Heatmap & Session Recording Setup

What's included

Configuration

• Tool selection based on traffic volume, budget, and whether you already run PostHog
• Deployment through GTM or direct, with consent gating before recording starts
• Sampling and minimum duration rules so bounces stop filling the queue
• Retention settings per project
• Page and path exclusions for account areas and checkout steps where recording creates risk

Privacy

• Masking rules on input fields, payment forms, customer names, and anything your legal team flags
• Verification that masking works, done by watching a real recording rather than trusting the toggle
• Consent integration so nothing records before permission
• Deletion process for user requests

Making it usable

• Saved filters and segments built around real questions like rage clicks, form abandonment, error sessions, and funnel drop-off
• Heatmaps on the templates that matter, with scroll and click maps configured per device
• Recordings linked to your analytics so you can jump from a funnel step into the sessions that abandoned it
• Custom events passed through as recording tags
• Alerting on friction signals where the tool supports it

Deliverable

• First analysis pass with findings written up
• Team walkthrough on when replay answers a question and when it burns an afternoon
• Documented setup so someone else can maintain it

Why it matters

Replay tools get switched on with default settings and then quietly abandoned. Everything records, the interface fills with two-second sessions, and nobody can find anything worth watching. Six months later the subscription renews and the team has opened nine recordings in total.

The filters are the whole product. Recording only the sessions attached to a broken funnel step, a form error, or a rage click turns replay into a debugging tool. Masking matters just as much, because a recording of a customer typing their card number is a problem you can't fix after the fact.