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Creating a Segment
Rikke Søndergaard avatar
Written by Rikke Søndergaard
Updated this week

Creating a Segment in the Segment Builder

A Segment is a dynamic filter and reflects Profiles that meet specific conditions, at the moment the Segment is put into use.

Any changes made to the Segment in the Segment Builder will be reflected in the sending.


In this Article


Note: Using Segments in marketing automation, the maximum number Profiles to be included in the Segment is 500 000. If exceeding this number, no Profiles will enter the Node.

How to Create a Segment

1. To get started head over to the Segments tab in Audience and click Create New Segment.

2. Name the Segment directly by clicking on Untitled Segment.

Give the Segment a name that reflects the character of the Profiles it captures.

Set the Conditions for a Segment

3. Set the conditions for the Segment by using Properties or Event.

Under the Properties tab you will find Subscription, Default Attributes, Custom Attributes and Tags. Under the Event tab, you can chose to base Segment on Profiles response data or interaction with your different marketing activities (Email tool, Event, Forms&Pages etc.)

4. Once you have identified the Attribute, Tag or Event you want to set the conditions, simply drag it into the Segment Canvas to use it.

5. Ones it’s there click the gear icon to open the settings.

If you in example are using an Attribute easily set the condition to include all Profile who have a certain value. In example Shoe size equal to 38.

The field is case sensitive so make sure you use the exact value.

Preview or Calculate the Segment

6. How many Profiles match the conditions you might wonder? Hit the Show Profiles to preview or the Calculate button in the bottom bar to find out how big your target is.

Every time you change the conditions click calculate to get the updated count.

Note: The calculated Profiles will include all Profiles in within the Account regardless if they are opted-in to a Subscription or not.

💡Tips! Calculate the Profiles in the Email Tool "Send to" step to see the count for the chosen Subscription(s). There the count will only include Profiles who have opted in the the chosen Subscription

Using Subscription in Segment

With the Subscription condition (Properties tab), you can capture Profiles with a certain consent.

  1. Place it in the canvas and open with the cogwheel.

2. Select Subscription in the dropdown. Select email or SMS channel.

3. The Subscription condition require that you add Attribute data.

Click on "Add attribute data". Select "state" (unless you are setting up values from API).

4. Select State in the dropdown. Chose what state the Profile consent should have, in order to be captured in the Segment (Opt-in, pending Opt-in, Opt-out etc.).

Note: As for all Attribute-based Segments, setting the including/excluding option to minus, the Segment will search for Profiles in all Sections of your Account.

Using Attributes in a Segment

Under the Properties tab you will find all Attributes.

Default and custom attributes usually contain data such as name and email and other basic information about the Profile. The Custom Attributes are the ones you created and contain data specific to your business.

1. Drag in the Attribute you want to use. Like this, the Segment will capture all Profiles with any kind of value in the Attribute.

2. Depending on the Attribute type you will be able to specify the conditions further. Click the gears icon to open the options.

Text Attribute

Choose if the value in the text Attribute should be Equal to, Not equal to, Contain, Start with or End with.

In example capture all Profiles who have indicated interest in the category “Sustainability”. Choose Equal to and enter the value.

The fields are case sensitive.

Number (and Number with decimal) Attribute

Are you using a Number Attribute you will get these options to specify the conditions for the segment. Choose between Equals, Not equal, Greater than, Greater or equals to, Less than or Equal to.

Imagine you want to capture all Profiles with shoe size 38. Simply choose Equals and enter the value 38.

Date Attribute

Use the date Attribute to capture all Profiles who in example signed up on a specific day.

Timestamp Attribute

In example enter a time range and capture all Profile with a registered timestamp within that range.

True/False Attribute

In cases where a statement is true or false, use the True/False Attribute. In example capture all Profiles who are members, simply choose value “true”.

Using Tag in a Segment

If you have created Tags you can use them for Segmentation. A Tag is simpler than an Attribute - either it’s on a Profile or it’s not - like a sticker or label.

1. Drag in the Tag you want to use.

2. Capture all Profile with the Tag, or capture all Profiles without that specific tag by clicking the plus/minus icon.

You can also apply the tag when you send out a campaign or directly in a marketing automation flow. You don't have to create a Segment to use the Tag in other activities.

Using Events in a Segment

1. Head over to the Events tab in the left side menu. Here you will find all the different events that can possibly be captured.

  • Response Data: How Profiles have responded to emails, SMS's or movement in marketing automation flow.

  • Website Interaction: All data collected by the tracking script.

  • Consent Timeline: Consent events for when a Profile provided their consent through an form created in the Form Tool.

  • Event tool: Profiles' Event tool statuses and events, for example "Registered" and "Received confirmation".

  • Form & Pages Interaction: How Profiles interact with the Form and Pages you created

  • Custom Events: If you created any custom events in the Data Model you will find them here.

  • Achievements: If you created an Achievement in the Marketing Automation Tool this is where you will find the data point.

Event Versions

If you have made changes to a Form, Product View or Custom Event a new Event Version will be created.

When you create a Segment with one of these Events, you'll notice a Version drop-down menu where you can select the version of the Event. Read more about Event Versions.

Using Pageview in a Segment

To best explain how to use Events to set the conditions in a Segment let’s look at an example using a pageview.

Capture all Profiles who visited a specific category on your website and use the Segment to target them with a personalized campaign about that category.

1. Locate the Website Interactions in the left side menu or any other event you would like to use.

2. Drag in Page view to use it as a condition.

3. At this point you will capture all Profiles with a registered page view. To specify the condition further click on the gears icon.

Now you can choose between specifying What specific data should be in the event, When the interaction took place and How Often the interaction happened.

In example capture all Profiles who visited the category page “Sustainability” on your website.

What

4. Click on Add event data to decide what kind of data within the event to use.

5. Select Url String. Choose Contains and type in "Sustainability".

This way the Segment will capture all Profiles who visited all pages on your website containing “Sustainability” in the url.

When

6. To define the timeframe for the page view or any interactions go to the When tab.

7. Decide if the page view must have happened a certain amount of time ago or between dates.

How Often

8. Specify the conditions even further by thinking about frequency. How often must this interaction have happened?

In example, set the first box to 5 and leave the second blank to capture all Profiles who have done this interaction at least five times.

9. Click OK when done.

This is how the Segment Conditions will appear in the Segment Builder.


More Than One Condition? Use the AND/OR Logic

If you are using more than one condition the AND/OR logic will appear between them. This is a vital part of creating a Segments since it will define whether the conditions are working together or in spite of each other.

1. Click it to switch between the two options.

2. In this example the segment will include all Profile who have the value "Healthy feet" stored in the chosen attribute AND who is tagged VIP.

3. When changed to OR the segment will include all Profile who have either the value Healthy feet in the Attribute OR is tagged VIP.

This segment is likely to include more Profiles than the one using the AND logic. Try it out by clicking the Calculate Profiles button in the bottom bar.


Include or Exclude Segment Conditions

Including or Excluding a Single Condition

Single conditions can be set to either include or exclude, and its preceding and following AND/OR relation also affects its role in the segment.

Click the + icon on the condition to chose between including (+) and excluding (-) the condition.

The conditions below will capture all Profiles with the value "France" AND who is NOT tagged VIP.

Including or Excluding a Row

The first plus + icon in the rows will determine whether your Segment will include or exclude the conditions added into the row. Click the icon to change between include (+) and exclude (-).

If the row is set to include (+), the Segment will capture Profiles who match the conditions in the row. For example, if you add a condition of Country equals France, all Profiles that have France as a Country value will be captured.

However, if the row is set to exclude (-), the Segment will exclude Profiles who match the conditions in the row.

AND/Or is Affected by Including or Excluding the Row

The AND/OR relation is affected as well. In the case, when the Country equals France OR tagged as VIP conditions are added into an excluding row, the Segment will exclude all Profiles that have France as a Country value AND are tagged as VIP.

Not only will the including and excluding conditions be affected by the initial exclude (-), but also the AND will become OR when the row is excluded.

These two rows are then equivalent:

And so are these two:

While the first example takes into consideration either or both of the conditions, the second example combines them so that both conditions must be met in order for Profiles to be included or excluded from the Segment.

Double Negative Will Result in Positive

Consider that if the condition itself is set to exclude, and then added into an excluding row, a double negative will result as a positive.

If a condition of excluding Country equals Sweden is added into an excluding row, the segment will include Profiles that have Sweden as a Country value (or exclude Profiles who don't).


Create a segment from an Email Report

Create a Segment directly from an Email Report.

1. Head over to the Email Tool and go to the Scheduled and Sent tab. Click on the email report you wish to open.

2. Choose one of the tabs to the left. In example create a Segment including all the Profiles who clicked in the Email. Click Create Segment in the bottom bar.

3. Now you will land in the Segment builder. Here you can name, and save the Segment and start using it as it is or add even more conditions for further personalisation.

4. Click Show Profiles to Preview the Profiles included in the Segment.


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