How to Gather Actionable Data

Start Recordings and set up Events.

Starting Recordings gives you immediate insight from the moment the first user comes to your site after installation. Set up events to identify specific user behavior, such as automatically detecting when a user adds or removes products from their basket. You will then be able to filter by these events to view any Recordings that have this action.

Other events that might be helpful can be triggered when someone signs up for your monthly newsletter or clicks a CTA element that you'd like to keep track of.

Trigger a Survey on events that are important and connect the response to a corresponding Recording.

Trigger an On-Site Survey to show when an item is removed from the user's basket with a few questions about why they decided to take that action. Not only will you have Recordings to see their journey, but you'll also get the "why" behind the Recording session when you connect Feedback and Survey responses to Recordings.

While you're at it, consider creating an abandonment Survey to trigger when the user leaves your site from pages with the highest exit rate, or triggering a Survey based on User Attributes (like a user's average spend).

Set up Segments and Heatmaps to track UTMs and drop-offs in your funnel.

Segments are a collection of session filters that can be saved for reuse, enabling you to quickly and repeatedly access your most relevant set of filters. If you have a few campaigns running, set up a Recording Segment and a Heatmap for each campaign.

For Recordings, use the Path filter "Landing page" and enter in the UTM you'd like to track. Make sure to save your changes and name your Segment the name of the campaign. 

Segments can also be used to find where site visitors are dropping off in a conversion funnel so you can follow their journey and address any bugs or UI problems or pinpoint how specific groups of users are interacting with your site. 

Use Highlights and Collections to monitor A/B tests

Even though Hotjar is not a dedicated A/B testing tool, it is a powerful complement that can help you monitor the performance of site iterations and validate hypotheses. Visitors to your site are shown controls and variants of each tool and the information they provide can lead to informed decision-making.

Hotjar even integrates with A/B testing software so you can get started on your existing platform. 

To keep all the information you've gathered organized, create Highlights to capture snippets of your Recordings and Heatmaps and group them into Collections that you can share and analyze with your team. Grouping these insights together in one place helps your team to identify patterns, validate assumptions, and prioritize brilliantly.