The Breakdown: Microsoft Releases Clarity, A Free Tool for Website Behavior Analytics

Microsoft is launching Clarity, a free, GDPR-compliant analytics service that complements Google Analytics rather than competing with it. This platform offers:

• Heatmaps
• User recordings
• Unique Insights metrics
• Very low impact on page load speed

Clarity is more similar to a behavior analytics tool like Hotjar than a platform like Google Analytics that provides low-level, granular data about your users.

There are a few interesting user behaviors that Clarity reports on that I have not seen in comparable tools:

• Dead click: User clicks but doesn’t see anything happen.
• Rage click: User clicks multiple times out of frustration.
• Excessive scrolling: User scrolls more than expected, indicating that they’re either searching for something or confused.
• Quick backs: Users leave your page as soon as it loads, indicating that it failed to satisfy their needs.

We will be trying out Clarity and seeing if Microsoft is bringing an instant classic to the table.

Our Take on Clarity

Clarity’s most exciting selling point is its integration with Google Analytics. The documentation says you can view recordings of users organized by Google Analytics segments or reporting views. Rather than having to set up complicated recording parameters ahead of time, you’ll be able to segment those recordings on the fly to pinpoint specific user pain points.

Generally, when Google rolls out a new measurement tool (like Lighthouse for page performance), marketers speculate on whether the measurements it tracks will affect SEO. While the same could be said for Clarity, it likely won’t have as much impact given Bing’s small market share of organic web traffic. I’d instead recommend that you introduce your UX and CRO teams to the tool to see if they find any value in it.

You can demo Clarity here.