What are Segments?

Overview

A segment is a group of users defined by specific properties or values. Segments are used to send campaigns or to analyze specific information or behavioral traits of users.

MoEngage dashboard enables growth teams to create multiple kinds of segments. MoEngage has the following types of segments:

- - Static Segments
  - Dynamic Segments
  - Custom Segments
  - Live Segments

Static Segment

Static segments are fixed groups of users and are used as a list of users.

Dynamic Segment

Dynamic segments are groups of users created using rules and criteria based on user attributes or properties, events or event properties, or a combination of attributes and events. The rules or criteria are executed on the existing data to provide a group of users.

Custom Segment

Custom segments are lists or rules or definitions. A custom segment is primarily a segment having a name that is used easily anywhere.

A custom segment is static or dynamic, or a combination of the two. You can:

- - Add and remove users in a static custom segment.
  - Modify the rules or criteria of a dynamic custom segment.

info	Note On the MoEngage dashboard, 99 percentile of segment queries execute within 60 seconds.

Live Segments

Live segments are segments available all the time and are calculated very frequently. Live segments are primarily used in Event-triggered, In-App, Web Personalization, and On-Site Messaging campaigns.

In Event-triggered (Push, Email, SMS, WhatsApp), In-App, Web Personalization, and On-Site Messaging campaigns, individual users receive the campaign based on a trigger event or qualifying action. The uncertainty of a user executing the trigger action or visiting the app or website, the following statements are valid:

The segments are executed frequently, and the results are stored or updated. These can be called periodic (pre-computed) segments.
When the user performs the trigger action or qualifying action, the subscription of a user for the segment is verified in the precomputed segment, and the campaigns are sent accordingly.
For a few segments, pre-computation is not required as they get executed in real-time.

info	Note Do not confuse the Live segments with Trigger Conditions & Trigger condition evaluation. Events for trigger conditions in campaigns are processed and evaluated in near real-time in MoEngage.

Live segments can be categorized into 2 different types -

Real-time Segment

If you use only user attributes for your segment definition in event-triggered, Flows, In-APP, OSM & Web Personalization campaigns or user attribute condition evaluation in the Flows campaign. The following table describes the Service Level Agreements:

SLA Type	SLA Time	Description
Data Availability	Near Real Time	User properties are available for event-triggered and the Flows campaigns in near real-time.
Processing	Real-time	A few milliseconds are required to process segments that are only defined using user properties.
Refresh Frequency	Not Required	For user property-only live segments, there is no need for segment storage as the segment execution is performed on live data.

Periodic Segments

If you use events, event attributes, affinity segments, and custom segments in your segment definition in event-triggered, Flows, In-APP, OSM & Web Personalization campaigns. The following table describes the Service Level Agreements:

SLA Type	SLA Time	Description
Data Availability	30 Mins (Customizable on request)	Live segments process the data available in the MoEngage data warehouse. Data processing SLA is 30 Mins, and the actions or events, action properties, or user property that have not reached the data warehouse, are not considered for the live segment.
Processing	10 Million users per hour (Customizable on request)	Live segment creation and availability take time. The SLA for Live Segment creation is 10 million users per hour. Meaning that it takes one hour to process 10 million users and make them available as a live segment. If you create multiple campaigns (in a short span of time) and use live segments, the processing of live segments happens sequentially.
Refresh Frequency	3 Hours / 6 Hours (Customizable on request)	Live Segments for event-triggered campaigns are re-calculated and updated every 3 hours. Live Segments for In-App, Onsite Messaging, and Web Personalization campaigns are re-calculated and updated every 6 hours.

Please connect with your account manager if you wish to modify these limits for your account.

MoEngage Vs Other Platforms

A comparative view of Live Segments with respect to other platforms -

Segment Components	MoEngage		Other Platforms
Segment Components	Availability	Refresh Frequency	Availability	Refresh Frequency
User Attributes	Yes	Real-Time	Yes	Real-Time
Events & Event attributes	Yes	3 Hours / 6 Hours	Yes (Limited)	24 Hours
Affinity Segments	Yes	3 Hours / 6 Hours	Not Available
Custom Segments	Yes	3 Hours / 6 Hours	Not Available

info	Note Ensure that you weigh these SLAs before sending your campaigns.

Analysis of Segments

The analysis of segments is performed based on server time for all of the time-bound analyses. For example, a user who has executed App Open in the last 3 days. For this example, the last 3 days are calculated using server time. For more information about server time, refer to Event Time and Server Time.

Examples

Dynamic Segments using User Properties

User properties are attributes of the user in the MoEngage system, such as email, name, last location, etc. The value of user properties gets updated almost in real time and the latest values are available for calculation.

Dynamic Segments using Events

Events are activities done by users such as App Open, Product Purchase, etc. These events also have event attributes such as app version, platform name, product category, product price, etc. Event attributes are tracked with events and are specific to the selected event.