As a self-confessed digital marketing geek, I’m always looking for next-level web analytics that give me actionable insights into how customers are using and interacting with my website. If, like me, you want to understand more about your visitors' behaviour, then you'll love Microsoft Clarity Analytics.
It’s a free website analytics tool that’s easy-to-use and goes beyond the basics of traditional analytics to show how people interact with your website. In this guide, I’ll take you through how I used Microsoft Clarity’s analytics to help me make data-driven decisions that improved my e-commerce performance and how you can do the same for your website.
Let’s dive in!
What is Microsoft Clarity?
Microsoft Clarity is an intuitive website analytics tool that lets you peek behind the scenes to see how visitors are really using your site. Unlike tools that only give you surface-level numbers (like page views or bounce rates), Clarity helps you understand the why behind those numbers by showing you heatmaps, session replays, and key performance insights.
Plus, it’s free! So whether you're a small business owner or running a large-scale website, Clarity has something to offer.
Why I use Microsoft Clarity Analytics
I already use Google Analytics but wanted more insightful information to help me further optimise my e-commerce site. While Google Analytics was great for understanding traffic and overall performance, I found that Microsoft Clarity analytics allowed me to dig much deeper into user behaviour and experience.
I love being able to watch real user interactions with websites, which allows me to see how they engage with different elements. It gives me insight into where visitors were clicking, scrolling, and interacting the most, helping me understand which content is most relevant to them and whether they were overlooking important elements in the buying process. One of the most valuable features is the ability to identify frustration signals that cause leaks in e-commerce funnels. I can pinpoint where users encounter obstacles, enabling me to prioritise website development efforts that have the greatest financial impact. Plus, Clarity is designed to have minimal impact on a website’s performance, meaning it doesn’t slow the site down—a big win!
Key features of Microsoft Clarity Analytics
1. Session replays
At Fluid, we traditionally looked at buyer personas and hypotheses about customers’ needs and desires. But how accurate was this? Microsoft Clarity allows me to see what it is really like for visitors to my clients websites. With session replays, I can watch recorded sessions to see how users interact with my site, and all in real time. I can group replays by events and use Clarity’s AI tool to bulk analyse these sessions which allow me to identify trends. This helps me pinpoint UX (user experience) issues that are not obvious from the analytics alone.
How you can use this tool: Pay close attention to sessions where your users leave early or seem to get stuck. Maybe they’re having trouble with a confusing layout, or maybe a form isn’t working quite right. Session replays give you a front-row seat to these problems so you can fix them fast. Look at sessions from different devices and make sure you view replays from all key events (product selection, checkout, forms, account log in)
Top tips - Watch some videos in full (increasing the payback speed and skipping inactive lapses should allow you to do this efficiently), but also select a number of videos (50 is a sample size I find representative) and then get an AI summary of all of these videos.
2. Heatmaps
Heatmaps in Clarity visually show where users clicked, scrolled, and engaged on a page. They offer a great way for me to see which parts of a site are grabbing attention and which areas might need some work.
How you can use this tool: Check heatmaps for your most important pages, like your homepage or best-selling product pages. Are visitors clicking where you want them to? If they ignore your calls-to-action (CTAs), you might want to rethink their placement or make them more eye-catching.
3. Scroll maps
I needed to understand how far down visitors typically scroll on my pages. This information helped me re-order and prioritise my content. I began to understand that some customers would actively seek information and that they were willing to scroll further down, but it was also evident that all key decision-making information needed to remain within the main scrolling area. This tool helped me ensure that my product descriptions were the optimal length for customers to read them fully.
How you can use this tool: Look at your pages, how far do users scroll down? If people are only scrolling halfway down your page, it could mean that your content isn’t engaging enough or that key information is buried too far down. Try reorganising your page to put the most important content front and centre.
4. Rage and dead clicks
For me, one of the most valuable features of Clarity is the ability to detect when my customers have felt frustrated or experienced difficulties interacting with a site. "Rage clicks", which occur when a user rapidly clicks on something out of frustration, indicated to me that an element on my site wasn’t functioning correctly; it also showed me when users were experiencing slow load times. "Dead clicks", which happen when someone clicks on an element that isn’t clickable, helped me identify design and usability issues. I use Clarity regularly, and in the rare instances when usability errors did arise, I could quickly spot them and take immediate action to implement a fix.
How you can use this tool: If you’re seeing a lot of rage clicks on a certain element, it might mean visitors are confused or frustrated. Fixing these spots can help smooth out their experience and keep them on your site longer.
5. Insight dashboard
Clarity’s insight dashboard gives me a quick, easy-to-digest summary of how users engage with my sites. It highlighted important metrics like session length, click-through rates, and user frustration signals. For me, it has become a bit of an analytics command centre!
How you can use this tool: Use the dashboard to spot issues or opportunities quickly. For example, if you see a page with a high number of rage clicks, prioritise fixing that issue. Over time, these small tweaks can add up to big improvements in performance.
Using Microsoft Clarity alongside other tools
The beauty of Microsoft Clarity is that it works hand-in-hand with other free website analytic tools like GA4. While Google Analytics gives hard data like traffic numbers and demographics, Microsoft Clarity Analytics provides a human element by showing how visitors actually behave on site.
For example, GA4 told me that one of my landing pages had a high bounce rate. However, it was Clarity that helped me figure out why users were leaving this page by showing me that users were struggling with a broken link.
Are you ready for advanced website analytics?
Great, setting up analytics with Microsoft Clarity is super simple:
1. Sign up for free Head over to Microsoft Clarity and sign up for a free website analytics account. After you create a project, Clarity will provide you with a small JavaScript snippet to add to your site.
2. Explore the data Once Clarity starts collecting data, you can dive into session replays, heatmaps, and other insights. Start with your most important pages—like your homepage or high-traffic landing pages—and see how users are interacting with them.
3. Take action Use what you learn from Clarity to make smart improvements. Maybe your CTA isn’t as noticeable as it should be, or your navigation could be clearer. These insights will guide your next steps to enhance the user experience.
Best practices for Microsoft Clarity
• Combine it with other tools: Use Clarity alongside Google Analytics for the full picture. Google Analytics gives you traffic data, while Clarity helps you see what users are actually doing.
• Check regularly: Regular monitoring ensures you catch and fix any usability issues quickly. Consider setting a routine to check in on your dashboard weekly.
• Focus on UX: Clarity is all about improving the user experience. If you see frequent rage clicks or dead clicks, prioritise fixing those areas first to reduce user frustration.
Final thoughts
As someone who is constantly looking for conversion rate optimisations, I think Microsoft Clarity is a fantastic analytics tool! During my time as an E-Commerce Marketing Manager, it has helped me better understand my clients and improve my websites’ performance.
With powerful features like session replays, heatmaps, and frustration signals, Microsoft Clarity provides the insights you need to drive sales, engage your customers and achieve business growth. So, whether you’re running a small blog or a large e-commerce site like I am, Clarity can help you turn data into action and make meaningful improvements.
Want to discover more ways to boost your conversion rate? The team at Fluid Ideas can help. Together, we can analyse, refine, and develop your website to reach its full potential. Don’t leave your conversion rate to chance—let’s grow your business!