A heatmap is a graphical representation of a single viewing or listening session of your media. Each public view of a Wistia-hosted media file results in a heatmap illustrating a viewer’s interaction with the content.
Heatmaps are a powerful tool for understanding how your audience engages with your content. Are viewers skipping a certain section of your video? Do international fans tune out quicker than local ones? Is your Call to Action resulting in clicks? Heatmaps can provide you with these insights and more.
Note
A heads-up for our friends with podcasts: heatmaps are not generated for plays that occur on third-party platforms (like Apple Podcasts or Spotify). Heatmaps are logged only for plays using the Wistia player.
Heatmaps
Heatmaps contain audience information, contextual information (when and where the media was played), and a color-coded timeline of events.
At the end of each heatmap is the total percentage of the media your audience member played (parts played multiple times are counted only once).
The date and time to the left of the heatmap indicate when the media was played.
Next to the time, you’ll see a number in a blue or grey box — this number indicates the total number of your Wistia media this person has watched. If the box is blue, you’re looking at an identified audience member, either gathered from an email blast or entered manually through a Wistia Form.
Tip
Head to the Audience page in your account to see all identified viewers.
The small caret next to the audience member's name and location opens the heatmaps to show even more data. Here you’ll find stuff like device (browser and environment), IP address, and the page where they played the media.
Tip
See a little phone icon next to a viewer’s name or network? That means someone played your media on a mobile device.
Click on the viewer's name or network to open their individual viewer page, or navigate to the View Stream in your account analytics to access all heatmaps.
Note
These heatmaps are generated for on-demand media views only. Webinar attendee heatmaps are instead found on your webinar's Audience page.
Heatmap colors
Heatmaps are color-coded to show you which sections of your media a particular audience member found interesting.
White means the viewer did not play that section of the media.
Green indicates that the viewer played that part of the media exactly once.
Yellow means the audience member watched or listened to that part twice.
Orange, light red, and dark red indicate one or more rewatches.
The more the viewer engages with your media, the “hotter” the color on the heatmap.
Waypoints
Do you see a grey dot with a white circle in the middle of your heatmap? That icon is a waypoint, a visual indicator that your audience member took a specific action on your media (e.g., clicked on a CTA or Annotation Link). Hover over the waypoint to see exactly what that action was.
Export heatmaps
Heatmaps can be exported to CSV format by clicking "Export Stats to CSV" at the bottom of the Engagement page.
In the "Export Stats" modal, specify a date range, or leave blank to export all available events.
Troubleshooting
Can’t see your heatmaps? Check out our Analytics Troubleshooting guide for help.