Available Options For Configuring Custom Segments in VWO

The Custom Segments section allows you to create your own segmentation conditions fitting your needs. It provides a set of predefined attributes and events with which you can construct your own segments. 

Fundamentally, you just need to select an attribute or an event and define it to set up the segmentation criteria. You can also choose to save the custom segments to be used later in other campaigns.

Source

• Landing Page URL: This is the page that the user is currently on. This would be helpful in case you are running tests on multiple pages and wish to include the user in a test only when they visit a specific page.
  Select this option to track visitors who land first on a specific URL before landing on the test page. For example, you can select this option to track only the visitors who first land on the homepage of your site. For running a site-wide test using a URL pattern, you can specify the landing page URL as the home page URL in a segment condition to collect data of visitors who first land on the home page.
  NOTE: This URL must be part of the Campaign URL pattern.

• Referring URL: Referral traffic comprises the visitors who land on the test page through referral websites, and in this case, document.referrer has a value. In the context of an A/B test, this is the previous page URL. 
  
  
• Search Keywords: Select this option for visitors who use certain search keywords to land on the test page. The Search Keywords condition applies to both organic and paid search traffic from search engines.
  
  NOTE: Segmentation does not work for the search engines that are on HTTPS because the search engines on HTTPS encrypt the search keywords.
• Traffic Source: Use this option to segment the report based on the source that the visitor has come from. The following traffic source options are available in VWO:
   
  • Direct: This option refers to the traffic that directly lands on the test page and when document.referrer in visitor information is empty.
    
    
  • Email: This type contains utm_medium=email as the query parameter.
    
    
  • Referral: This option refers to the paid ad traffic when document.referrer in visitor information has a value. It contains utm_medium query parameters such as cpc, ppc, cpa, cpm, cpv, or cpp.
    
    
  • Social: It comprises the visitors who come from social media platforms like Facebook, Quora, Reddit, Imgur, Disqus, 9gag, Tumblr, Google Plus, Stumbleupon, Twitter, Linkedin, Technorati, Digg, Hootsuite, Myspace, Tinyurl, Youtube, Flickr, Pinterest, and so on.
    
    
  • Non-paid Search Traffic: This option refers to the unpaid ad traffic when document.referrer in visitor information has a value. It includes organic traffic from a search medium but does not contain utm_medium query parameters such as cpc, ppc, cap, cpm, cpv, or cop.
    
    
  • Paid Search Traffic: This option refers to the paid traffic. It refers to users who enter your website through paid Internet advertising. Google AdWords is the most used paid advertising network.
    
    
• Query Parameter: Select this option if segments are based on the value of the query parameter in the URL (used for test variables). For example, http://example.com?_utm_campaign=brandNew. The query parameter in the example is _utm_campaign, and the value is brandNew.
  
  NOTE: By default, VWO considers all query parameters.
• UTM Parameter: Select this option if you want to segment visitors based on specific UTM parameters. These parameters are used to track the visitors who arrive at your website from a given paid advertisement campaign. The following options are available for defining the UTM parameter:
  
  
  • Campaign - This is to specify the ad campaign name from which the visitor has arrived on the campaign URL. E.g.: utm_campaign=email_adCampaign.
    
    
  • Content - This is to specify the type of content that shares a common source from which the visitor has arrived on the campaign URL. E.g.: utm_content=footerlink.
    
    
  • Medium - This is to specify the channel from which the visitor has arrived on the campaign URL. This may include email, social media, etc. E.g.: utm_medium=email.
    
    
  • Source - This is to specify the website from which the visitor has arrived on the campaign URL. This could be any social media (such as Facebook and Youtube) or any blogging platform. E.g.: utm_source=twitter.
    
    
  • Term - This is to specify any keyword that you have used for the advertisement, such as in Google Ads. E.g.: utm_term=vwo.

Behavior

Adding in-session behavior to activate a segment allows you to define visitor action on the website for which the targeting conditions are evaluated. For example, you can add the targeting condition as “visitors landing on your website through Facebook + US Region + iOS users + Click Buy Now CTA button”. Here, the visitor is included in the segment only after the visitor clicks the Buy Now button.

After the click event, VWO checks all the target conditions and includes or excludes visitors into segments accordingly. Please note that behavior targeting options are not available for split URL test and form analysis.

When you select Behavior as a target condition, the elements on which changes have been applied in the test are not hidden. If an element is visible to the visitor, they can see a flicker effect. It is advisable to take this into consideration while using behavior. To change this option, click Configuring the Segment Settings in VWO.

• Number of Pages in a Session: Displays the changes when visitors navigate through the set number of pages on the website during a session. For example, if you define this option to be equal to 3, changes appear whenever visitors traverse through three pages during a session.

  INFO: The page count will get incremented only when a visitor navigates through a given page, on which VWO settings are available. If the visitor traverses through a webpage, where no campaign is running, then the page count will not get incremented.
  NOTE: This option is available only for Pro and Enterprise plans.
• Click on Element: Displays the changes when visitors click a predefined element on a page. If the element happens to be a hyperlink that redirects to another page, make sure that the redirected-to page is also a part of the test. You can use this option when trying to test items that appear on the page after any user action.
  
  
• Time Spent on Page: Selecting this option triggers the changes when a visitor spends “x” seconds on a single page. For example, if you have defined the time for the trigger as 10 seconds, the changes initialize when the visitor spends 10 seconds or more on a page.
  
  
• User Is Trying to Close the Page: Displays the segment changes when visitors attempt to close the test page. So when the cursor moves outside the browser viewport, VWO executes this trigger. You can use this option if you are trying different designs/content on the exit-intent popup on your website.
  
  
• Page Scroll Is More Than: Displays the changes when a visitor has scrolled the page for more than the defined percentage or pixels in this section. This option is helpful if you are trying to test changes on elements that are placed at the bottom of the page or only want to include the visitors that scroll to a certain section of the page.
  
  
• Custom Trigger: Displays the changes when the executeTrigger() function is executed. Users can add their own custom code, and then call the executeTrigger() function. This way, the custom trigger condition is fulfilled and the campaign is displayed. For example, When a visitor hovers over a section of the webpage / When a certain element is available on the webpage / After a visitor performs some action that closes a pop-up that appears on page load, etc.

Technology

• Operating System: Create segments based on the operating systems used by visitors. The example includes segmenting only for Mac OS users.
  
  
• Browser: Create segments based on the browsers used by visitors to access the test page.
  
  
• User Agent: Assign User Agent (UA) as a string to identify the browser or device used by a visitor to access the test page.
  
  
• Device Type: Create segments based on the devices used by visitors to access the test page like Desktop, mobile phones, and tablets.
  
  NOTE: VWO uses an open-source UA-parser library to detect visitor devices. The parser library categorizes the devices based on their types, and the library is regularly updated for new devices. The same library is used in the segmentation feature to target visitors based on their operating systems. You can access the source code here, and then use this regex to locate the code.
• Screen Resolution: [For Reports Segmentation only] Segment reports based on the screen resolution used by the visitors to access your website. Example: 1280 x 768.
  
  
• Document Encoding: [For Reports Segmentation only] Filter visitor data based on the character encoding technology used by the visitor’s system. Examples include US-ASCII, UTF-8, and so on.
  
  
• Screen Width: Pre-segment your visitors based on the width of the screen on which the visitors load your campaign URL. For example, you can use this option to launch a test when the screen width is less than 600 pixels.
  
  
• Screen Height: Pre-segment your visitors based on the height of the screen on which the visitors load your website. For example, you can use this option to launch a test when the screen height is at least 1920 pixels.
  NOTE: The Screen Width and the Screen Height options can only be used for pre-segmentation criteria.

Time

• Day of Week: Run your test for visitors who access your test page on specific days.
  
  
• Hour of the Day: Run your test for visitors who access your test page within specific hours. VWO considers the visitor’s local time zone and runs the test accordingly. If you set Hour of the Day is equal to 10, the test will run from 10:00–10:59 a.m.

Visitors

• Visitor Type: Select this option to create different segments for returning visitors and new visitors. VWO places a tracking cookie to determine if a visitor is new or returning.

• New vs. Returning Visitor: A new visitor is one who visits your website for the very first time. This means if it is the visitor’s first session on your website, he/she is considered a new visitor. If the same visitor visits your website from the same browser in another session, he/she is considered a returning visitor.

  NOTE: In VWO, a new session is created on browser restart after 30 minutes of inactivity or continuous activity of no more than 24 hours. Post this; a visitor is considered a returning visitor.
• Location: Create segments based on visitor geography. The location of visitors is identified by using Maxmind to track their IP addresses.
  
  
• Visitor Language: [For Reports Segmentation only] Filter visitor data based on the language used by the visitors in their browser settings.
  
  
• Visitor ID: [For Reports Segmentation only] Filter visitor data based on their unique ID.

Others

• Cookie value: Create segments based on whether or not a user has a cookie from your website. Select this condition and then type the cookie value. VWO determines if a user qualifies for the test based on the cookie value you have set. Please note that this condition works only if the cookie is accessible using JavaScript. VWO can read server-side cookies, too, provided they are not restricted to be read by JS.
  
  
• JavaScript Variable: Create your own custom Javascript condition to define a visitor segment. The test runs only if a user passes through the JavaScript condition while loading the pages.
  

To know how to create segments based on JavaScript variables and Cookie values, refer to this video.

• IP Address: This option allows you to target visitors based on their IP addresses.
  
  
• Test Campaign Served: This option allows you to pre-segment your campaign based on the visitors who were either served a campaign earlier or never. You can choose from the following options to configure this filter:
  
  
  • Any - Allows you to filter the visitors who were part of any of your current and previous campaigns.
    
    
  • None - Allows you to filter the visitors who weren’t part of any of your VWO campaigns.
    
    
  • Is equal to - Allows you to filter the visitors that were part of a given campaign that is currently either running or paused.
    
    
• Test Metric: This option allows you to pre-segment your campaign based on the visitors who have either got converted or not for a certain metric that you have already used in your test campaigns. To apply this, you need to specify the conversion status, campaign, and the corresponding metric.
  
  
  INFO: When you define segmentation criteria with a JavaScript variable, a test campaign served condition, test metric, or a cookie value, VWO, by default, uses the DOM Ready polling setting to check segment conditions for the specified variable or cookie.
  If you wish to modify the polling criteria in VWO, refer to Configuring the Segment Settings in VWO.
  NOTE:

  • The Test Campaign Served and the Test Metric options are applicable only for accounts enabled with Data360.
    
    
  • You can apply the Cookie value, JavaScript Variable, IP Address, Test Campaign Served, or Test Metric parameters to target a test but not to filter reports for these segments.
    
    
  • Custom Dimension:[For Reports Segmentation only] This option allows you to categorize and differentiate visitors who arrive on your website. For example, if you are a SaaS company, you may want to categorize users based on their subscription plans, or a travel agency that recently ran promotional offers may want to view conversion by age group. To know how to create a custom dimension in VWO, refer to Creating a Custom Dimension in VWO.
• GTM Data Layer: If you have integrated your VWO account with Google Tag Manager (GTM), you can create segments using the data layer variables and events that you have created in GTM. Select this condition to specify the GTM data layer variable/event name and the corresponding value. 

Select a Condition Match Type for the Segment

To define an attribute or an event, you need to specify the match criteria to relate the attribute to the value you would like to specify. Refer to the example highlighted in the following image.

To create a complex visitor segment, you can add multiple conditions using Add another condition, group them using brackets, and merge the groups with and and or operators to define your segmentation criteria. To use the brackets, simply click on the bracket at the start and the end of a condition group that you want to create.