7 min read
What is a Heat Map?
As brands look to roll out a new product or campaign, they are often eager to learn if the new design will make an impact on consumers. In an ideal scenario, that impact is positive. And if not, it’s extremely useful to know why. Conducting a survey with a heat map question integrated is an incredibly useful way to measure that impact. Zinklar now includes heat maps in the repertoire of questions available when creating a questionnaire. Here we take a closer look at how this tool is helping brands dive deeper into insights.
A heat map is a visual tool that allows brands to determine what image is making the most impact on their consumers and then identify how to improve this impact. Heat maps are frequently used in static ad testing, package testing, and usability testing, among many other use cases. Thanks to heat maps, brands can determine the effectiveness of their visual strategy and executions, and better understand the motivation behind the consumers’ choices.
This is achieved by looking into how many times consumers clicked on or interacted with the image. The more density of touchpoints—or “hotspots”—recorded on the screen, the hotter the image looks, thanks to the cool-to-warm color spectrum that shows which part of the image or screen received the most attention.
What Are the Benefits of Heat Map Analysis?
Getting insights derived from the results of heat map analysis allows for a deeper understanding of the consumer experience.
1. Qualitative Data Supporting Quantitative Data: It can be a challenge to create quantitative data from subjective questions. Analyzing the insights provided by a heat map is a useful way to collect qualitative data that is measurable and justifiable with data.
2. Data That Drives Conversion: It is much easier to use insights to inform your campaigns or your products when you have a targeted understanding of what is important to consumers. Ultimately you want your efforts to reach your audience in the ways that they are most likely to engage. Using heat maps combined with other methods of data analysis is a great way to do that.
3. Get Access to Deeper Insights: Heat maps allow for a more nuanced collection of data. Beyond simply viewing a survey response from a set list of choices, using a heat map question in your survey will allow you to visualize the thought process behind users’ selections to answer your survey question.
Types of Heat Maps
Market research can use different types of heat map questions to determine a brand’s visual impact. Choosing the right one is important for creating an effective survey.
- Click Maps: Track what areas of a page or screen users are clicking on. In the case of a heat map question in your survey, this is useful to get insights from users by asking about specific points in the image they are most likely to engage with.
- Scroll Maps: Track how far users are scrolling down a page. These heat maps are helpful for measuring engagement with page content and what kind of content is most interesting to users.
- Hover Maps: Track the movement of the mouse as it hovers over a specific part of a webpage. If the movement of the mouse is an indicator of where people are spending their attention, then the cursor’s position and movement give valuable insight into where users are focused.
Use Cases for Heat Maps
Example 1: Improve the effectiveness of static ads
When it comes to ad testing, brands must make strategic decisions about each ad element their audience engages with. Using a heat map survey question as part of your ad pre-test is an intelligent way for brands to determine if their ad campaign is having the intended effect on their audience. That way, brands can easily keep a visual track of where consumers are likely to pause their focus on the ad.
Example 2: Ensure the success of a new package design
When brands want to launch a new package or product, it’s essential to ensure that consumers will quickly see what is intended in a quick look when buying in the shop aisles. Again, heat map questions are really useful to understand what part of the packaging attracts consumers’ attention, ensuring that the desired aspects of the package are even more visible, resulting in packaging that is more appealing to consumers overall.
Example 3: Launch of a new brand identity
Using a heat map survey question allows curious brands to put their new brand identity design in front of potential users to gauge where their attention goes and why. For example, if brands are looking to highlight certain aspects of a logo, they could get a deeper insight into if the design is effective or not.
Conversely, suppose a brand is curious about why its logo doesn’t seem to be making an impact on its audience. In that case, they can use heat map analysis to gain more insight into its inability to attract or sustain attention.
How Does Heat Map Analysis Help Brands?
Heat map analysis has the potential to unlock the mystery behind consumer impressions of an image by giving brands a visual representation of what users are engaging with. Whether brands are testing static ads, new packages or new user interfaces, heat maps will provide valuable insights at a glance that will help them improve their executions.
Zinklar now includes heat map questions in all plans. Log in to the platform and try them out today!
