Segments

A segment is a saved group of people, such as “signed up but never subscribed” or “trial users on the Team plan”. Define it once, then count only those people in any report.

Updated

What a segment is

Segments live under People › Segments. A segment describes people by what they did (events) and who they are (person properties from identify). Segments belong to the whole project, so everyone on the team can use them.

The quick way

  1. Go to People and click + Filter by behaviour.
  2. Choose did or never did, and pick an event.
  3. Add more conditions, joined by AND or OR, up to 10.
  4. The footnote says how many people match. Click Save as segment and name it.

You can also start from a person’s profile with Add to segment, or from the people behind a chart point with Save as segment.

The segment builder

For more control, open Segments and click New segment. The builder reads as a sentence: People who match all (or any) of these conditions. Each condition is one of:

  • did an event, at least, at most or exactly a number of times.
  • did not do an event.
  • did for the first time: their first ever time falls in the window.
  • did, then did: one event, then another within some minutes, hours or days.
  • has person property: such as plan is team. Operators include is, is not, contains, does not contain, is set, is not set, is greater than, is at least, is less than and is at most.

Event conditions take a time window: in the last 1 to 365 days (30 by default), between two dates, or ever. Each event can also carry up to five property filters, such as did Order completed where amount is greater than 100.

Use + Group to nest one level, such as “(did A or did B) and has plan team”. A segment holds up to 10 conditions. The live preview says how many people match right now. Name it and click Save segment.

Live and snapshot

  • Live segments are recalculated whenever a report uses them. Someone who signs up today joins “signed up in the last 30 days” straight away, and leaves a month later.
  • Snapshot segments freeze today’s people. Open a live segment and click Save snapshot, which works for up to 20,000 people. The snapshot is named after the segment and the date, and it can’t be edited, only renamed.

Use a snapshot when you need the same people over time, such as “everyone who was in the beta on launch day”. Live segments also show a size over time chart.

Where segments apply

  • The people picker in the filter bar on Overview, Insights, Funnels, Flows, Retention and Events, and on Realtime.
  • Compare segments on Funnels and Retention, with up to five segments side by side.
  • The People list, to see who is in a segment.

Boards don’t take a segment filter yet. To put a segment’s numbers on a board, save an insight or funnel with the segment applied and add it.

Managing segments

The Segments tab lists each segment as a card with its size. Filter by All or Mine, search by name, and use a card’s menu for View people, Edit segment and Delete segment.

Tips and gotchas

  • Person properties come from identify. If plan never shows up, check that your app sends it. See Events and identify.
  • Someone can be in several segments. When you compare segments, they count in each. Other is everyone in none of them.
  • Funnel drop-off audiences can’t be saved as segments yet. Use View people or Export in the drop-off drawer.

Recipes

Signed up, never subscribed.

  1. Click New segment.
  2. Add did Signed up in the last 90 days.
  3. Add did not do Subscription started ever.
  4. Keep match all, name it Signed up, never paid and save.

Power users: exported three times this month.

  1. Add did Export created, at least 3 times, in the last 30 days.
  2. Save it as Power users, then pick it in the people picker on Retention to see how well they stick.

Freeze the beta group on launch day.

  1. Build a live segment: has person property beta is true.
  2. On launch day, open it and click Save snapshot.
Months later, the snapshot still holds exactly the people who were in the beta that day, even if their property changed.