Segments

Segments are dynamic, rule-based groups that automatically include contacts matching your criteria. Unlike topics where you manually add members, a segment is defined by its rules and re-evaluated against your contact data whenever it's used — so you never have to maintain its membership by hand.

When to use segments vs. topics

Use segments when your audience definition depends on data that changes (engagement, properties, topic membership). Use topics when you have a fixed group of contacts.

Creating a segment

1. Open Audience > Segments.
2. Click New Segment.
3. Add one or more conditions using the rule builder.
4. Choose your match logic: All conditions (AND) or Any condition (OR).
5. Check the live preview count to verify your targeting — it's computed from current data as you edit.
6. Save your segment with a descriptive name.

Condition types

Property conditions

Filter contacts by a built-in field (email, first name, last name, source) or any custom contact property. Operators include equals / not equals, contains / not contains, greater-than / less-than (and their or-equal forms), is empty / not empty, and is true / is false:

• "First Name" contains "Alex"
• "Plan Tier" equals "Enterprise"
• "Email" is not empty

Activity conditions

Target contacts by whether they've engaged with your email. There are four options:

• Has opened an email — the contact has at least one recorded open.
• Has clicked a link — the contact has at least one recorded click.
• Has not opened any email — no recorded opens.
• Has not clicked any link — no recorded clicks.

Activity conditions are presence checks across all email the contact has received. They don't take a time window or scope to a specific campaign.

Topic membership

Include or exclude contacts who belong to a specific topic:

• Is a member of "Newsletter Subscribers"
• Is not a member of "Churned Customers"

Match logic

Every segment uses one of two matching modes:

• All conditions (AND) — a contact must match every condition to be included. Use this for precise, narrow targeting. For example: "Plan is Enterprise AND has opened an email."
• Any condition (OR) — a contact only needs to match one condition. Use this for broader reach. For example: "Plan is Enterprise OR is a member of the Welcome topic."

Using segments

In campaigns

A campaign targets exactly one audience. On the campaign's Audience step you choose either a Specific Topic or a Saved Segment with a radio toggle, then pick a single topic or segment from the dropdown — you can't combine the two or select more than one. When you choose a segment, its rule definition is snapshotted at send time so the campaign reproduces the audience it actually targeted even if you edit the segment later.

In automations

Saved segments aren't selected directly inside automations. Instead, automation condition steps reuse the same condition types you build segments from — contact properties, email activity, and topic membership — so the targeting logic feels familiar even though it isn't a reference to a saved segment row.

For reporting

Compare campaign performance across different segments to understand which audience groups engage best.

Exporting members

From a saved segment's detail page you can export every contact it currently matches to a CSV (segment-<name>.csv). The export is evaluated server-side against your current data and is capped at 10,000 contacts (or a 100,000-contact scan); if the segment is larger than the cap, the export is truncated and the app warns you that only the first matching contacts were exported.

Segment count

There are two counts to know about:

• While building or editing a segment, the preview count is computed live against your current contact data, so it reflects exactly who matches the conditions right now.
• In the segments list, each row shows a cached count. It's refreshed automatically about every 30 minutes, and immediately after you save changes to a segment.

Use the live preview while you tune conditions; treat the list value as a recent estimate that may lag your latest data by up to half an hour.

Next steps

• Campaigns & Reporting — send to your segments
• Contacts — manage the data your segments filter on
• Contact Properties — create the fields that power property-based conditions
• Topics — when you need explicit membership groups instead