Segmentation Use cases
A Segment isn't just a list. It's a question about your audience that updates itself: who's still engaged, who's at risk of churning, who's missing data, who said yes. The value comes from using Segments consistently — as the foundation for every send, every flow, and every audience report. This article covers where Segments fit, what to monitor with them, and the five Segments every team should build first.
In this article you'll find where Segments are used across Apsis One and the value they unlock, how to monitor Segments over time with the trend view, and five worked examples — Unsubscribes, Consenting Profiles, Hard Bounces, Inactive Profiles, and Empty Value Segments — each framed by why it matters before the steps. Plus a troubleshooting table and related articles.
In this article
Where to use Segments — and what they're worth
Segments are the targeting layer of Apsis One. Anywhere you decide who gets a message, who enters a flow, or who sees personalised content, you're using a Segment. Here's where they fit — and why each placement matters.
Where | How Segments are used | The value |
Email — Send to step | Choose one or more Segments to define the campaign audience. Combine include and exclude Segments to fine-tune. | Send the right message to the right group. Higher relevance lifts engagement, and engagement protects long-term deliverability. |
Email editor — row-level personalisation | Show or hide individual content rows to specific Segments using the row Settings panel. | One email, multiple variants. Tailor offers, language, or imagery without managing multiple templates. |
SMS — Send to step | Same model as Email. Define recipients by Segment. | SMS has a cost per send and a small character budget. Tight segmentation makes every send count. |
Marketing Automation — Listen node | Use a Segment as part of the entry condition. Only Profiles matching the Segment enter the flow. | Trigger flows that fit the audience precisely — onboarding for new subscribers, win-back for lapsed customers, replenishment for repeat buyers. |
Marketing Automation — Check Profile node | Branch a flow based on Segment membership. Profiles take different paths depending on which Segments they belong to. | Build one flow that adapts to many audience states. Replaces the "one flow per audience" trap. |
Audience analysis | Use Segment counts and trends as audience metrics — not just as send-to lists. | A Segment is a question. How many engaged subscribers? How many missing key data? Is my high-value group growing? |
Send to step:
Start Marketing Automation flow
Customise journey in Marketing Automation flow:
Use case - Events click on link:
Segment Trends — measure how Segments evolve
A Segment's size is one number. Its size over time is a story — and often a more useful one. In the Segment Builder, click Show Profiles in the bottom bar to open the Segment, see the Profiles currently matching the conditions, and follow how the Segment evolves day by day, week by week.
What the trend tells you
Is your engaged audience growing? The Active Subscribers Segment trend is one of the clearest health metrics you have. Flat or declining is worth investigating.
Are your re-engagement campaigns working? If they are, the Inactive Segment shrinks and the Active Segment grows. If they're not, both stay still — or worse, the Inactive Segment keeps climbing.
Is your data enrichment paying off? An Empty Value Segment that shrinks means your "complete your profile" flows are working. One that grows steadily means new Profiles are entering without that data — and you should look at your sign-up flow.
Early warning signs. A sudden drop in the opted-in Segment might mean an issue in your sign-up flow.
Build a health-check dashboard with Segments
Pick four to six Segments and monitor their trend monthly. A reasonable starter set:
Health metric | The Segment to track | What the trend tells you |
Engaged audience | Opt-in AND clicked in the last 90 days | Up = audience is engaged. Flat or down = re-engagement needed |
Audience quality | Hard bouncers + Inactive (last 6 months) | Up = list hygiene overdue. Down = cleanup is working |
Data completeness | Profiles missing first name (or another key field) | Down = enrichment working. Up = sign-up form might be losing this field |
Acquisition velocity | New Profiles signed up in the last 30 days | Up = top-of-funnel healthy. Down = look at acquisition channels |
Lifecycle progression | Customers who made first purchase in the last 60 days | Track conversion from subscriber to customer over time |
💡 Tip: Trend > snapshot. A Segment of 12,000 Profiles tells you very little on its own. A Segment that has grown from 8,000 to 12,000 in three months is a story — and one your monthly marketing review can act on.
Profiles who unsubscribed
Why this Segment matters: Unsubscribes are feedback. Knowing which Subscriptions drive opt-outs and when the volume spikes tells you whether you're sending the right content at the right frequency. Steady-state unsubscribes are normal churn; a sudden spike after a specific campaign is worth investigating.
Use this Segment to:
Analyse which Subscriptions drive the most opt-outs and reconsider their content or cadence
Run win-back campaigns through alternative channels (SMS, direct mail) where consent still exists
Feed unsubscribed Profiles into a permanent suppression list for paid ad audiences (so you don't pay to reach people who already opted out)
Steps:
Go to Audience > Segments and click Create segment (or open an existing one).
Name the Segment something descriptive (e.g. Newsletter unsubscribes — last 90 days).
In the Events tab, locate the Unsubscribe event for the channel (Email or SMS) and drag it into the canvas.
Click the cogwheel. Under the What tab, click Add event data.
From the dropdown, select topicId (string) — this is the Subscription's unique ID, visible in the URL when you open the Subscription in Audience.
Choose Equals to and paste the topicId into the value field.
Under the When tab, set the time period (e.g. last 90 days).
Click OK, then Calculate. Use Show Profiles to preview, and Save Segment.
💡 Tip: Watch this Segment's trend. A steady line is normal; a sudden jump is a signal — either a campaign tested patience, or the unsubscribe link is being clicked by spam filters scanning for compliance links.
Profiles with consent to a Subscription
Why this Segment matters: Consent is the foundation of compliant marketing. Under GDPR, you can only contact Profiles for the purpose they consented to — so knowing exactly who has consented to what, and being able to filter on that consent state in every send and flow, is non-negotiable. The Subscription Segment makes consent a first-class condition you can reuse anywhere.
Use this Segment to:
Define the audience for any send to a Subscription (the Email tool's Send to step does this automatically, but explicit Segments are useful in Marketing Automation)
Exclude opted-in Profiles from a permission-pass or win-back campaign aimed only at lapsed contacts
Filter Marketing Automation flows to include only Profiles with consent to a specific channel
Track the trend of your opted-in audience as a top-line health metric
Steps:
The Subscription condition is built under the Properties tab with the state set to Opt-in. For the full step-by-step, see Using Subscription in a Segment.
Hard bounces
Why this Segment matters: Sender reputation is built over months and damaged in days. Continuing to send to addresses that have hard-bounced signals to mailbox providers (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo) that you don't maintain your list — which then lowers inbox placement for all your sends, including the ones going to your engaged subscribers. A hard bouncer Segment is the foundation of list hygiene.
Use this Segment to:
Suppress hard bouncers from every campaign (use as exclusion in the Send to step)
Export and permanently remove them from your audience so your counts stay accurate
Identify imported lists with high hard-bounce rates so you can stop using that source — repeated bad imports are a faster way to ruin a reputation than anything else
Steps:
Create a new Segment named (e.g.) Hard bounces — clean up.
In the Events tab, find Email > Bounces and drag it into the canvas.
Click the cogwheel and choose Add event data.
Select BounceReason from the dropdown.
Choose Contains and enter
Hardin the value field.Click OK, then Calculate. Show Profiles to preview, and Save Segment.
💡 Tip: To target a specific type of hard bounce, use the bounce code instead of Hard. See Bounce rate and spam complaint for the full list.
Optional — set frequency: the system retries up to three times before blocking. Use the How Often tab to capture only Profiles who bounced multiple times.
From here, export the Segment or delete the Profiles from your audience.
Inactive Profiles
Why this Segment matters: Mailbox providers measure engagement signals — opens, clicks, replies, time in inbox. Sending consistently to disengaged recipients lowers inbox placement for everyone else in your audience. The Inactive Segment lets you choose how to respond: suppress to protect deliverability, run a re-engagement attempt, or move to a low-frequency cadence. Either way, knowing this Segment exists is where a real deliverability strategy starts.
Use this Segment to:
Exclude from regular sends — protect deliverability for the audience that's actually paying attention
Run a dedicated re-engagement flow with a clear "tell us you're still interested" CTA
Send a permission-pass campaign before doing a deeper purge
Move to a quarterly newsletter cadence instead of weekly — sometimes frequency is the problem
⚠️ Opens vs. clicks: With Apple Mail Privacy Protection and similar features now widespread, opens are no longer a reliable signal of real engagement — MPP pre-fetches images and registers an open whether the recipient saw the email or not. Clicks are a stronger signal of engagement and a better basis for an Inactive Segment today, though you still need to be aware of emails being clicked through for spam control.
Steps — Profiles who were sent an email in the last 6 months but did not open or click any of them:
Create a new Segment (e.g. Inactive — last 6 months).
In the Events tab, expand Response Data > Email.
Drag the Send condition into the canvas. Open the cogwheel and set When to the last 6 months.
Drag the Open and Click conditions into the canvas. Set the same time range on both.
Arrange the row logic:
Row 1 — Include (+): Email Sent (last 6 months)
AND
Row 2 — Exclude (−): Email Opened OR Email Clicked (last 6 months)
Click OK, then Calculate. Show Profiles to preview, and Save Segment.
💡 Tip: Refine further with How Often — for example, require at least 5 sends on the Sent condition. That way recent subscribers who've only had one or two emails don't get flagged as inactive.
Empty value Segment
Why this Segment matters: Personalisation breaks when data is missing. A "Hi ##first name##," email that sends as "Hi ," is a worse experience than a generic "Hi there" — it signals to the recipient that you've got their data wrong. Empty Value Segments find these gaps so you can either fill them through enrichment campaigns or suppress those Profiles from personalised sends.
Use this Segment to:
Run a "complete your profile" flow with a small incentive (preference center, prize draw, useful content)
Exclude from sends that depend on the missing field for personalisation
Audit your data sources — a large Empty Value Segment for a field your sign-up form collects suggests a form issue or a misconfigured import
Track the trend over time — your monthly review should see this Segment shrinking, not growing
Steps:
Create a new Segment (e.g. Profiles missing first name).
From the Properties tab, drag the Attribute you want to check (e.g. First name) into the canvas.
Click the plus/minus icon on the row to switch it to minus (−). This excludes all Profiles that have any value in the Attribute — leaving only those with an empty value.
Click Calculate to see how many Profiles are missing the data.
Save Segment.
💡 Tip: Use this Segment as the entry condition for a Marketing Automation flow that asks Profiles to update their preferences — or as an exclusion for any send that uses the missing field as a personalisation tag.
Troubleshooting
Issue | Likely cause | Fix |
Unsubscribe Segment is empty | Wrong topicId, or no unsubscribes for that Subscription in the time window | Re-check the topicId in the Subscription URL. Widen the When range to "any time" to test |
Bounce Segment includes Profiles that look fine | The Starts with "Hard" condition picks up any historical hard bounce, even years old | Add a When filter (e.g. last 12 months) to focus on recent bounces |
Inactive Segment count seems wrong | Row logic flipped: OR inside an excluded row behaves as AND | Put Sent in an include row, and Open/Click in a separate exclude row joined by AND |
Inactive Segment captures very recent subscribers | No frequency filter on Send | Add How Often: at least 3 (or your typical send cadence) to the Send condition |
Empty value Segment is much larger than expected | The minus row also captures Profiles never imported with that Attribute, not just those who left it blank | Combine with a Subscription = Opt-in condition to limit to your active audience |
Segment trend chart looks flat when you expect movement | Short time window, or the Segment is too narrow for the change to show | Widen the time range in the trend view, or build a broader Segment (e.g. all hard bouncers, not just last 30 days) |
Calculate count doesn't match the Email Send to count | Calculate counts all Profiles regardless of Subscription; Send to only counts opted-in | Use the Send to count as the actual send size — the Segment Calculate is an upper bound |
What's next?
Creating a Segment — The full reference for the Segment Builder: condition types, operators, AND/OR, include/exclude.
Regex Segmentation — Advanced text pattern matching for use cases that don't fit Contains/Starts with/Ends with.
Hide a Segment — Keep your segment pickers clean by hiding the Segments you don't actively select.
Export Profiles — Move Segment members out of Apsis One for offline use or list cleanup.
Delete Profiles — Permanently remove Profiles in a Segment (hard bouncers, GDPR requests).
Bounce rate and spam complaint — Full reference of bounce codes and reasons.