Segment rules

Last updated: February 19, 2025 15:48

Segment rules in Pendo allow you to create highly targeted groups of users based on product usage, visitor metadata, account metadata, and mobile data. These rules are essential for customizing your analysis, guide targeting, and user research.

This article provides an overview of the types of segment rules available, guidance on how metadata values work in segmentation, and information about segments ineligible for guide targeting. For information about segment creation and management, see Segments and Manage segments.

Overview of rules

Pendo offers several types of segment rules to help you group users based on behavior and metadata. These include:

Product usage rules, such as Page views or Feature clicks.
Visitor data rules, such as language or device type.
Account data rules, such as total time on site or total number of events.
Mobile data rules, such as app version or SDK version.

This includes metadata passed through your install script (such as Visitor ID, email, isTrial, title, and so on), metadata from integrations, and default rules provided by Pendo. These rules provide flexibility for targeted analysis and are often used for guide targeting and experimentation. Some rules have limitations for guide targeting, which are detailed later in this article.

Rule-specific operators

Within each individual rule, you can refine conditions using specific operators, such as:

Equals or does not equal
Contains or does not contain
Greater than, less than, or between

These operators allow you to tailor each rule to meet your needs with precision. For example, you can create a rule that targets visitors whose browser language equals "English" or whose time on site is greater than 10 minutes.

Combining rules with AND/OR logic

You can combine multiple rules using AND and OR logic:

Use AND to require all rules to be true (e.g., visitors who clicked a specific Feature AND viewed a specific Page).
Use OR to include visitors who meet any of the rules (e.g., visitors who speak English OR Spanish).

Nested groups

For more complex segments, you can group rules together and apply AND/OR logic between those groups. This allows you to construct advanced logic, such as targeting visitors who meet multiple conditions in one group while meeting any of the conditions in another.

Product usage rules

Segment rules based on product usage allow you to group users based on specific interactions within your app. These include:

Application usage. Visitors who used or didn't use a specific application.
Feature. Visitors who interacted or didn't interact with tagged Features.
Page. Visitors who viewed or didn't view tagged Pages.
Segment. Use existing segments as nested rules.
Track Event. Visitors who generated or didn't generate Track Events.

All guide interaction rules can be eligible for guide targeting, depending on the selected criteria. For example, segmenting by the number of views on a Page isn't eligible for guide targeting, but segmenting by whether a Page was ever viewed is eligible.

New usage rules

Segment rules based on product usage allow you to group users based on when they first visited your application. These include:

First visit by visitor. Date of the first recorded event for a visitor.
First Identified Visit. Date in which a visitor was first identified. If a visitor was anonymous before being identified, this is the date of their first identified activity in your application. This is only present on identified Visitor IDs. For more information, see Identity mapping overview.
First visit by account. Any visitor within an account who first recorded an event in your application in a specific time period.

All new usage rules are eligible for guide targeting.

Guide interactions

Segment rules based on guide interactions allow you to group users based on when or how they interacted with messaging created in Pendo Guides. These include:

Guide. Visitors who viewed or didn't view a Pendo guide.
Guide element. Visitors who selected or didn't select an element within a Pendo guide.
Poll response. Visitors who responded or didn't respond to a specific guide poll, including NPS surveys.
Resource Center. Visitors who viewed or didn't view a module in your Resource Center.

All guide interaction rules can be eligible for guide targeting, depending on the selected criteria. For example, segmenting by the number of clicks on a guide element isn't eligible for guide targeting, but segmenting by whether a guide element was ever clicked is eligible.

Orchestrate

Segment rules based on Orchestrate allow you to group users based on when or how they interacted with messaging created in Orchestrate. These include:

Email. Visitors who received, viewed, or opened a specific email (or didn't).
Journey. Visitors who entered or didn't enter a specific messaging journey.

All Orchestrate rules are eligible for guide targeting.

Product feedback

Segment rules based on product feedback allow you to group users based on feedback and ideas they've submitted or voted for. These include:

Feedback request. Visitors who voted or didn't vote on a feedback request in classic Feedback.
Idea. Visitors who voted or didn't vote on an idea in Listen.

All product feedback rules are eligible for guide targeting.

Visitor data rules

Segment rules based on visitor metadata include both custom fields (configured in Settings > Data mappings) and the following default fields:

Account IDs. All accounts associated with a visitor.
Device type*. Device used in the last recorded event.
First Mapped Anonymous Visit*. Date in which an anonymous visitor first visited your application and was then mapped to an identified Visitor ID. This value is only present on an identified Visitor ID, where anonymous visitor data was merged to. For more information, see Identity mapping overview.
Identified visitor ID*. The Visitor ID that a previously anonymous visitor was mapped to. This value is only present on an anonymous Visitor ID after the visitor is identified. For more information, see Identity mapping overview.
Language*. Last browser language metadata used in the last recorded event.
Last Visit. Date of the last recorded event.
Most recent browser name*. Browser name in the last recorded event.
Most recent browser version*. Browser version in the last recorded event.
Most recent operating system*. Mobile operating system (OS) used in the last recorded event.
Most recent server name*. Domain of the last recorded event.
Number of days active. Number of days the visitor has generated events.
Number of events. Total events generated by the visitor.
Sample Group*. Random value between 0 and 99 for random sampling. For more information, see Set up an A/B test using Pendo.
Time on site. Total time in minutes that a visitor has generated events within a specific time period.
Visitor ID*. Unique Visitor ID from your install script.
Visitor identified at*. Date in which a previously anonymous visitor was mapped to an identified Visitor ID. This value is only present for an anonymous Visitor ID after the visitor is identified. For more information, see Identity mapping overview.

*Eligible for guide targeting.

Account data rules

Segment rules based on account metadata also include custom fields specified in Settings > Data mappings and the following default fields:

Account ID*. Unique Account ID from your install script.
Last Visit. Date of the last recorded event for any visitor in the account.
Number of days active. Total days any visitor in the account have generated events.
Number of events. Total raw events from the account.
Number of visitors. Total visitors in the account.
Time on site. Total time in minutes that visitors in the account have generated events.

*Eligible for guide targeting.

Mobile data rules

Segment rules specific to mobile data include the following:

App version. Mobile app version used in the last recorded event.
Device model. Mobile device model visitors used in the last recorded event.
OS version. Mobile operating system (OS) version used in the last recorded event.
SDK version. Pendo SDK version used in the last recorded event.

Metadata values in segmentation

Metadata fields configured as text types are searchable in segment rules. Pendo provides a dropdown list of known values for these fields, up to 400 entries in alphanumerical order. You can search for additional values or add new ones as needed. These metadata values are case-sensitive, and the dropdown list is only available for metadata fields configured as text.

Text-based metadata fields are case-sensitive.
For "contains" rules:
- Text fields allow partial matches. For example, the rule contains employee includes both "Pendo employee" and "Mind the Product employee."
- List fields require exact matches. For example, contains employee would only include values matching "employee" exactly. Variations like "Pendo employee" and "Mind the Product employee" wouldn't be eligible for the segment.

Admins can review metadata configurations in Settings > Data mappings. For more information, see Data mapping and data types in Pendo.

Segments ineligible for guide targeting

Some segment rules aren't eligible for guide targeting due to calculations or time-bound usage values that might not process fast enough for responsive guide activation. Segments with Only Me visibility are also ineligible.

When creating or viewing a segment, you can view whether the segment is Guides eligible. If it isn't eligible, you can hover over the tooltip icon to understand what rule makes the segment ineligible for guide targeting. Each ineligible rule is reviewed below.

Rules that are incompatible with guide targeting include the following:

Time on site
Number of days active
Last visit
Number of events
Account IDs (All accounts a visitor is associated with, found under Visitor Data)
Number of Page views, Feature clicks, or Track Events (within a time period; see below for examples)
Number of visitors
Click event or Track Event properties
Feedback requests

When you're adding a segment to a guide, you aren't able to select segments that are ineligible for guide targeting. Hovering over the segment shows the reason it's incompatible.

Guide targeting rules using Page views are limited to Seen, Not seen, and Last seen with the following conditions:

Seen options include ever, since, within last, at least, and at most for a specific date range or a specific number of views.

Not seen options include ever, since, and within last for a specific date range.
Last seen options include before, since, within last, not within last, and between within a specific date range.

Guide targeting rules using Feature clicks are limited to Used, Not used, and Last used with the following conditions:

Used options include ever, since, within last, at least, and at most for a specific date range or a specific number of clicks.
Not used options include ever, since, and within last for a specific date range.
Last used options include before, since, within last, not within last, and between within a specific date range.

Visit the Pendo Academy to see a video about segments for guide targeting.