Salesforce (Two-Way Integration)
Table of Contents
Why integrate Salesforce with Appcues?
The Appcues and Salesforce integration is a bi-directional, real-time connection. You can use this integration to help better target and personalize in-app experiences. Let the data flow!
What you'll need to get started:
- Appcues Growth Plan. Check out more about our pricing plans here!
- A Salesforce Plan with API Access. Enterprise Edition, Unlimited Edition, Developer Edition, Performance Edition check out the plans here.
-
UUID Match. This integration requires identical UUIDs in two places:
- The Appcues installation: window.Appcues.identify("USER_ID")
- The Salesforce record: typical as a User ID or Salesforce ID field which must have type Text. If your user IDs are numeric, you can create a formula field with the string representation of your user ID. For example, if your user ID is stored in a numeric custom field called "Product User Id," you would create a formula field with the formula TEXT(Product_User_Id__c).
- Single Record Mapping: This integration currently supports mapping only one record, and those (partly because of the above requirement) are Lead or Contact records.
- Appcues Events Broadcaster (Optional): Enable this add-on service if you want to send Click-to-track events to Salesforce
What information will be passed with this integration?
-
From Salesforce to Appcues:
- Triggers when the specified object (Lead or Contact) are created or updated. This will occur automatically as long as the property has been updated. If nothing has been updated in Salesforce, nothing will be pushed to Appcues.
- Sends specified attributes to Appcues as profile attributes to be updated
- If a user or attribute does not yet exist in Appcues, it will be created upon sync
-
From Appcues to Salesforce:
- Triggers (via webhook) when an end user interacts with Appcues content (e.g. submits an NPS survey)
- Optional: Sends "NPS Score" and "NPS Feedback" to Salesforce that update the specified object (e.g. Lead or Contact)
- Optional: Sends Appcues events to Salesforce as Events that appear on the objects Activity view
- Optional: Sends Click-to-track events to Salesforce as Events that appears on the objects Activity view. (Requires that your account is signed up for Appcues Events Broadcaster)
- Appcues will not create new Leads or Contacts if one does not exist for the events it is trying to sync
Syncing data between Appcues and Salesforce depends on having a "USERID" attribute that's shared in both systems. This value is commonly stored as a custom field in Salesforce. You'll need to consult your Salesforce Admin for assistance.
How to set up the integration
- From the Integrations page within Appcues, click the Salesforce integration card.
- In the popup that appears, click "Activate". This will trigger a separate popup window.
- Click the dropdown to authenticate your Salesforce account. This will walk you through a standard (OAuth) login flow.
- Give your authenticated account a name (or use the default name provided).
- Choose an instance type (either "Production" or "Sandbox").
- Select a Salesforce Record Type to sync.
- Select which field in Salesforce will correspond to the
userId
in Appcues. {It is critical these match exactly. Unfortunately Appcues will not know if these match, so you may need to get with your Salesforce Admin to confirm}. - Map fields to send from Salesforce to Appcues when a record is created or updated. You can free-form type your own new fields here and when done, choose the "set value to:" option for that new property to save.
- Map the NPS fields to send from Appcues to Salesforce. This will update those fields in Salesforce when users go through an NPS survey and submit feedback.
- Confirm the configuration and close the popup.
- The integration should now appear activated in the list of Integrations.
- You can go back and modify anytime.
When this integration is turned on with the Salesforce >> Appcues direction enabled, there will be an initial sync of all Salesforce lead or contact records to Appcues. This will include only fields you have opted to send. The time it takes for this sync to complete will largely depend on the number of records in your Salesforce instance, but it will generally complete within a day. After that, Salesforce record updates will trigger an immediate accompanying Appcues user profile update.
SFDC Permissions
Permission | Fields | Uses | Object Level Permissions |
---|---|---|---|
Lead or Contact (Object) | Any fields you'd like to sync with Appcues | Used to sync fields between the two systems. Note: This can be any object type, including a Custom object. Only the synced record needs to be accessible. |
Create, Edit, Read |
Event (Object) | Subject, Comment | Used to record Appcues events such as "flow completed". | Create, Edit, Read |
Customize Application (Profile) | N/A | Sets up workflow rules and actions that send data from Salesforce to Appcues. |
SFDC Events and Activity Data
The Salesforce integration sends a subset of events to Salesforce. For the full list of Appcues events, see our Appcues Events Reference doc.
These will be sent automatically as long as the Appcues > Salesforce integration is complete and the USERID attributes match.
Events that update properties:
Event Name | Display Name | Attribute Name | Attribute Type |
---|---|---|---|
appcues:nps_score | Latest NPS Score | score | number |
appcues:nps_feedback | Latest NPS Feedback | feedback | string |
Events that add events:
Event name | Subject value | Comment value |
---|---|---|
appcues:nps_score | Appcues NPS Score Submitted - {{ score }} | {{ score }} NPS score. Submission location: {{ currentPageUrl }} ({{ currentPageTitle }} |
appcues:nps_feedback | Appcues NPS Feedback Submitted | {{ feedback }} Submission location: {{ currentPageUrl }} ({{ currentPageTitle }} |
appcues:flow_completed | Appcues Flow Completed - {{ flowName }} | User completed your Appcues flow titled “{{ flowName }}”. |
appcues:checklist_item_completed | Appcues Checklist Item #{{ itemIndex + 1 }} Completed - {{ checklistName }} | User has completed an item titled, “{{ itemIndex }}”. This is part of the “{{ itemIndex }}” checklist. |
appcues:checklist_completed | Appcues Checklist Fully Completed - {{ checklistName }} | User has completed all items in the “{{ checklistName }}” checklist. |
appcues:goal_reached | Appcues Goal Reached - {{ goalName }} | User has completed the goal titled, “{{ goalName }}” |
Configure the Integration with SFDC Integration User License
Want to use the Salesforce Integration user license to authenticate your Salesforce account in the integration setup? Great! The following steps will walk you through how to create a Salesforce Integration user, create a Permission Set, and enable the permissions that are required in Salesforce for the Appcues/Salesforce Integration to work properly.
Create a New User:
In Salesforce….
- Click Setup on the top right
- Search “users” in the Quick Find search bar
- Click Users
- Click New User
- Give your new user a name, email, username, and nickname
- Set the User License to “Salesforce Integration”
- Set the Profile to “Salesforce API Only System Integrations”
- Save the user

Create a New Permission Set
In Salesforce…
- Click Setup on the top right
- Search “Permission Sets” in the Quick Find search bar
- Click Permission Sets
- Click New
- Give the new permission set a label, API name, and description (optional)
- Leave the License set to —None—
- Save the permission set
Note: setting the License at this point will not give access to the full list of Object Settings and System Permissions required in the next step.
Object Settings and System Permissions
In Salesforce…
- Navigate to Permission Sets
- Click on the Permission Set label created in the previous section (opens Permission Sets Overview)
- Click Object Settings
- Click Contacts and/or Leads Object
- Modify permissions:
- Click Edit
- Check the Modify All box (automatically checks necessary boxes)
- Save

- Click Events Object
- Modify permissions:
- Click Edit
- Check all available Edit Access boxes
- Click Save

- Return to the Permission Set Overview of your new Permission Set
- Click System Permissions
- Modify permissions:
- Click Edit
- Check the API Enabled box
- Click Save

Assign Permission Set to Salesforce Integration User
- Return to the Permission Set Overview of your new Permission Set (see steps 1 & 2 in the section above)
- Click Manage Assignments

- Click Add Assignment
- Check the box next to the name of your Salesforce Integration user
- Click Next
- Click Assign
Authenticate Salesforce Integration in Appcues Studio with Salesforce Integration User
- Active Salesforce integration card in Appcues Studio
- On the Salesforce Authentication step, click the dropdown to authenticate your Salesforce account
- Click Add a new account
- Give the authentication a name and choose the instance type
- Click Create
- Log into Salesforce with your Salesforce Integration User’s email and password
- Proceed with the rest of the integration configuration settings