Use the advanced builder

Create a new segment using the Simple builder and select Code view:

Select Edit code

Accept the disclaimer by selecting Let’s Start

You can now use the Advanced builder interface to extend the segment’s XML object.

Incoming QProtocol events are evaluated against conditions. When all the conditions are met, the visitor generating those events be moved into or out of a segment.

In the example above, we will move the user into the segment if they purchase an item ecBasketItemTransaction from the product category shoes value="shoes" and has a lifetime value of 500 value=500.

See Segment conditions for details of the available conditions.

Arguments extend conditions. Refer to the following table:

Attributes further refine arguments. Refer to the following table:

You can combine multiple conditions with a boolean function:

Let’s take a look at a few examples.

In this first example, we look to target visitors that were exposed to an experience variation.

CORRECT EXAMPLE

By wrapping both conditions around a single timeout, we ensure that each condition is evaluated at the same time and therefore only visitors exposed to the variation enter the segment:

INCORRECT EXAMPLE

If we used separate timeouts for each condition, we would end up targeting visitors in the experience 197604 exposed to the variation in any Qubit experience.

This is because we will also perform the isControl test on events emitted by other experiences. So if the visitor is in the variation of any experience the condition will be met:

In this second example, we look to target visitors on mobile devices in a specific experience.

CORRECT EXAMPLE

By wrapping each condition with a timeout, we persist the state across events and ensure only visitors exposed to the experience on mobile devices enter the segment:

INCORRECT EXAMPLE

By wrapping the two conditions in a single timeout, that timeout will only become true if the two conditions are met at the same time. Since the events are emitted at different times, both conditions will never be true for this segment and so visitors would never join it:

The count function counts the number of times all conditions are true. This value is then applied to the operation specified in the function parameters. The result of this function is the result of the operation.

All arguments to the count function must be conditions, and they must all reference the same event.

The available operations include:

If a count is wrapped in a timeout, the count will be ended when the timeout period elapses.

The following example shows a segment for visitors who have made a purchase more than once count op="gte value="2", of more than £10 op="gte" value="10, in the past 28 days timeout type="relative" duration="28 days":

Timeouts define how long a condition will remain true once evaluated as true. In the following example, once the visitor purchases shoes and triggers the condition and segment membership, the condition will remain true for 30 days. Upon expiry, the visitor will leave the segment:

Available types and valid parameters are shown in the following table:

In another example, we use the timeout function to target users who triggered an event, having never triggered it before. By using type="never" we ensure that the condition won’t expire:

Whereas the timeout function is used to determine segment membership after an event has occurred, the time function allows you to fix segment membership for a period of time relative to the event datetime stamp.

You can use the following parameters:

In this example, we will create a segment for visitors that purchase shoes. We will remember the purchase for two weeks to fix segment membership for that period.

The relative timeout commences when the connected condition is evaluated as true. If the visitor purchases shoes again during those two weeks, the relative timeout will reset from this point, and we will extend segment membership for another two weeks.

By combining two conditions with a nand function, we can create a segment for visitors who have purchased a product from one category and haven’t purchased a product from another category.

We can use the ecBasketItemTransaction and path="product.category event to isolate the products purchased by a visitor in particular categories.

We can again use the product.category field of an ecBasketItemTransaction event to determine the products that have been previously purchased.

We can break this scenario down into two conditions:

In this example, we will create a segment for visitors within an import called vistors_customer_profile whose last purchase date was within the last 365 days.

We will key off the user.id field in the ecUser event and take the purchase date from the import column LAST_PURCHASE_DATE.

We use the op argument with the operation lt in conjunction with offset to ensure that only those visitors that purchased in the last 365 days qualify for segment membership :

In this example, we will create a segment for visitors with an IP address that matches a specific value.

We use the in argument to return true when the visitors IP address matches. Equally though, you could use contains if you’re looking to use an IP range:

In this example, we will create a segment to target visitors that aren’t logged-in members of a dataset called vipcustomer_.

We do this by using the inverted attribute to invert the result of the query:

Before saving your segment to make it live, we recommend that you test it to ensure that site activity triggers events that affect segment membership. You can do this using the Qubit Explorer.

Segment membership is currently not cross-device, except for segments that use external data imported into our Data Store.

For segments that use external data, if the imported join user identifier is device common, segments can target the visitor on any device where the identifier is seen based on a deterministic match. For instance, if a CRM gold customer’s dataset is imported keyed on user Ids, and these user Ids are common on mobile and desktop, the visitor will enter the segment on both devices.

Yes. It’s possible to use Qubit Import to upload a dataset containing external segment memberships. You can then target these users by selecting the Imports condition.

When using the advanced builder, you can pass in the name of the dataset as shown above in the example Visitors whose last purchase date was within the last 365 days:

See our tutorial Use imported data to create segments.

Each user’s segment membership is stored in their cookie for performance reasons. Depending on your licensing agreement with Qubit, it’s also possible to synchronize segment membership to our Data Store for server-side access.

Let’s take a look at a simplified example where we will encounter this error:

In XML, and other programming languages, such as HTML, & is used to insert a character reference. The correct reference for & (ampersand) is &.

In our example, replacing &utm with &utm will therefore correct the error:

To answer this question, we’ll look at another example:

In the above example, we will split on the comma and trim any whitespace before and after a comma.

Therefore the whitespace before and after Red shoes\ will be trimmed, but the whitespace in Red shoes won’t.