Click heatmap example
A common use case for click heatmaps is a product page. Typically, these pages will include navigation options, product and/or pricing information, and calls to action (CTAs) that the web designer wants visitors to engage with.
A click heatmap shows you exactly what your visitors are clicking on when interacting with your content, including which links or buttons are attracting their attention. If your goal is to drive CTA clicks, then you can directly measure the effectiveness of your designs using a A/B test to see which layout results in more conversions.
Click heatmap vs. heatmap
This can be a little confusing, so let’s make sure we have a clear understanding of the difference.
- A click heatmap represents the elements of your web pages that people are clicking on, and how often they are clicking on these elements.
- A heatmap offers a broader view of how people engage with your web pages, including scrolling and mouse movements, as well as clicks — in other words, a more holistic, but typically less granular view of user engagement.
Metrics click maps can measure
Click maps give you a host of metrics to work with. It might sound simple up front, but these user interactions are a gold mine for actionable insights.
Here are the ways you can break it down:
Click frequency
The most basic information you can draw from click heatmaps is click frequency — i.e., how often people are clicking on which components. This helps you understand which elements are the most popular on your web pages (what are the most common actions), giving you insights into what buttons or navigation items are most effective.
Click distribution
This metric shows you the percentage breakdown of total clicks that each component gets. It’s another view into what is most and least popular on your page.
Click location
This is an interesting metric in that it can provide you with unexpected information — for example, people may be clicking on a non-interactive item (dead clicks). It can also provide some insight into overall page engagement.
Are people commonly clicking on links at the bottom of your blog posts? This shows that they are likely reading more of your content (you can also cross-check this with scrollmaps).
Click engagement
This metric measures the proportion of clicks on interactive elements versus non-interactive elements. Is it clear what people should click on? Or are there design elements or page styles that make it unclear what actions visitors should take?
Error clicks
Error clicks are distinct from dead clicks in that error clicks indicate usability issues — that is, the object or link that the person is clicking on doesn’t do what it should do, resulting in an unexpected or undesirable outcome.
Dead clicks
Dead clicks are clicks that don’t result in anything — for example, a visitor may click on a static image.
Dead clicks add friction to the user experience may indicate frustration with the user interface — these may also be rage clicks (when a user clicks on a non-interactive element multiple times in a short span).
Click recurrence
Speaking of multiple clicks on a single element, click recurrence is a measure of just that — the number of clicks on an item by a single user. Depending on context, this may also be an indication of frustration (rage clicks).
Click through rate (CTR)
This metric can sometimes be confusing since there is a similar stat for email campaigns, but in the context of click heatmaps, it measures the ratio of visitors who click on a specific element on the page, versus the total number of page visitors.
Click sequence
A little more self-explanatory, the click sequence is the order in which visitors click on the various links and clickable elements on your page.
Click depth
This measures the vertical position on the page where visitors click, and can be a useful indicator of how engaging your content is (just as with a scrollmap, the depth of clicks shows how frequently users are engaging with elements further down the page).
Conversion clicks
These are the Holy Grail of click heatmaps, as it were. Since you’re building landing pages with a specific call to action in mind (well, hopefully you are??), conversion clicks measure the effectiveness of the page overall by calculating the number of visitors clicking on the CTA(s).
For example, how many visitors are clicking ‘add to cart’ on a shopping page.
How to analyze user clicks with heatmaps
Now that we’ve established what click heatmaps are, and what they measure — how do you implement them on your website, and get the most out of your heatmap data?
Here we’ll walk you through the best way to get heatmaps up and running on your site with Sprig’s easy-to-install and intuitive tools.
Setting up heatmaps on your site
The first step is to install your heatmap tool on your website. While there are many options that cover the basics, Sprig’s suite of tools and AI analysis helps you get the most out of your visitor data and maximizes your ability to glean actionable insights from your heatmap data.
To get set up, typically you’ll need to install a code snippet on your website. Once the code is in place, you’ll start to be able to track user activity.
However, if this sounds difficult, Sprig has an easy installation process that requires little-to-no coding — you can have it up and running in minutes both inside your product and on your marketing site.
Capture targeted user behavior
With your heatmap tool installed, you can begin to capture and track user behavior. This constant flow of new information helps you quickly build statistically significant data that can be used to inform design changes and updates.
To make sure you’re capturing only what you’re looking to analyze, you’ll want to carefully set up the process so that certain actions trigger recording.
Segment user behavior based on events and attributes
As you capture user behavior, you can segment the data based on events (what links they are clicking or what actions they are taking) and attributes (these can be demographics, like age or gender, or based on source, like organic or paid search, etc.).
For example, if you’re running a campaign, you may want to track the actions that visitors take who arrived on your website based on specific campaign promotions.
Sprig’s segment heatmaps makes this kind of analysis a snap. With Sprig, you can even configure your heatmaps to trigger based on specific attributes or user activity.
Review AI-powered insights to analyze click trends at scale
Once you’ve captured and segmented your heatmap data, it’s time for that all-important step — what do you do with all this information?
With a huge volume of data flowing in, it can be overwhelming (or even impossible) to go through it all with a fine-toothed comb. And that’s what makes Sprig’s AI-powered analysis so valuable.
Sprig’s AI is constantly analyzing your data as it comes in, organizing by themes and pulling highlights in real time to help your team prioritize where to focus your attention and dig deeper into the data.
Combine heatmap data with feedback analysis
With Sprig, your product analysis goes well beyond heatmaps. When you combine heatmap data with Sprig’s other tools, like customizable surveys and micro-surveys, user journey analysis, and session replays, you get a holistic picture of your user experience that offers in-depth insights — enabling you to make informed decisions and move your product forward.
The Sprig Dashboard shows you a real-time feed of AI-generated summaries from all studies—Replays, Heatmaps, Surveys, and Feedback—to help you prioritize the top optimizations across your product.What can you learn from click heatmaps?
As we’ve established, click heatmaps are a very powerful tool for understanding user experience and the customer journey.
Let’s go over some of the most important things to take away from heatmap data, and some common pitfalls to avoid along the way.
How the user experience varies across segments and devices
Because you can segment by demographics — including mobile devices vs. web experience — it’s important to be cognizant of how the user experience varies by device.
Ideally, you want a smooth experience tailored to suit each context — heatmaps can help reveal usability issues through things like dead clicks and rage clicks.
- Common mistake: Don’t ignore your data across devices or from mobile apps. It’s critically important that the user experience is tailored to suit each context, otherwise you risk misinterpreting people’s actions.
Which in-product elements have the highest engagement
Click heatmaps help shine a light on what content is driving the highest engagement.
For example, say you’ve recently updated your user interface. Heatmaps allow you to validate design changes by revealing how visitors engage with your site, and which elements are capturing most of their attention — this is best done in tandem with other feedback sources, like surveys, to help get a broader picture of overall user satisfaction.
- Common mistake: Makes sure that you set clear goals before capturing your user data. What do you want the visitor to do? Is that reflected in the engagement rate with that element?
Which elements underperform and why
Another important insight that you can draw from heatmap analysis is which components of your marketing site or product aren’t performing, and why.
Because you can layer multiple kinds of data, including granular information like individual session recordings, and analyze it all with Sprig’s AI, you can quickly get a picture of usability issues or other factors affecting the user experience, and use these actionable insights to make data-driven design changes.
- Common mistake: Don’t ignore the context of the user activity. For example, if engagement rates are lower after a certain point in your content, it could mean that users aren’t finding value, or it could also mean that they’re getting what they need early and then leaving. Spring’s Replays tool helps you read deeper into the context by allowing you to play back specific user’s interactions.
5 example use cases for click heatmaps
There are too many use cases to list all in one place, but here are a few of the top use cases for click heatmaps.
1. Make data-driven decisions about product updates
As we noted above, the insights provided by heatmap data help inform product updates by revealing what is driving the highest engagement, as well as bringing any usability issues to light through tracking dead clicks and rage clicks, as well as other cursor-related data.
2. Split-test product designs
You can quickly build a dataset based on an A/B test to show which designs better drive the desired actions for your business.
3. Improve conversion rates
Since you’re looking at what actual people are doing on your website, you’re gathering the kind of feedback that directly addresses any issues they are facing, and tracks their overall engagement — as well as their actions. Heatmaps help improve conversion rates by showing you what is driving the highest engagement levels, allowing you to modify your designs to increase clicks to your CTA.
4. Spot and address errors and bugs
Error clicks and dead clicks show you that you’ve got issues directly affecting the user experience — website heatmaps allow you to see these problems quickly and make adjustments accordingly.
5. Prove the value of in-product features and content
Heatmap software helps you prove the value of both features and content by highlighting activity associated with those elements, through engagement rates, scroll maps, click depth, and other statistics.
Real-time click heatmap insights powered by Sprig AI
The results page of a Heatmap study in Sprig, including the AI Summary and heatmap, scrollmap, and clickmap data.With click heatmaps, you can quickly get a clear picture of how people are engaging with your website or product. Click metrics can show you usability issues, indicate what kind of content drives higher engagement, or validate a design update that boosts CTA conversions.
Then, segment these datasets to paint a picture of campaign performance, reveal device-driven design problems, and more. As you aggregate data, Sprig’s AI constantly analyzes your user activity to provide you with insights across your team’s home feed, enabling you to go beyond simply capturing click data.
With Sprig’s AI-powered insights and suite of feedback tools, you’re empowered to continually iterate and improve on your product, content, and customer journey.
Sign up for free today to give your team the data they need to iterate — and innovate — faster.