Overview

We’ve put together a series of getting started videos that will get you up to speed with Heap’s features. If you haven’t installed Heap yet, jump to Before Installing first. Our Setting Up Heap guide will also take you through the steps to manage your data and organize your team.

For a comprehensive overview of everything you need to know to get started with Heap, we recommend reviewing this video series in sequential order.

Heap Walkthrough

First things first; get acquainted with Heap’s layout! This video will take you through all the features available to you in the left navigation bar in Heap.

Heap’s Data Model: Events vs. Properties

What are events and what are properties? Familiarizing yourself with these two concepts, in addition to Heap’s data model, will provide you with the foundation you need to understand how to use these data types in analysis. Watch this video for a visual overview.

Here is a handy chart of all of the different property types available within Heap:

In case it’s helpful, we’ve also provided this information in plain text.

• Event – Metadata about the actions users are taking, such as the target text on the button they clicked, or what browser they used.
• User – Metadata that we know about a user, such as where were they the first time they visited your homepage, or what city were they in during their most recent session. Other than “initial” properties, these can change.
• Session – these roll up into the user and the events taken during a session (a session ends after 30 minutes of inactivity). Unlike event and user properties, you are unable to create your own session properties.
• Behavioral – Behavioral properties can be used to filter your reports by users who have or have not done something for more granularity. Examples include ‘users who have done a count of’, ‘users who have done’.
• Active usage – Digging deeper into the concept of user behavior, active usage properties allow you to better understand engagement with your features. Filter your reports by users who have started or stopped doing an event, who are repeat users or are users who are re-engaging with the event.
• Defined – You can define your own properties to create a new schema on top of existing properties in your account. This would be useful for grouping marketing content or blog pages into one property via a conditional definition; or creating an ‘if this than that’ property via a formula definition.
• Enriched – If you are enriching your data with one of our source integrations, this property type refers to the information we are pulling from those sources. Check out Integrate With Your Warehouse & 3rd Party Tools for more details on source integrations.
• API – For the custom stuff Heap is capturing via more traditional track calls, like addUserProperties, track or addEventProperties.

What is the difference between client-side and server-side properties? Client-side properties are all of the actions we are capturing on the app or site you have installed Heap onto. Server-side properties are what you are capturing on your backend.

Conducting Analysis

Heap allows you to analyze your data using a variety of different tools – see each section below to learn how you can use them to gather all of the information you need.

Query Modifiers

Query modifiers are a way to slice and dice your data to get the most out of Heap. They are not, strictly speaking, a chart, though they are an integral toolset for conducting analysis. Watch this video on query modifiers to learn how to use filters, group by, and compare users to unearth additional insights.

Users

The users view allows you to see all of the individual users interacting with your site or app at a given time. You can pull a list of specific users who have performed some action, create your own segments, or dig into the usage of a particular user. Check out the video below on how to navigate this pag.

Usage over time chart

The usage over time chart allows you to chart counts of things and see how those counts trend and change over time. Some common question types you can answer in this analysis chart type are:

• How many times has X happened?
• How many users have done X?
• What is the trend of interaction with X over time?
• How many users are in the X segment?
• How many users did X and Y?
• On average, how long does it take a user to do X and then Y?

Check out the video below to see how to navigate this chart.

Funnels

Funnels are all about how users flow through a process. Understanding how many of your users complete a flow, and what they are doing when they drop out of the flow, is crucial to identifying where you can update your product to increase your conversion rate. Some common question types you can answer in this analysis module are:

• What percentage of people who visit the site sign up for a membership?
• Where do people drop off in the sign-up process?
• What percentage of people are finishing the profile flow?
• How many people made it to the 3rd step of our conversion process?
• Of the people that convert, how many people convert within 5 minutes?

Check out the video below to see how to navigate this analysis module.

Paths

The paths module is an exploratory tool that allows you to uncover the unknown. You can see what users are doing after a particular event, or what they do leading into the event, allowing you to understand if users are navigating with intention, are just clicking around, or are getting lost entirely. Some common question types you can answer in this analysis module are:

• Where do users go after landing on my website or app home page?
• Where do users come from before landing on my website or app home page?
• Where are users dropping off before converting?
• How does their path vary based on referral channel, platform type, or segment?

Check out the video below to see how to navigate this analysis module.

Retention

The retention module helps you understand and drive repeat behavior. You can use it to track the number of users that complete one event after another (also known as cohort analysis) to visualize repeat engagement over time. Some common question types you can answer in this analysis module are:

• How often are people visiting my site/using my app?
• How long does it usually take for people to build a schedule and then return to build a 2nd one?
• When do people stop returning to the site?
• Which UTM campaign drives more “loyal” users?

Check out the video below to see how to navigate this analysis module.

Influence

The influence module is a lightweight attribution tool that you can use to understand the journey to conversion, and which of your efforts had the most impact. Some common question types you can answer in this analysis module are:

• Which of my marketing efforts had the greatest or least impact on conversion?
• Are any parts of my website or app having an impact on conversion?
• Should I invest more in my email marketing efforts, my ad campaigns or my website content?

Check out the video below to see how to navigate this analysis module.

Now that you have your footing, we recommend checking out our courses in Heap University for a more in-depth overview of Heap’s capabilities.