Different numbers in Community Analytics

[Finney0225]

Before I open a support ticket, I'm hoping this is user error and can be explained easily. When I go to Community Analytics > Content and see my boards listed, on that front page I see a 'Product' board with 150k page views. When I click on that product board, and it lists out all my boards within that, the top number in Analytics is 147k. Can anyone let me know how there is a 3k difference? I've included some pics if that helps...

Analytics > Content > Product boardAnalytics > Content

[JonathanW · Accepted solution]

This is not user error, but does have an explanation. Admittedly, it's a little obtuse. 

I'm probably doing a bit of disservice to the details, but the description that was most effective for me was to think about deeper navigation into Analytics as constantly narrowing your scope. So at Analytics -> Content I'm including category pages (and all lower structural elements - boards, threads). So if a category page contains content from Product Board, it is eligible to increase that page view. 

Once I navigate to the Product Board itself in Analytics, I am only seeing views that happened within that board (and lower structural elements, just threads in this case), any category level view of content from Product Board is removed. 

[Finney0225]

Hmm interesting. A bit odd? Maybe that is just me. Do you feel it is best to pull metrics from the Product board itself in Analytics vs Analytics > Content? Thanks!

[JonathanW]

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@Finney0225 wrote:

Hmm interesting. A bit odd? Maybe that is just me. Do you feel it is best to pull metrics from the Product board itself in Analytics vs Analytics > Content? Thanks!

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I definitely agree that it's not intuitive. The upside is that it is handy to have that extra layer of data. 

Most of the time, I think the Analytics -> Content is the right level. I think it aligns better with what we generally try to measure. For posterity, here's how I would frame making the choice between the two

Product Level - If you really want to get a sense of how people are consuming and posting within a specific board, and you want certainty that they're looking at just that content. 

Content Level - If your intent is broader, and you want to gauge how content from a particular board is being consumed/interacted with, and you don't mind if it's being viewed at category pages. 

[aarontw]

Thank you @JonathanW  for this clarification. It just helped us at Square 🙂 

[JonathanW]

Glad to hear it helped!