Create a custom segment
Pre-built segments cover the groups every store has. A custom segment is for the groups only your store has.
If you sell both skincare and supplements, "people who browse skincare but have only ever bought supplements" is a real group worth reaching, and no pre-built segment will find it.
Build one
- Go to Audience → Find Visitors.
- Click Show Filters.
- Set your conditions. The visitor list updates as you go, so you can see how many people you are describing before you commit.
- When the list looks right, save it as a segment and give it a name.
Watching the count as you filter is the useful part. A segment matching eleven people will not produce numbers you can learn anything from. If the count drops that low, loosen a condition.
What you can filter on
| Kind | Examples |
|---|---|
| Behaviour | Pages viewed, products viewed, products clicked, cart activity |
| Purchase history | Number of orders, order value, what they bought |
| Location | City, country |
| Device | Mobile, desktop, tablet |
| Marketing | Whether they accept email or SMS, how they respond to campaigns |
Time windows
Most conditions can be limited to a period, which is usually what makes a segment useful. "Viewed a product page" describes almost everyone. "Viewed a product page in the last seven days" describes people who are shopping now.
| Option | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed period | Between two dates | Added to cart between 1 and 31 July |
| Last N days | A rolling window that moves with today | Viewed a product in the last 30 days |
| Since a date | Everything from a date onward | Registered on or after 1 January |
Use Last N days for anything you want to keep running. A rolling window stays current on its own. A fixed period stops making sense the moment it passes.
Segments worth building
Recent high spenders. Spent over a threshold in the last 30 days, or average order value above one. Worth treating differently from everyone else.
Engaged browsers. Ten or more pages, or a long time on site, in the last 7 days, without buying. These people are interested and stuck. Something is stopping them, and it is often a question your product page does not answer.
Cart abandoners. Added to cart in the last 3 days, no order. The easiest group to win back, because they already chose something.
Category enthusiasts. Repeated views in one category without a purchase there. Good for recommendations, because you already know what to show them.
Campaign responders. Arrived through a particular campaign and came back more than once. Tells you which traffic is worth paying for.
After you save it
The segment appears under Audience → Segments alongside the pre-built ones, and you can pick it when building a campaign.
It stays up to date on its own. Visitors move in and out as their behaviour changes, so a segment built on the last 30 days always means the last 30 days, not the 30 days when you made it.
Updated about 2 months ago