Do Heat Maps Help Conversions and ROI?

To the consumer and to the keen marketing individual, a heat map looks like it is the most amazing software developed and released in the 21st century.

Why is this? Because you can see where people click on your website, on every page, on every device? Surely it should unlock the answer for everything you need to know about how your website is performing? Surely it shows you if I am making money or losing money?

Think again.

A Heat map is merely a marketing fluff; developed and promoted by companies to brainwash the user into thinking that clicks is all they need to know about their website’s behavioral patterns, and that anything else from there is irrelevant and superfluous.

Clicks are yesterday’s news, but somehow still seems to be the paramount metric used by digital agencies across Australia to report to their clients as a measure of success. What’s the point of buying a click if it’s not going to result in any commercial benefit to your business? The answer you’re thinking in your head is correct – there is no point, it’s a waste of money.

Clicks can be valuable, don’t let that fool you. Their value can be seen only if a high percentage of the clicks you’re investing in results in a conversion event that returns commercial value to your business. That conversion event could be the download of a PDF, filling out an enquiry form, or even best, a sale.

There are great reports available in Google Analytics that give you better behavioural insight than colourful heat maps. Reports on user flow journeys, the amount of time spent on certain pages, the amount of exits and bounces on a given page – all things you can’t see through heat mapping. Of course, heat maps are aesthetically pleasing to the eye and easy to slide into a report that you can present; but it doesn’t tell you anymore than what you can find inside great reporting tools such as Analytics (still the best source of truth out there).

It is simply a distraction from what the main goal should be, not the answer.

You can spend as much money as you want through any advertising channels to generate clicks. Eventually, you will lose out and waste money.

You need to be diligent in setting up the conversion events on your website so you are able to track everything that is commercially important to you. This is the only way you’ll be able to successfully measure ROI and know what is working for you, rather than guessing.

Ask yourself the following questions before relying on a heat map:

• Do I know what these clicks are doing on my website?
• How am I measuring the performance of these clicks?
• Am I seeing an ROI from my investment in these clicks?

Ascertaining the answers to these questions should be simple. If you need help answering these, drop us a line today and we will assist you.