have a relationship, give them a heads-up or share a version without tracking (but know you’ll get less data).
Skip This: Don’t waste time on heatmaps or screen recording add-ons. They’re rarely accurate in Pitch and just add noise.
6. Use Insights to Actually Improve Your Decks
Analytics are only helpful if you act on them. Here’s how to use what you learn:
- Refine your story: If you spot slides that consistently trip people up, rewrite or clarify them.
- Shorten your decks: If everyone bails after slide 10, maybe you only need 8 slides.
- Personalize follow-ups: Reference the specific sections your prospect spent time on (“I saw you looked at our case studies—want to talk about similar projects?”).
- Test and iterate: Make one change at a time and watch if the analytics shift. Don’t overhaul everything at once.
7. What Pitch Analytics Can’t Do (and What to Do About It)
Pitch analytics are solid for basic engagement, but they’re not magic:
- No in-slide actions: You can’t see if a prospect clicked a link or interacted with embedded content.
- No integrations with CRM (yet): As of now, Pitch doesn’t natively push analytics into Salesforce, HubSpot, etc. You’ll have to copy notes over manually.
- Not foolproof: If someone shares the private link with a colleague, you might not know who’s who unless everyone enters their email.
Workarounds: - For mission-critical deals, ask prospects to book a call right after viewing. - For CRM sync, make it a habit to jot down “engaged with deck” in your notes.
8. Alternatives and When to Look Elsewhere
If you need deeper analytics or CRM integration, consider: - DocSend: More granular analytics and direct CRM hooks, but less flexible presentation building. - Showpad or Seismic: Heavy-duty for big sales teams, with analytics—but expensive and heavier setup.
But for most teams, Pitch’s built-in analytics are enough to answer: “Is anyone actually reading this, and where do they get stuck?”
Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Iterate Fast
Don’t get caught up in tracking every metric. Focus on the basics: - Share decks with tracking enabled. - Watch for real engagement signals (time, drop-off, repeat views). - Use what you learn to tweak slides and follow up smarter.
If you make small, regular improvements based on what the numbers actually tell you, you’ll close more deals—and spend less time guessing what works.