It’s always good to analyse when the users are using your website and if there are any patterns that can prove to be useful.
The best way to present this information is through a heatmap. So I’ve created a Google Sheets, which will allow you to visualise certain metrics like Views, Sessions, Conversions etc by Day & Hour.
Here’s how it looks:
đź’ˇ The idea for this came from Seer’s blog post. They had created a heatmap for Universal Analytics. I just made an updated version for GA4 properties. So if you’re still using Universal Analytics, you can use their Google Sheet.
Why should you use this GA4 Day/Hour Heatmap?
Before we move on to the setup, lets look at few use cases:
- Understand when your site is getting the most views and sessions, so you can identify the best time to publish your new content.
- When does your website gets the most conversions. Note that conversions can be any user actions that are valuable for your business. For example: Newsletter sign ups, Purchases etc. You can see how to set up conversions on GA4 documentation.
- You might want to find what time of the day users are making the most purchases on your website, so that you can run some promotions to increase your revenue.
You can also track things like Checkouts and identify gaps. For instance, you may be getting less Checkouts after 7pm. It can be because your live chat is only available within business hours and people are not able to clarify their doubts. Looking at the checkout numbers, you can see whether implementing a 24/7 chat is worth it.
There can be plenty of other use cases for this GA4 Day/Hour Heatmap. If you can think of any other ones, it would be great if you can share it with others by commenting your thoughts below this post.
Setting up the Google Sheet:
Step 1: Make a copy of the GA4 Day/Hour Heatmap Google Sheet.
You can make a copy of this sheet by clicking here.
Step 2: Download the Reporting for Google Analytics 4 Add-on
To do this, go to Extensions -> Add-Ons -> Get Add-On.
In the Search Bar type Reporting for Google Analytics 4 and install the Add-On from Adformatic.
Step 3: Get your GA4 Property Name and Property ID
To find your Property Name and Property ID, go to Google Analytics (GA4) -> Go to Admin -> Click on Property Settings to get your Property Name and Property ID.
Once, you’ve got both the things, put it in the relevant section in the Heatmap sheet.
Step 4: Run the report
You can change the Start Date, End date and the Metric that you want the heatmap for before running the report. Please note the Start and End Date will be in yyyy-mm-dd format.
Once you’ve made your selections, Go to Extensions -> Reporting for Google Analytics 4 -> Run Reports.
Your report will run and the heatmap will update with the Metric numbers. You can change the date range and Metric and Run the report again to refresh the Heatmap.
❗️If your heatmap doesn’t update or is blank even after running the report, just refresh the page and it should start working.
