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. Usage of a specific application.
- Feature. Tagged Feature clicks.
- Feedback Requests. Visitors who voted on a request (Feedback subscription required).
- Guide. Pendo guide views.
- Guide Element. Clicks on elements in Pendo guides.
- Page. Tagged Page views.
- Poll Response. Responses to guide polls.
- Resource Center. Resource Center module views.
- Segment. Use existing segments as nested rules.
- Track Events. Pendo Track Events received.
All product usage rules are eligible for guide targeting.
Tip: When adding a Page, Feature, or Track Event as a segment rule, hover over the event name to view the full name, description, and related metrics; or select View details to open the corresponding details page.
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 Visit*. Date of the first recorded event.
- Language*. Browser language metadata.
- 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*. Last mobile operating system (OS) used.
- Most recent server name*. Domain of the last 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 the visitor has generated events.
- Visitor ID*. Unique Visitor ID from your install script.
*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.
- First Visit*. Date of the first recorded event for any visitor in the account.
- 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. Your mobile app version.
- SDK Version. Pendo SDK version.
- OS version. Mobile operating system (OS) version.
- Device Type. Mobile device type.
- Device model. Mobile device model.
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 or Not Seen with the following conditions:
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Seen options include ever, since, within last, at least, and at most.
-
Not Seen options include ever, since, and within last.
Guide targeting rules using Feature clicks are limited to Used or Not Used with the following conditions:
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Used options include ever, since, within last, at least, and at most.
-
Not Used options include ever, since, and within last.
Visit the Pendo Academy to see a video about segments for guide targeting.