Create Customer Segments

Why segmentation matters

Treating every customer the same wastes both your marketing budget and your customers’ attention. A first-time visitor needs different messaging than a loyal repeat buyer. A customer who abandoned their cart yesterday needs a different nudge than someone who has not visited in three months.

Segmentation lets you group customers by shared behaviors, attributes, or lifecycle stage — and then deliver tailored experiences to each group. In ODP, segments update in real time as new events arrive, so customers move in and out of segments automatically based on their actions.

What you will do

1. Understand the three rule types (behavioral, attribute, temporal)
2. Create a segment using the ODP audience builder
3. Combine rules with AND/OR/NOT logic
4. Estimate segment size before activation
5. Activate the segment in downstream channels

Understand rule types

Every segment is a set of rules applied to customer profiles. ODP supports three rule types that can be combined freely.

Behavioral rules

Behavioral rules filter customers by what they did (or did not do). They reference events tracked by your JavaScript SDK or server-side API.

Example rule	What it matches
Viewed product page in last 7 days	Active shoppers
Completed purchase with total > $200	High-value buyers
Did NOT open email in last 30 days	Disengaged subscribers
Submitted support ticket in last 14 days	Customers needing help
Viewed pricing page 3+ times	High-intent prospects

Attribute rules

Attribute rules filter by profile properties — demographics, account details, or custom fields synced from your systems.

Example rule	What it matches
Country is “United States”	US-based customers
Plan is “enterprise”	Enterprise accounts
Lifetime value > $1,000	High-value customers
Account created before 2025-01-01	Long-term customers
Custom property “industry” is “Healthcare”	Healthcare vertical

Temporal rules

Temporal rules add time constraints to behavioral or attribute rules. They control recency and frequency.

Example rule	What it matches
Last purchase was more than 30 days ago	Lapsed buyers
First visit was within last 7 days	New visitors
Made 5+ purchases in last 90 days	Frequent buyers
Last email open was more than 60 days ago	Cold subscribers

Create a segment in the audience builder

Step 1: Open the audience builder

Navigate to Audiences > Segments in the ODP dashboard and click Create Segment.

Step 2: Name your segment

Choose a descriptive name that reflects the audience and its purpose. Good names make it easy for your team to understand what a segment contains without opening it.

Good name	Poor name
High-value customers - 90 day active	Segment 1
Cart abandoners - last 7 days	Test audience
Enterprise trial users - pricing page visitors	Marketing list

Step 3: Add rules

Click Add Rule and select the rule type. The builder shows available fields based on your tracked events and profile attributes.

Example: Build a “cart abandoner” segment

1. Add a behavioral rule: Event product with action add_to_cart — in the last 7 days
2. Add a NOT rule: Event order with action purchase — in the last 7 days
3. The segment now matches customers who added items to their cart but did not purchase in the past week

Step 4: Combine rules with logic operators

Rules within a segment combine with AND/OR/NOT:

• AND — Customer must match all rules (narrower audience)
• OR — Customer must match any rule (broader audience)
• NOT — Customer must not match the rule (exclusion)

Example: Build a “re-engagement” segment

(Last purchase was more than 30 days ago)
AND (Lifetime value > $100)
AND NOT (Unsubscribed from email)

This targets valuable customers who have gone quiet but are still reachable by email.

Step 5: Estimate segment size

Before activating, click Estimate Size to see how many customers match your rules. This helps you:

• Validate that the rules are not too broad (matching everyone) or too narrow (matching nobody)
• Forecast campaign costs if the segment drives paid media
• Identify rule errors (an unexpectedly small segment may have conflicting rules)

Step 6: Save the segment

Click Save. The segment begins evaluating against all customer profiles. Depending on your data volume, initial population takes seconds to a few minutes.

Create segments via API

For programmatic segment management, use the ODP Segments API:

Create a segment via API

JavaScript (Node.js) Python cURL

javascript Copy

const fetch = require('node-fetch');

async function createSegment(segment) {
  const response = await fetch(
    'https://api.zaius.com/v3/segments',
    {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'x-api-key': process.env.ODP_PRIVATE_API_KEY
      },
      body: JSON.stringify(segment)
    }
  );

  return response.json();
}

// Create a high-value active customer segment
const result = await createSegment({
  name: 'High-value active customers',
  description: 'Customers with LTV > $500 active in last 30 days',
  rules: {
    match: 'all',
    conditions: [
      {
        field: 'lifetime_value',
        operator: 'greater_than',
        value: 500
      },
      {
        field: 'last_activity',
        operator: 'within',
        value: '30d'
      }
    ]
  }
});

console.log('Segment created:', result.id);

python Copy

import requests
import os

def create_segment(segment: dict) -> dict:
    response = requests.post(
        'https://api.zaius.com/v3/segments',
        headers={
            'Content-Type': 'application/json',
            'x-api-key': os.environ['ODP_PRIVATE_API_KEY']
        },
        json=segment
    )
    response.raise_for_status()
    return response.json()

# Create a high-value active customer segment
result = create_segment({
    'name': 'High-value active customers',
    'description': 'Customers with LTV > $500 active in last 30 days',
    'rules': {
        'match': 'all',
        'conditions': [
            {
                'field': 'lifetime_value',
                'operator': 'greater_than',
                'value': 500
            },
            {
                'field': 'last_activity',
                'operator': 'within',
                'value': '30d'
            }
        ]
    }
})

print(f'Segment created: {result["id"]}')

bash Copy

curl -X POST https://api.zaius.com/v3/segments \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'x-api-key: YOUR_PRIVATE_API_KEY' \
  -d '{
    "name": "High-value active customers",
    "description": "Customers with LTV > $500 active in last 30 days",
    "rules": {
      "match": "all",
      "conditions": [
        {
          "field": "lifetime_value",
          "operator": "greater_than",
          "value": 500
        },
        {
          "field": "last_activity",
          "operator": "within",
          "value": "30d"
        }
      ]
    }
  }'

Activate segments

A segment is only valuable when it drives action. ODP segments can be activated across multiple channels.

Activate in Optimizely CMS

ODP segments sync to CMS visitor groups automatically when the ODP integration is enabled. Use synced segments to personalize content:

1. In CMS, navigate to Visitor Groups
2. ODP segments appear as available criteria
3. Create a visitor group that references the ODP segment
4. Use the visitor group to personalize content blocks, pages, or layouts

Activate in Experimentation

Target experiments to specific ODP segments:

1. In Experimentation, create or edit an experiment
2. Under Audiences, select ODP Segment as the audience type
3. Choose your segment from the list
4. Only customers in the segment will be bucketed into the experiment

Cross-Product Integration

ODPExperimentationCMS

Segment-targeted experiments produce more actionable results because you test with a specific audience rather than all traffic. A checkout optimization targeted at “cart abandoners” yields clearer insights than the same test run on all visitors.

Activate in email campaigns

ODP segments can trigger or target email campaigns:

• Segment entry trigger — Send an email when a customer enters a segment (e.g., “welcome” email when joining “new subscriber” segment)
• Segment exit trigger — Send an email when a customer leaves a segment (e.g., “we miss you” email when leaving “active customer” segment)
• Campaign targeting — Send a campaign only to customers currently in a segment

Activate in advertising

Sync segments to advertising platforms for targeted campaigns:

• Google Ads — Customer Match audience sync
• Facebook/Meta — Custom Audience sync
• LinkedIn — Matched Audiences sync

Audience sync runs on a schedule (typically every few hours). Customers entering or exiting the segment are added to or removed from the ad platform audience automatically.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Cause	Fix
Segment shows 0 customers	Rules too restrictive or event data not yet flowing	Check each rule individually; verify events appear in the Event Debugger
Segment matches all customers	Rules too broad or OR logic too loose	Tighten rules or switch OR to AND for required conditions
Customer not in expected segment	Missing events or unresolved identity	Check the customer’s profile Activity tab for expected events
Segment not appearing in CMS visitor groups	ODP-CMS integration not enabled	Verify integration setup in ODP Settings > Integrations
Segment not available in Experimentation	Sync delay or integration not configured	Check ODP integration status in Experimentation settings; allow 5-10 minutes for sync
Advertising audience size much smaller than ODP segment	Platform match rates vary	Ad platforms match on email/phone; customers without these identifiers will not match

Related content

Continue your journey with these related pages.

📖Understand the concepts

• Optimizely Data Platform (ODP)
• Visitor Groups and Personalization

🔧Follow a guide

• Set Up Event Tracking
• Export Data from ODP