You’ve set up your Google Analytics property for the first time and wondering what to do next! Integrate Google Analytics data with Hotjar to predict website performance, fix customer experience issues, and optimize sales funnels.
Google Analytics is a powerful data analytics tool for website monitoring. It has a staggering 89% market share, according to a recent report published by 6sense [1]. Yet Google Analytics is only good if you want to discover lagging indicators or past data of your website or eCommerce platform.
On the other hand, Hotjar, which has a mere 3.5% share [2] in the web analytics market, is in trend for a different reason. It allows you to predict customer behavior, implement features you predict, and increase website traffic or sales funnel activities.
To overcome the shortcomings of Google Analytics, try integrating GA with your Hotjar account right now and experience the difference. Find below everything you need to know along with step-by-step guides and tips that work.
How to Connect Hotjar with Google Analytics
If you wish to connect your Google Analytics property with the Hotjar account, you can only do so from the Hotjar app. Google Analytics doesn’t let you integrate third-party apps like Hotjar, except Google’s own apps like Google Ads, Google Play Links, Search Console Links, etc.
Another way to integrate Hotjar and Google Analytics is by using the “If This Then That” or IFTTT protocol like those offered by Zapier, IFTTT, Pabbly, etc.
Requirements to Connect Hotjar with Google Analytics
Here are the 6 prerequisites for Hotjar and GA integration:
- You must own a Business or Scale subscription for the Hotjar tool. The integration won’t work on Hotjar subscriptions like Plus and Basic.
- If you’ve implemented GA for your website through Google Tag Manager or any other tag management solutions, the integration won’t work.
- You should already set up the GA property for the target website directly on the GA tool.
- Also, you must add the Google Analytics tool directly to the website code and not use any third-party plug-ins.
- Universal Analytics features like Google Analytics Goals won’t work because these were retired in July 2023.
- If you created website events directly on the GA tool, Hotjar will be able to detect those. However, when you create events somewhere else and pass them on to GA, Hotjar can’t detect the events.
#1. Hotjar’s Integration with Google Analytics
- Open the Hotjar web app.
- Click the website drop-down menu above the Overview button.
- Choose the target website.
- Now, click on the Integrations icon located in the top-right corner of the web app.
- Type Google Analytics in the Search box.
- Click Connect when you see the GA integration.
- On the Google Analytics by Hotjar screen, activate the following toggle items:
- Send your Google Analytics Events to Hotjar: Automatically create events
- Send Hotjar user IDs to Google Analytics: Automatically share Hotjar user IDs
- Once connected successfully, click Hotjar analytics options like Recordings, Heatmaps, Surveys, etc., and apply the relevant GA filters to use GA data in Hotjar.
#2. Using Zapier
- Log in to your Zapier account.
- Now, visit this Hotjar + Google Analytics Integrations item on Zapier.
- Click on the Choose a Trigger drop-down and choose any trigger item of your choice.
- Similarly, click on the Choose an Action drop-down and pick an action you want either Hotjar or Google Analytics to perform.
- Click the Connect My Apps button.
- You should now see the Zapier canvas with your chosen triggers and actions involving Hotjar and GA.
- Click on each app icon and log in to your accounts in Hotjar and GA.
- Finally, click Publish to start using the Zap.
Hotjar’s and Google Analytics Integration Best Tips
Find below 7 tips to follow when integrating Hotjar and Google Analytics.
- When using GA-generated events to watch recordings on Hotjar, create a Hotjar-specific Custom Dimensions from the Admin > Custom Definitions page.
- Utilize custom events in Google Analytics to track specific user interactions on your website.
- Use Google Analytics segments to analyze user behavior in specific groups and identify patterns.
- Combine Hotjar data with Google Analytics to get a comprehensive view of user behavior and feedback.
- Overlay Hotjar’s heatmaps on top of Google Analytics data to see where users are clicking and how it aligns with your traffic sources.
- Run A/B tests and use Google Analytics to measure the impact on your key metrics. Also, combine with Hotjar to collect user feedback on variations.
- Create funnels in Google Analytics to track the user journey and identify drop-off points. Now, use Hotjar to investigate why users are abandoning the process before completing the funnel path.
How to Correlate Data of Hotjar and Google Analytics
Find below some real-world examples where I used Hotjar and GA data together to improve customer experience as well as website performance.
These examples will also help you understand how to generate actionable insights by correlating data from both the web analytics platforms:
High Bounce Rate Pages with Session Recordings
Suppose your eCommerce website has a high bounce rate which isn’t good for your website revenue. The bounce rate data can be easily collected using the GA tool. Now, to find out what causes the users to leave the website as soon as they land on it, you can use Hotjar’s session recordings.
Find out the sessions where users left the website too soon and analyze how these users are interacting with the website. Are they quickly navigating away? Struggling to find information? This can help you pinpoint the root cause and resolve the bounce rate issue.
Scroll Depth and Engagement with Heatmaps and Time on Page
If the GA tool shows that the Time on Page for a specific blog page is too low, it indicates an issue with the blog website or a specific blog article you’re tracking. To confirm the findings on Google Analytics, use Hotjar integration to analyze how users are scrolling on the blog page. Here, you can choose the Heatmap tool of Hotjar.
A low Time on the Page indicates that the visitors aren’t reaching the end of the blog page. A Hotjar Heatmap should confirm that as well. When confirmed, make changes in the article, make it more engaging, etc., to ensure the users scroll until the end.
Conversion Rate Analysis with Feedback Surveys
When the Google Analytics data indicates that the conversion rate is too low for a checkout page, you can use that data to run Hotjar’s Feedback campaign.
You can identify specific user sessions where conversions are too low and create a pattern. Now, use the Hotjar AI to run proactive Feedback and Survey campaigns to collect user opinions from such checkout cancellations in the future.
Hotjar vs. Google Analytics
You can learn the differences between the web analytics tools Hotjar and Google Analytics in the following table based on their features like purpose, user inteface, data collection, etc.
| Feature | Hotjar | Google Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | User behavior analysis | Website traffic analytics and quantitive data collection |
| User Interface | User-friendly; visual feedback | Data-heavy; complex interface |
| Data Collection | Heatmaps, session recordings, feedback, and surveys | Traffic, demographics, and events |
| Visitor Insights | Behavior, feedback, and surveys | Traffic sources, bounce rate, etc. |
| Real-time Data | Real-time data only on user interaction with a website as Heatmaps | Provides real-time data |
| User Experience | Focuses on user experience | Focuses on web traffic analytics |
| Conversion Tracking | Limited conversion tracking | Extensive conversion tracking |
| Pricing Model | Subscription-based | Free and premium versions |
Learn about the Google Analytics alternatives to make an informed buying decision.
Conclusion
Whenever you see a drop in website traffic or conversion rate or a perfect sales funnel not working suddenly, you go to web analytics tools. Google Analytics is the most trusted and affordable option. However, it only generates numerical values, not visible or accurate reasons for the low performance.
Here, you must combine GA data with Hotjar to get an answer to the performance drop and how to fix it. Follow the Hotjar and GA integration steps and tops mentioned above to enhance website performance confidently.