Segments

Last Updated: September 18, 2023 20:53

Segments let you group visitors and accounts based on metadata and product usage so that you can filter your analytics data and target guides to specific users.

A segment consists of rules that define a group of visitors and accounts based on selected metadata or usage-based criteria. Only visitors and accounts that meet the segment's criteria are included.

You can view and update your segments by navigating to People > Segments in the left-side navigation. To learn more, see Manage segments.

Use cases

In Analytics, a segment can be used to get a count of users who meet certain criteria. You can also use segments in Data Explorer to compare data between groups.

In Guides, you can use segments to target messaging at a specific group of accounts or to activate a guide when a user has performed a certain behavior, like visiting a page multiple times without using a feature.

You can use nested segments to pull existing segments into a new segment for more consistency and less duplication. This allows you to reuse core segments that identify certain user groups in multiple new segments. For example, you can create a "new users at commercial accounts" segment with its own unique rules, then add that segment as a rule in new segments with additional rules to target more specific users without changing the core segment, such as admins who haven't viewed onboarding guides.

You can also pull additional metadata into Pendo from your other business tools to use in segments with our integrations, such as the Salesforce Integration. This is useful for improving the quality and utility of your Pendo analytics and enables more refined guide targeting with business data.

Requirements

All Pendo users can create segments. Use the Everyone permission under Visibility when creating a segment if you want to share the segment with the entire subscription. This also allows your segment to be used in nested segments.

Create a segment

Create a segment by navigating to People > Segments in the left-side navigation and selecting + Create Segment in the top-right of the page.

Name your segment to identify it. Use a descriptive name or something that follows your organization's naming convention.
Set your segment's Visibility. Use Everyone to make the segment visible to everyone in your subscription. Use Only Me to restrict visibility to you – this limits the functionality of the segment and the segment can't be used for Guide targeting.
Select Visitor Data. You have a choice between Identified Visitors Only, Anonymous Visitors Only, or All Visitors. If you want to create segments that include anonymous users, your subscription must have Show Anonymous Visitor Data enabled in Subscription Settings. For more information, see Anonymous Visitors.
Select + Add rules to start adding any combination of product usage and metadata rules.
To save your segment, select Create Segment.

Be mindful when configuring rules. Combinations of rules can unintentionally target all users or be overly restrictive and not target any users. Some rules can't be used for guide targeting. For more information, see Segment rules in this article.

Visit the Pendo Academy for a video on Segment Logic (And, Or, Not). If you're on our US domain, visit the US Pendo Academy. If you're on our EU domain, visit the EU Pendo Academy.

The Eligible Visitors count shows the all-time total number of visitors that are included in this segment.

Segment rules

Segment rules use product usage data, visitor metadata, and account metadata to target users. This includes metadata passed through your snippet (such as Visitor ID, email, isTrial, title, and so on), metadata from integrations, and default rules provided by Pendo.

Product usage

Application Usage. Usage of a specific app.
Feature. Tagged feature clicks.
Feedback Requests. Visitors who have voted on a request, only visible with an active Feedback subscription.
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 segments.
Track Events. Pendo Track Events received.

All of these rules are eligible for guide targeting.

Visitor data defaults

Account IDs. Account IDs associated with a visitor. A visitor can be associated with multiple Account IDs.
Device Type*. Devices used by a visitor.
First Visit*. Date of the first recorded event.
Language*. Browser language metadata.
Last Visit. Date of the last recorded event.
Most recent browser name*. Name of browser in the last event.
Most recent browser version*. Version of browser in the last event.
Most recent operating system*. Last mobile OS used.
Most recent server name*. Domain of the last event.
Number of Days Active. Number of days the visitor has an event.
Number of Events. Total number of raw events.
Sample Group*. Random value between 0 and 99 used for targeting random groups.
Time on Site. Time in minutes that the Visitor is generating events.
Visitor ID*. Unique Visitor ID from your installed Pendo snippet.

*Rule is eligible for guide targeting.

Account data defaults

Account ID*. Unique Account ID from your installed Pendo snippet.
First Visit*. Date of the first recorded event for any Visitor with this Account ID.
Last Visit. Date of the last recorded event for any Visitor with this Account ID.
Number of Days Active. Total number of days any Visitor with this Account ID has generated events.
Number of Events. Total number of raw events with this Account ID.
Number of Visitors. Total number of Visitors with this Account ID.
Time on Site. Total number of minutes Visitors have generated events with this Account ID.

*Rule is eligible for guide targeting.

Mobile-specific data

App Version. Your mobile app version.
SDK Version. Pendo SDK version.
OS version. Mobile OS version.
Device Type. Mobile device type.
Device model. Mobile device model.

Note: When using a rule with a text type attribute, the text is case-sensitive.

Metadata value search

When metadata is used in a rule, the input field shows all known values for that metadata in a dropdown list. This allows you to confidently select known values in your rule. You can add new values if necessary.

Metadata with more than 400 values shows the first 400 values in alphanumerical order in the dropdown list. You can search for other values.

Only "string" type metadata is available for metadata value search. Learn more about metadata types in the Data mapping and data types in Pendo article.

Create nested segments

Nested segments allow you to add an existing segment as a rule in another segment. This simplifies creating new segments and makes it possible to create core segments that update other segments if their rules are changed.

You can add up to five nested segments to a segment. A segment must be visible to Everyone to be used as a nested segment. You can use nested segments in any type of segment, analytics, guide targeting, and draft segments in Data Explorer. The same restrictions that apply to each use case apply when using nested segments.

To add a nested segment rule, follow the instructions under Create a Segment and, when adding a new segment rule:

Select Segment from the Product Usage dropdown menu.
Select is equal to or is not equal not to include or exclude the nested segment.
Choose an existing segment from the Select a saved segment dropdown, which lists all segments shared with Everyone in your subscription. When editing a Guide-targeting segment, ineligible segments are unavailable.

The nested segment is added with a preview of its rules, displayed alongside your other rules. You can't edit the nested segment from this segment. Instead, select the link to the nested segment and make changes to the original segment. This updates the segment everywhere it's used, including other nested segments.
Add additional nested segments or segment rules as needed, then save your segment. If a nested segment is changed, it updates this segment automatically.

Note: You can't create compound nested segments. This means that you can't use a nested segment when creating a new segment if the nested segment contains a nested segment in its segment rules. If a segment is used as a nested segment, a message appears in the segment details on the Segments page indicating everywhere that segment is used in Analytics, Guides, and segments.

Bulk-add Visitor or Account IDs with a CSV file

To target a large number of known Visitor or Account IDs, upload a .csv file with the first column containing the Visitor or Account IDs that you want to include or exclude from the segment.

To upload a .csv file to a new segment, follow the instructions under Create a Segment and, when adding a new segment rule:

In the first dropdown menu, select Account ID or Visitor ID. You can either scroll through the list or start typing.
In the second dropdown menu, select either csv contains or csv does not contain. You're then presented with an Upload CSV button, prompting you to upload a .csv file.

File format

The .csv file must be formatted in a way that Pendo can read. Visitor or Account IDs must be in a single, line-delimited column in the file. The column can have a header in cell A1 if it's omitted by checking the header checkbox during upload. No other columns, punctuation, or special characters are supported.

Segment based on Feedback request votes

If you're a Feedback user, you can build dynamic segments based on request voters. Follow the instructions under Create a Segment and, when adding a new segment rule:

Select Feedback Requests from the first dropdown menu.
Select a specific app that you want to focus on, or a collection of apps from the second dropdown menu.
Select a feedback request from the third dropdown menu.

The segment contains any visitors who voted on the request. It is dynamically updated every 15 minutes with the current request voters. Only visitors identified by the Pendo snippet are included. Team members and visitor records created manually with the UI, API, or Salesforce integration don't appear in the segment.

Note: Segments using Feedback request rules are usable in Analytics only. Guide targeting isn't supported.

Sample groups

Use the Sample Group option to create a segment that targets a random sample of Visitors. Sample group values are assigned when a Visitor is created and remain static for that Visitor. Values range from 0 - 99, with an even distribution across all of your Visitors over time.

Follow the instructions under Create a segment above, and when adding a new segment rule:

Select Sample Group from the dropdown menu. You can either scroll through the list or start typing.
Choose your quantity rules for the sample group. Use sample groups to A/B test different guide designs, target rotating random groups for user research, or limit the number of visitors eligible for a guide experiment.

Example using multiple rules to target sample groups 50 - 74 (25% of the user base)

You can see the sample group value for any visitor by looking at their visitor details.

Ineligible segments for guide targeting

Certain segment rules aren't available for guide targeting. Often, this is due to calculations or time-bound usage values in a segment that can't process for all visitors fast enough to provide the responsiveness required for guide activation. Segments with Only Me visibility are also not available for guide targeting.

In the segment rule builder, you can see whether the segment is Guide 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.

Ineligible rules

Time on Site
Number of Days Active
Last Visit
Number of Events
Account IDs (All accounts a visitor is associated with, found under Visitor Metadata)
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

Guide targeting rules using Page Views are limited to Seen or Not Seen with the following conditions:

Seen options include ever, since, within last, at least, or at most.

Not Seen options include ever, since, or within last.

Guide targeting rules using Feature clicks are limited to Used or Not Used with the following conditions:

Used options include ever, since, within last, at least, or at most.
Not Used options include ever, since, or within last.

Visit the Pendo Academy to see a video about segments for guide targeting. If you're on our US domain, visit the US Pendo Academy. If you're on our EU domain, visit the EU Pendo Academy.

Copy segment

If you have a segment you want to reuse and modify, you can copy or duplicate it. Navigate to the existing segment in a dropdown menu or the Segments page, and select the copy icon next to it. A new segment named "Copy of..." with the same rules and visibility set to Only Me is created.

Frequently Asked Questions

I deleted a metadata field. What happens to the segment that's applied to a guide?

If a metadata field is deleted on the Data Mappings page and that field is used in a segment, it's removed from the segment. This makes the existing segment invalid, and any guide using that segment no longer displays.

Can I target excluded visitors and accounts with segmentation?

You can't target excluded visitors and accounts with regular segments. The only way to target excluded visitors and accounts is to view product data by the Excluded Accounts & Visitors segment filter available on most pages.