An email heatmap, also called a click map, is a visual report that overlays click data on a copy of your email and colors each link, button or image by how often recipients clicked it: warm colors such as red and orange for the most-clicked areas, cool colors such as blue and green for the least. An email heatmap shows at a glance which parts of a campaign drove engagement and which were ignored.
More generally, a heatmap is any color-coded chart of data intensity. In digital marketing the term usually means a map of user activity on a website page or in an email.
Email heatmap vs website heatmap
| Email heatmap (click map) | Website heatmap | |
|---|---|---|
| What it measures | Clicks on links, buttons and linked images | Clicks, scroll depth, mouse movement, attention |
| How data is collected | Tracked links that redirect through the sending platform | A JavaScript snippet on the page |
| Scroll and reading data | Not available, because email clients block JavaScript | Available |
| Typical use | Improve layout, link placement and calls to action in campaigns | Improve landing pages, navigation and forms |
What an email heatmap shows
- Which links, buttons and images were clicked, and how many times.
- The share of recipients or of total clicks for each link, so you can rank them.
- Whether your main call to action beat secondary links, images and footer links.
- How content at the top of the email performed compared with content further down.
How to read an email heatmap
- Start with the main goal: is the primary call to action the hottest area? If a logo or a footer link outranks it, the hierarchy needs work.
- Compare top, middle and bottom. Strong offers placed low in a long email often get few clicks.
- Look at images vs text links pointing to the same page to see which format your readers prefer.
- Check the numbers behind the colors. With a small list, a few clicks can make an area look hot.
- Turn what you see into a test: move or rewrite the call to action and compare the two versions with an A/B test.
Limitations of email heatmaps
- Clicks only: an email heatmap cannot show what people read, how far they scrolled or why they did not click.
- Duplicate links: when the same URL appears in several places, many tools merge their clicks. Give each placement a distinct URL, for example with UTM parameters.
- Bot clicks: corporate security scanners can click every link in an email and inflate the map. See bot clicks in email.
- Single campaign view: one heatmap reflects one audience and one send. Confirm a pattern over several campaigns before redesigning everything.
Read the heatmap together with your click-through rate and click-to-open rate. For practical examples, see how to use email heatmaps to improve your campaigns.
Email heatmaps in Mailpro
Mailpro's email heatmap adds a color overlay to each linked section of your newsletter, with warmer colors for more clicks, and shows the percentage of recipients who clicked each link and your most popular links. Mailpro tracks clicks on text links, clickable images, image hotspots and buttons (see click tracking on images and hotspots), and the heatmap sits alongside click analysis and your full campaign statistics.
Mailpro and email heatmaps
See where your subscribers click
Mailpro colors every link in your campaign by clicks and shows the share of recipients who clicked each one, so you know where to place the next call to action.