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community-analytics-data

Use when analyzing Experience Cloud site analytics including login metrics, member engagement, page view tracking, and content performance. Triggers: Experience Cloud site analytics, community member engagement data, portal login tracking, page view reports community, GA4 Experience Cloud integration. NOT for CRM Analytics / Tableau CRM — use admin/einstein-analytics-basics. NOT for designing reputation levels and the engagement program itself — use admin/community-engagement-strategy.

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Community Analytics Data

Use this skill when a practitioner needs to understand, report on, or configure analytics for an Experience Cloud site — covering login activity, member engagement, page views, and content performance. It does not apply to CRM Analytics (Einstein Analytics), Tableau CRM, or standard internal Salesforce reporting.

Before Starting

Gather this context before working on anything in this domain:

Core Concepts

Engagement Insights: Built-In Administration Dashboards

Experience Cloud provides read-only Engagement Insights dashboards accessible from the site's Administration panel under Administration > Insights. These dashboards show login activity, unique logins, page views, new member growth, and top-performing pages. They are pre-built, non-customizable, and reflect data with up to 24 hours of lag. They are appropriate for quick executive snapshots but cannot be filtered by segment, time-sliced below the day level, or embedded outside the Administration panel.

NetworkActivityAudit and NetworkUserHistoryMonthly Objects

For custom reporting, Salesforce exposes two key objects:

Custom report types built on these objects allow standard Reports and Dashboards to surface community activity data alongside CRM records (e.g., contact, case, account).

GA4 Integration via Measurement ID

Experience Cloud sites support Google Analytics 4 integration natively. Enter a GA4 Measurement ID (format: G-XXXXXXXXXX) in Administration > Advanced > Google Analytics for the site. Salesforce injects the gtag.js snippet on every page of the site automatically — no manual code change is required. This enables GA4 event tracking, funnel analysis, audience segmentation, and conversion measurement that complements Salesforce-native metrics. Important: the site must be republished after adding or updating the Measurement ID for the change to take effect on all pages.

Content Performance via Page-Level Analytics

Page view data in NetworkActivityAudit and GA4 can be used to assess content performance — which knowledge articles, product pages, or community discussion threads drive the most engagement or deflect the most cases. GA4 provides richer behavioral metrics (bounce rate, session duration, scroll depth) while native reports confirm which authenticated members are viewing which pages.

Common Patterns

Pattern 1: Custom Report for Daily Active Users Per Site

When to use: When the business needs to track daily or monthly active user counts for an Experience Cloud site beyond what the read-only Engagement Insights panel shows — especially when filtering by user segment, license type, or combining with CRM data.

How it works:

  1. Create a Custom Report Type with Networks as the primary object and Network Activity Audits as a related object.
  2. Build a report using this type, grouped by Network Name and Activity Date.
  3. Add a count of unique Members (distinct login records) to measure daily active users.
  4. Add filters for Action = Login to isolate authentication events, or Page View for content engagement.
  5. Schedule the report to run daily and deliver to a dashboard or via subscription.

Why not the alternative: The built-in Engagement Insights dashboards cannot be exported, scheduled, or filtered by user segment. A custom report gives scheduling, sharing, and drill-down capability.

Pattern 2: GA4 Funnel Tracking for Self-Service Case Deflection

When to use: When the business wants to measure whether Experience Cloud content (knowledge articles, FAQ pages, community answers) is reducing support case volume — a common ROI metric for self-service portals.

How it works:

  1. In GA4, define a funnel exploration starting at a known entry point (e.g., search results page or support landing page) through knowledge article views, and ending at the "Contact Support" or "Create Case" page.
  2. The GA4 Measurement ID must already be configured in site Administration and the site republished.
  3. Cross-reference GA4 funnel drop-off rate (users who viewed an article but did not reach the case creation page) with case volume from standard Salesforce Case reports.
  4. High funnel abandonment before the case page, combined with stable or declining case volume, indicates successful deflection.

Why not the alternative: NetworkActivityAudit does not capture session-level behavioral flow or conversion events. GA4 is the appropriate tool for multi-step funnel and conversion analysis.

Decision Guidance

SituationRecommended ApproachReason
Quick executive dashboard — logins, page views, member growthEngagement Insights (Administration > Insights)Read-only, zero setup, sufficient for snapshots
Filtered or scheduled active-user reporting against CRM dataCustom report on NetworkActivityAudit via Custom Report TypeFlexible, combinable with Contact/Account/Case data
Session behavior, funnel analysis, bounce rate, conversion trackingGA4 integration (Measurement ID in site settings)GA4 captures behavioral session data Salesforce does not natively expose
Long-term (>12 months) trend reporting on user activityNetworkUserHistoryMonthly + archival strategyNetworkActivityAudit is purged at 12 months; monthly aggregates extend the usable window
Deep segmentation analytics, machine learning on engagement dataExport to external data warehouse (e.g., via Data Export or Salesforce Connect)Platform-native tools lack ML/segmentation capabilities at this depth

Step-by-step instructions for an AI agent or practitioner configuring or reporting on Experience Cloud analytics:

  1. Clarify requirements — Determine whether the request is for built-in snapshots (Engagement Insights), custom Salesforce reports (NetworkActivityAudit/NetworkUserHistoryMonthly), external analytics (GA4), or a combination. Confirm data retention requirements: if historical data beyond 12 months is needed, plan archival before NetworkActivityAudit records age out.
  2. Check existing site configuration — Verify the Experience Cloud site is active and the user has Administration panel access. For GA4, confirm whether a Measurement ID is already configured under Administration > Advanced > Google Analytics.
  3. Configure native analytics access — For Engagement Insights, navigate to Administration > Insights and verify the dashboards are populating (allow up to 24 hours for initial data). For custom reports, build a Custom Report Type on Networks + Network Activity Audits (or Network User History Monthly for aggregates).
  4. Configure GA4 integration if required — Enter the GA4 Measurement ID (G-XXXXXXXXXX) in Administration > Advanced > Google Analytics, then republish the site. Validate that gtag.js is firing on site pages using browser developer tools or the GA4 DebugView.
  5. Validate and document data coverage — Confirm which metrics are covered by each surface. Document the 12-month retention limit for NetworkActivityAudit in the project's data governance notes and set a reminder or automated export if historical data must be preserved.

Review Checklist

Run through these before marking work in this area complete:

Salesforce-Specific Gotchas

Non-obvious platform behaviors that cause real production problems:

  1. NetworkActivityAudit rolling 12-month retention — Salesforce automatically deletes NetworkActivityAudit records older than 12 months with no notification. Organizations that delay building reporting infrastructure risk permanently losing historical engagement data. Export to an external system or use NetworkUserHistoryMonthly for longer retention before the window closes.
  2. Engagement Insights 24-hour data lag — Data in the built-in Engagement Insights dashboards (Administration > Insights) can be up to 24 hours behind real-time. Practitioners who build stakeholder dashboards on Engagement Insights without disclosing this lag will face credibility issues when the data does not match same-day expectations.
  3. GA4 Measurement ID requires site republish — Adding or changing the GA4 Measurement ID in site Administration does not take effect until the site is republished. Cached pages continue to use the old (or no) tracking snippet until publish. Validate tracking with GA4 DebugView after every Measurement ID change.
  4. Built-in dashboards are read-only and non-embeddable — Engagement Insights dashboards cannot be customized, filtered, cloned, exported, or embedded in Lightning pages or external portals. Practitioners who promise stakeholders a customized engagement dashboard must use Custom Report Types and standard Reports/Dashboards instead.

Output Artifacts

ArtifactDescription
Engagement Insights configuration notesDocumented state of built-in dashboards and any known data lag for stakeholder communication
Custom report type setupReport type on Networks + NetworkActivityAudit or NetworkUserHistoryMonthly with recommended groupings and filters
GA4 integration checklistMeasurement ID entry, publish confirmation, and DebugView validation steps
Data retention and archival planDocuments the 12-month NetworkActivityAudit window and export or archival cadence if historical data is required

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