How to Read Your Heatmaps: Turning Scroll & Click Data Into Revenue

You installed Hotjar six months ago. You have thousands of sessions recorded. You've opened the heatmap tool a few times, nodded thoughtfully, and… not really known what to do with what you saw.

This is the most common pattern I encounter with e-commerce teams. The data is there. The interpretation framework isn't.

This post gives you a systematic way to read heatmaps that produces actual hypotheses you can test — not just interesting observations you forget about the next day.

Understanding the Three Types of Heatmaps

Before you can read heatmaps well, you need to know which type of heatmap to use for which question.

Click Maps (Tap Maps on Mobile)

What they show: Where users click (or tap). Hot colours (red/orange) indicate high-frequency click zones. Cool colours (blue/green) indicate low-frequency areas.

Best for answering:

• Are users clicking things that aren't links?
• Are they missing the CTA?
• Which navigation items get the most attention?
• Are they clicking on images thinking they're interactive?

Key insight pattern: Any significant click activity on non-interactive elements (images, text, icons) signals users expect interactivity there — and aren't getting it.

Scroll Maps

What they show: What percentage of users scroll to each point on the page. The number typically starts at 100% at the top and drops as you go further down.

Best for answering:

• How far do users actually get on this page?
• Does the fold position matter for my content?
• At what scroll depth do users abandon?
• Is important content being seen?

Key insight pattern: A steep drop-off at a specific point on the page usually indicates a visual "stopping point" — something that looks like the end of the page, or content so uninteresting that users stop scrolling.

Move Maps (Mouse Movement)

What they show: Where users move their cursor on desktop. Research shows cursor movement correlates roughly with visual attention — people tend to move the mouse toward what they're reading.

Best for answering:

• What content is capturing attention?
• Are users reading the copy or skipping to visuals?
• What's getting ignored entirely?

Note: Move maps are desktop-only and less reliable than click or scroll data. Use them as supplementary signal, not primary data.

The Four-Question Heatmap Analysis Framework

Whenever I open a heatmap, I work through the same four questions in order. This prevents me from pattern-matching to random noise and keeps the analysis focused on revenue impact.

Question 1: Is the primary CTA getting clicked?

This is always the first question. Everything else is secondary.

Open the click map for your most important page (usually your best-selling product page or your primary landing page). Find your main CTA — Add to Cart, Buy Now, Book a Call, etc. — and look at its click rate relative to the rest of the page.

Healthy pattern: Your primary CTA should be among the top 3 most-clicked elements on the page. If it's not, you have a serious conversion problem.

Red flags:

• CTA is getting fewer clicks than non-interactive elements
• Users are clicking images or product titles instead of the button
• CTA is getting significant clicks on mobile but almost none on desktop (or vice versa)

Hypothesis to test: If CTA click rate is low, test: making the button larger, moving it higher, changing its colour to contrast more, or adding urgency copy near it.

Question 2: What content are users actually engaging with?

Cross-reference your click map with your scroll map. The key question: what are users interacting with, and what are they ignoring?

Look for:

• High-traffic content that's being scrolled past quickly (scroll depth shows users are reaching it, but no clicks suggests it's not compelling)
• Sections with strong click engagement that indicate high interest
• Social proof sections — are users clicking on reviews? Expanding testimonials?

Common finding: Users click heavily on product images (especially zoom functionality) but almost never click "Read More" on product descriptions. This tells you visuals matter more than text here — a signal to test more image variants before investing in copy.

Question 3: Where is the scroll cliff?

On every page, there's a point where scroll depth drops significantly. The average scroll depth for a typical product page is 50–60%, which means 40–50% of visitors never see content in the bottom half of the page.

Find the scroll cliff and ask: what critical conversion element lives below it?

If your social proof (reviews), guarantee, or secondary CTA is below the 50% scroll depth line, a significant portion of users are never seeing your most persuasive content.

Hypothesis to test: Move key persuasion elements (trust signals, review highlights, guarantee badge) above the scroll cliff. Or shorten the page so more of it falls above the natural stopping point.

Question 4: Is there evidence of confusion or unexpected behaviour?

Look for:

• Rage clicking: Multiple rapid clicks on the same element — usually means something looks clickable but isn't working
• Clicking wrong elements: Users clicking on a product image when you want them clicking "Add to Cart" — suggests visual hierarchy is working against you
• Ignored navigation: If almost no one clicks your main navigation links, your visitors aren't finding what they came for through browsing — they're leaving
• Form field patterns: Unusual click patterns around form fields often reveal confusing label placement or field ordering

A Real Example: Product Page Heatmap Analysis

Here's a composite example based on a typical DTC product page audit.

Setup: Mid-tier DTC skincare brand, main product page, 45 days of data, ~12,000 sessions.

Scroll map findings:

• 95% of users see the hero image and product title
• 78% reach the price and Add to Cart button
• 52% reach the product description
• 31% reach the reviews section
• 18% reach the FAQ and guarantee

Immediate insight: Reviews and the money-back guarantee — two of the strongest conversion elements on this type of page — are only being seen by 18–31% of visitors.

Click map findings:

• Add to Cart button: 24% click rate among users who see it
• Product images: 38% click rate (mostly swiping through gallery)
• "Read customer reviews" anchor link: 2% click rate
• Variant selectors (shade choices): 61% interaction rate

Immediate insight: Users are highly engaged with product variants (they care about choosing the right one) but almost no one is using the "jump to reviews" link. They either don't see it or don't need it.

Hypotheses generated:

1. Move 3 highlighted review quotes with star ratings to directly below the Add to Cart button — so the 78% who reach the CTA area also see social proof without scrolling
2. Test making the reviews section anchor in the navigation sticky or more prominent
3. Test increasing Add to Cart button size — 24% CTA click rate is below benchmark for this category

Result after testing hypothesis 1: Revenue Per Visitor increased 14% on the variant with reviews above the fold.

Segmenting Your Heatmap Data

Raw heatmaps are an average. Averages hide the most interesting patterns. Always segment before drawing conclusions.

Key segments to create:

By device: Desktop and mobile users behave completely differently on the same page. Always compare click maps by device separately. What looks like a well-placed CTA on desktop may be invisible on mobile.

By traffic source: A paid ad visitor and an organic search visitor arrive with completely different intent and context. Their heatmap patterns will differ. A user who clicked an ad for "best moisturiser for dry skin" has seen messaging that primes them differently than someone who found you through a blog post.

By new vs. returning visitors: Returning visitors know your site and navigate differently. First-time visitors show you what's confusing or compelling to someone with fresh eyes. For conversion optimisation, first-visit behaviour is usually more valuable.

By session length: Compare heatmaps for sessions under 30 seconds (quick bounces) vs. sessions over 2 minutes (engaged visitors). The difference tells you what engaged users find interesting — and where the quick bouncers give up.

Common Heatmap Misreadings to Avoid

Misreading 1: "People are reading our copy because the scroll depth is good"

Scroll depth tells you users scrolled. It doesn't tell you they read. Users frequently scroll through content they're not reading — skimming to find what they want. Low time-on-page combined with decent scroll depth is a red flag, not a positive signal.

Misreading 2: "Low clicks on that section means users don't care about it"

Some content isn't meant to be clicked — it's meant to persuade. A guarantee section or trust badge might never get clicked but still do important conversion work by reducing anxiety. Low click rate on non-interactive content is normal and expected.

Misreading 3: "The heatmap looks good so the page is fine"

A heatmap showing reasonable click distribution doesn't mean your page is converting well. It means users are interacting in a spread pattern. Always correlate heatmap data with your conversion funnel analytics before concluding anything.

Misreading 4: "This is from 1,000 sessions so it's statistically solid"

Heatmap patterns can be noisy at low sample sizes. For click maps on low-traffic pages, 1,000 sessions may not be enough to draw strong conclusions, especially for small elements. Generally aim for 2,000+ sessions before making decisions from click map data.

Translating Heatmap Insights Into A/B Tests

The goal of heatmap analysis is not insight — it's action. Every heatmap observation should end with either:

1. A specific hypothesis to test ("If we move X to Y position, we expect Z metric to improve")
2. An explicit decision not to test it yet (not enough data, not high enough priority)

Use this format for every hypothesis you generate:

Observation: [What the heatmap shows] Assumption: [Why this is causing a problem] Hypothesis: If we [specific change], then [specific metric] will [direction] by [estimated magnitude] Test design: [What you'd show to control vs. variant, minimum sample size, primary metric]

This structure forces you to think through the logic before running the test — and makes your post-test analysis much cleaner.

Tools for Heatmap Analysis

Hotjar — most common, strong session recordings + heatmaps, free tier available Microsoft Clarity — free, unlimited sessions, good for smaller budgets FullStory — enterprise-grade, best for complex funnel analysis Lucky Orange — good middle ground, includes live view

All of these tools give you the same fundamental data types. The difference is in analysis features, data retention, and integrations with your A/B testing tools.

The Bottom Line

Heatmaps are only valuable if you use them systematically. The teams that extract real revenue from behavioural data are the ones with a repeatable framework — not the ones who open recordings occasionally and watch them like TV.

Use the four-question framework every time. Segment religiously. Translate every observation into a testable hypothesis. And always tie your findings back to the conversion funnel metrics that matter.

The data is already there. The money is in the interpretation.

Need help turning your analytics data into a systematic testing roadmap? Book a free CRO strategy call — we'll review your heatmaps and identify your top 3 conversion opportunities.