Using Hotjar with Google Analytics

The Hotjar Google Analytics (GA) integration enables you to drill through your Google Analytics data to see your users' actual experience inside Hotjar. This article provides some common use cases and outlines setting up the two features available with this Google Analytics integration.

• Current feature limitations
• Common use cases for the Google Analytics integration
• Creating Hotjar Events from Google Analytics Events
• Finding recordings of users identified in Google Analytics

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Current feature limitations

There are currently some feature limitations for this integration depending on the version of Google Analytics and installation method used. Our team are actively working on removing these limitations. The table below outlines the limitations:

	Legacy Universal Analytics (analytics.js)	Universal Analytics (gtag.js)	Google Analytics 4
Creating Hotjar Events from Google Analytics Events	✅	✅ If GA is installed directly in the HTML of the page and not using a tag manager.	✅ If GA is installed directly in the HTML of the page and not using a tag manager.
Finding recordings of users identified in Google Analytics	✅	❌	❌

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Common use cases for the Google Analytics integration

The following are some example use cases for the Hotjar Google Analytics integration:

• You identify a behavior change in a Google Analytics user segment, such as an increase in bounce rate or a decrease in conversions. Get a complete understanding of the problem or opportunity by filtering Hotjar Recordings by a user from that Google Analytics segment.
• Enhancing your Google Analytics quantitative data with the related Hotjar Recordings to add support to your hypothesis for a product improvement opportunity.
• Analyze user flows in Hotjar by filtering Recordings with the related Events from Google Analytics, such as GA_started_checkout and GA_didnt_complete_order. Use the filtered recordings to find opportunities to optimize the user journey.
• Use Google Analytics Events to filter Heatmaps to see what's getting clicked on or ignored by users who triggered an event such as GA_cart_abandoned.
• Trigger a Hotjar Survey or Feedback widget when a specific user action fires a Google Analytics event.

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Creating Hotjar Events from Google Analytics Events

 

Sending Google Analytics Events to Hotjar enables you to:

• Filter Recordings and Heatmaps by Google Analytics Events.
• Target Surveys and Feedback widgets based on Google Analytics Events (Requires the Ask Plus, Business, or Scale plan).

With your Site selected on the Hotjar Integrations page, click Connect for Google Analytics if you haven't already done so.

Turn on Automatically create events.

Hotjar will begin capturing Google Analytics Events and attaching them to session data used in Recordings and Heatmaps. You may need to allow some time to pass before captured Google Analytics Events appear in the Hotjar Events filter.

• Filtering Recordings and Heatmaps by Google Analytics Events

  From your Recordings or Heatmaps page, add a new filter and select Event. Then, start typing GA_ followed by the Google Analytics event name to find the relevant event.

  

• Targeting Surveys and Feedback Widgets using Google Analytics Events

  Targeting Surveys and Feedback Widgets by Events is available on Ask , or plans.

  From the Targeting Settings of your Survey or Feedback widget set up, select Specific Pages and choose Event from the dropdown menu. Enter GA_ followed by the Google Analytics Event name as the value for the Event targeting field. Then click Done and Activate the Survey or Feedback widget.

  

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Find recordings of users identified in Google Analytics

With the Hotjar Google Analytics integration, you'll find the Hotjar User ID in Google Analytics which you can use to filter the Hotjar Recordings tool and isolate recordings for specific users.

Setting up this feature

Visit your Google Analytics Admin page by clicking on the gear icon found at the bottom-left of the sidebar.

In the Property column, click Custom Definitions.

Within Custom Definitions, click on Custom Dimensions.

Click New Custom Dimension.

Enter Hotjar ID as the Name, set the Scope to User, and leaving Active selected, click Create.

From the Custom Dimension table, make a note of the Index number for your newly created custom dimension.

Visit your Hotjar Integrations page, select your Site from the dropdown menu and click Connect for Google Analytics.

Turn on Enter custom dimension index number, enter the Index number you noted in Step 6 and click Update.

Using this feature

Visit the User Explorer page in Google Analytics.

Click on the Client ID for the user you're interested in.

Under Custom Dimensions, copy the Hotjar ID value.

Visit your Hotjar Recordings page and click Add filter.

Select Hotjar user ID, paste the Hotjar ID value into the ID field and click Apply.

This will filter your Recordings list by sessions that Hotjar has captured for the user you've identified from Google Analytics.

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