Customerlabs CDP Documentation
Creating an audience in CustomerLabs CDP
Creating an audience by segmenting the users
Once the events of your website visitors have started populating, you can segment the users based on their activity on your website and other parameters like user traits, demographics, etc, that suit your marketing strategy to create an audience and sync it with the ad platforms like Facebook & Google.
Ways to filter the data and create a segment
You can create a segment of “By User” or “By Group” and
1. Filtering the data based on user (or) account traits, UTM parameters, demographics, Device or browser type , other parameters.
2. Filtering the data by events tracked on your website
Filtering based on user/group traits
You can filter the users based on demographics, technology, UTM parameters or other parameters.
For example, in the “By Technology” filter, if you want the users who use Windows 10 platform and Firefox browser you can filter them from both “Platform” and “Browser” filters.
Or if you want the users who use Chrome browser on either Mac OS or Windows 10 platforms, you can create the filter as shown in the image below
Filtering based on events
You can filter the users based on the events tracked on your website like add_to_cart, pageview, product_viewed, added_to_wishlist, etc.
This can be further segmented using a combination of event properties explained below:
Occurrence → Filters the data based on the occurrence of the event like First occurred, Last occurred, Not occurred.
Count → Number of times the event has occurred
Date Range – Dynamic* – Date From → Filters the data from the date mentioned till now
– Dynamic* – in the last → Filters the data in the last specified number of
days which is dynamic.
– Static date range → Filters the data between the specified date range
*For the dynamic date range, data gets refreshed based on the refresh interval (check refresh interval explained below) set for the segment.
Based on the date range chosen, the segment becomes a static or dynamic segment.
1. Static segment is fixed for the date range given and no new users are added or removed from the segment.
2. Dynamic segment is changing and new users are added or removed based on the given date range and refresh interval. Every time a segment gets refreshed, an inclusion event called “added_to_segment” is assigned to the user who enters the segment and an exclusion event called “removed_from_segment” is assigned to the user who is excluded from the segment based on the segment filter criteria
Note: Based on the refresh interval, the segments are refreshed with the ad platforms which helps in improving the match rates of the segments. It is highly recommended to create a dynamic segment for this refresh to happen.
Attributes filter → You can further filter the data using attributes (if available) for the event. For example,
- URL can be specified for pageview event
- Product_name, currency, product_id, category_name, etc can be specified for product_viewed event
- Product_name, currency, value, product_id, category_name, etc can be specified for Added to cart event
- Category name for category_viewed event, etc.
You can add multiple attributes for the same event. For example, you can filter the users who added either leather bag or shirt by filtering as shown in the image below.
Multiple actions can be combined for advanced segmentation by clicking on the “Add another action” button and using the conditional filter “AND” or “OR”.
And – Filters the data that match the criteria of both actions.
Or – Filters the data that match the criteria of one of the actions.
For example, here’s how you can use “And” function to combine actions:
If you would want to filter the users who added a product to the cart but have not purchased, you can combine the “Added to cart” event criteria with the “Purchased” “Not occurred” event criteria using the “And” condition as shown below.
View, Download and Save the segment
After specifying the criteria for segmenting, click on “View Audience” to view the list of users. You can also export the data in csv format by clicking on “Download CSV” button.
You can save the segment created by clicking on “Save segment” and giving a name suitable to the segment and the refresh interval as required.
Note: Segment name should be in lowercase with a maximum of 20 characters in length. Eg. my_segment_1
Refresh interval
A segment is refreshed based on the interval set while creating the segment with a dynamic date range. Let’s take an instance where you have given the dynamic date range as last 30 days and refresh interval as 2 days for a particular segment. In the period between the refresh triggers, the segment is not refreshed and remains the same, meaning, the data that was previously updated is not refreshed until the next 2 days, in this case.
Every time a segment is refreshed the users are either included or excluded from the segment based on the criteria of the segment. Depending on the exclusion or inclusion, users are assigned an event called “added_to_segment” when included and “removed_from_segment” when excluded.
Note: Refresh interval has nothing to do with Retention days in Facebook or Membership duration in Google.
This refresh interval is set to refresh and sync the users from CustomerLabs with the ad platforms. When you first create a segment, the best practice is to keep the refresh interval as 1 day for the first 2-3 days for the audience to be synced with the ad platforms to give you a better match rate. After 2-3 days you can reset the refresh interval based on your audience size and dynamic date range you have given for the segment.
Note: Make sure to keep the refresh interval relevant to the dynamic date range given in the segment to avoid triggering more events that might incur unnecessary charges. For example, if you have chosen the “Dynamic – in the last” as 30 days in a particular segment, it is suggested to keep the refresh interval every 2 days.
Step-by-step guide to create a basic segment
Create a basic segment of users, for instance, filter users who have added a product to cart in the last 30 days by following the steps below:
1. Navigate to the “Audience” page from the Menu.
2. Click on “Create new segment”
3. Under Segment, choose “By user”.
(Specify other parameters like traits, technology, etc if required)
4. Click “By Events” and select “Added to cart” from the list of events drop-down
5. Select “Occurred” from the occurrence drop-down.
6. Set “Count” → “Greater than or equal to” → Enter “1”.
7. Choose “Dynamic – in the last” from the date range drop-down → Enter “30” days.
8. Add any attributes if needed by clicking on the “Add Attribute” button.
9. Once you have given the criteria, Click “View Audience”.
10. Save the segment by clicking on “Save Segment”. You can also download the data by clicking on “Download CSV”.
11. A tab appears that prompts to enter a name for the segment → Enter “atc_last30d”
12. Set the refresh interval for 2 days. Since the range is for 30 days, refreshing for every 2 days would be ideal.
13. Check “Agree & Continue” box and click on “Save the segment”
Some of the commonly used segments are:
- Added to cart in the last 30 days
- Product viewed more than 3-times
- Initiated check-out in the last 40 days.
- Pricing page viewed in the last 30 days.
- Blog visitors
Step-by-step guide to create a niche segment
Create a niche segment of users, for instance, filter users who have added specific products to cart but not purchased in the last 60 days by following the steps below:
1. Navigate to the “Audience” page from the Menu.
2. Click on “Create new segment”
3. Under Segment, choose “By user”
(Specify other parameters like traits, technology, etc if required)
4. Click “By Events” and select “Added to cart” from the list of events drop-down
5. Select “Occurred” from the occurrence drop-down.
6. Set “Count” → “Greater than or equal to” → Enter “1”
7. Choose “Dynamic – Number of days” from the date range drop-down → Enter “60”
8. Click on “Add Attribute” button
9. Select product_name from the attributes drop-down
10. Choose “contains” → Type in the required product name → Click “+”
11. Now add another product name by following the steps 9 & 10.
12. Click on “Add another action” button and select “And” from the drop-down to combine both actions.
13. Select “Purchased” in the second set of events.
14. Select “Not occurred” from the occurrence drop-down.
15. Choose “Dynamic – Number of days” from the date range drop-down → Enter “60”
16. Click “View Audience”.
17. Save the segment by clicking on “Save Segment”. You can also download the data by clicking on “Download CSV”.
18. A tab appears that prompts to enter a name for the segment → Enter “atc_nt_pur_60d”
19. Set the refresh interval for 5 days. Since the range is for 60 days, refreshing for every 5 days would be ideal.
20. Check “Agree & Continue” box and click on “Save the segment”
Some of the commonly used niche segments are:
- Added to cart but not purchased in last 30 days
- Product viewed but not added to cart in 45 days
- Product viewed more than 3 times and added to wishlist
- Read the blog and visited the pricing page more than 3 times
Sync the segment with destinations as a customer list
You can create an audience in CustomerLabs and sync it with the destinations as a customer list by mapping the identifiers with the destination schema. This makes it easier for you to run ads without having to manually update the list of users.
Here’s how you can sync the segment with the destination:
1. Create a segment as required and after creating, “view” the segment to set up the sync with the destination.
2. Go to “Schema” tab and add the necessary schema based on the list sync requirement for the destination like email, first name, last name, customerlabs_user_id, etc which you want to send to the destinations one by one by clicking on “+Add new schema” (Check the relevant destination document for list sync requirements)
3. After adding the schema, click “Update Schema”.
4. Now go to “List Sync” tab and click on “Map Schema” for the destination that you want to sync the list.
5. In the “List to sync” tab, choose the audience list from the lists that are already created in the destination or choose “Create New List” and enter the name for the new audience list.
6. Once the audience list is selected or created, “Custom audience Info” will be displayed.
Note: If it shows “Error Fetching data”, make sure to re-authenticate the activation key for the destination from Menu → Destinations page.
7. Go to the “Schema Mapping” tab and map the segment schema with the destination schema for the identifiers that you have given in Step 2 by adding each schema using “Add Schema” button.
8. Once this is done, click “Save List and Schema”
9. Now enable the toggle under “Status” for the destination you want to sync.
10. Click “Instant Sync” to sync the list now.
11. Go to “Configuration” tab and set the “Refresh interval” as required.
12. You can check the log for the segment from the “Logs” tab and also the log for each destination by going to “List sync” tab → “Show Logs” for the destination that you want.
13. You can check whether the list has been synced with the destination in the destination platform after 10 minutes if you have enabled “Instant Sync” or after the refresh interval days set for the segment.
For detailed documentation on syncing the audience as a customer list in Facebook Ads, Google Adwords and LinkedIn, click on the relevant link.
Sync the segment with destinations as an event
You can sync the audience created in CustomerLabs with the destinations as an event that sends the data of your anonymous users who had performed high-intent activities on your website such as viewing a product multiple times but have not converted and haven’t given any personally identifiable information (PII). You can retarget these anonymous users by segmenting them and syncing them with ad platforms as an event.
The audience created in CustomerLabs is sent to the destination as two events. One is “added_to_segment” which is used to include a set of users created as a segment. The other one is “removed_from_segment” which is used to exclude a set of users created as a segment.
This event sync option is only available for Facebook and Google Analytics (GA4).
Here’s what you should do to sync the audience with the destination:
1. Go to “Event Sync” tab of the segment you want to sync.
2. After 30-40 minutes from connecting the destinations (Facebook & Google Analytics gtag) in the Destinations page, you can see them here.
3. Click “Settings” for the destination you want.
4. Modify the audience details as you want and click on “Create audience”
This will create a custom audience in the destination using the event “added_to_segment”
5. Go to “Configuration” tab and set the “Refresh interval” as required.
6. You can check the log for the segment from the “Logs” tab and also the log for each destination by going to “Event Sync” tab → “Logs” for the destination that you want.
7. You can check whether the segment has been synced with the destination in the destination platform after 5-10 minutes.
Go to Facebook Ads and Google Analytics for detailed documentation on how to sync audience as an event.
