Segments
Overview
Segments are saved audiences built from your first-party visitor and customer data inside LayerFive. Each segment holds
the people who match a set of conditions, the revenue sitting behind them, and a record of where the audience was last
sent. Once a segment is active, you push it to a destination platform such as Meta or Klaviyo and use it for targeting,
suppression, or retention.
Navigation: Audiences > Segments
Use it to check
| Question | Where to look | | ------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------
| | Which audiences are live and which were never activated | Status column | | How large an audience is right now |
Users column | | How much revenue sits behind an audience | Potential Revenue column | | Whether an audience refreshes
on its own | Segment Type column | | When the audience last reached Meta or Klaviyo | Last Sent column | | Who is inside
an audience | Eye icon, then Segment Visitors | | Whether a rule was written correctly | Pencil icon on the segment row
|
Default and Custom Segments
Two tabs sit above the table.
| Tab | What it holds | Editable | Actions available | | ------- |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| -------- | ------------------------ | | Default | Six audiences LayerFive builds and maintains for every account:
Likely to Churn, High-Intent Browsers, Lapsed Customers, Checkout Abandoners, VIP Customers, Cart Abandoners | No | Send
| | Custom | Audiences your team creates | Yes | View, Edit, Delete, Send |
Start with Default. The six prebuilt audiences cover the highest-value e-commerce use cases and need no setup. Move to
Custom when you need a rule the defaults do not cover, such as a product-category browser list or a value threshold
specific to your catalog.
Reading the Segments Table
| Column | What it tells you | | -------------------- |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
Segments | Segment name. Click the name to open the segment. | | Users | People currently matching the conditions | |
Potential Revenue | Revenue value LayerFive associates with the people in the segment. Use it to rank audiences by size
of opportunity. | | Activated On | Date the segment was first activated | | Last Sent | Most recent date the audience
reached the destination platform | | Destination Platform | Where the audience was sent, for example Meta or Klaviyo | |
Segment Type | One Time or Self Updating | | Status | Active or Not_activated | | Action | View, Edit, Delete, Send |
One segment sent to two platforms appears as two rows, one per destination. Purchasers over $200 showing twice, once
against Klaviyo and once against Meta, is expected behavior and not a duplicate.
Use the search bar above the table to find a segment by name. The list paginates, so set Items per page to a higher
value before scanning a long library.
Segment Types: One Time and Self Updating
| | One Time | Self Updating | | ------------- |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Membership | Frozen at the moment
of the send | Refreshes on its own, so people entering and leaving the conditions flow through | | Best for | Seasonal
promotions, a fixed list for a single campaign, a one-off suppression file | Evergreen flows such as checkout
abandonment, VIP treatment, churn win-back | | Watch out for | The list goes stale. Re-send before each new campaign. |
Audience size moves between sends, so budget and frequency caps need review |
Default to Self Updating for anything running continuously. Choose One Time only when you need the exact same people on
every send.
Segment Status
| Status | Meaning | Next step | | ------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------
| --------------------------------------------------------------- | | Active | The segment was activated and pushed to a
destination platform | Check Last Sent to confirm the destination holds a current copy | | Not_activated | The segment
is saved and counting users, but was never sent anywhere | Press Send and pick a destination |
A segment with no Activated On and no Last Sent value is built but idle. It costs nothing and reaches nobody.
Creating a Segment
1. Go to Audiences > Segments and open the Custom tab.
2. Press + Create Segment.
3. Enter a Segment Name. This is the internal identifier, so keep it lowercase with underscores, following the in-field
example ca_repeat_visitors_recent.
4. Enter a Target Audience description in plain language, following the in-field example US Repeat Visitors (3+ visits,
last 90 days). This is what your teammates read six months later.
5. Press + Add Condition. Each condition pairs an entity attribute with an operator and a value.
6. Set the AND or OR toggle above the condition list. AND narrows the audience, OR widens it.
7. Press + Add Group for nested logic such as (A AND B) OR C.
8. Press Save Segment.
The saved segment lands in the Custom tab with a status of Not_activated until you send it.
Naming Conventions
| Name | Why it works | | ------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ca_repeat_visitors_recent | States the behavior and the recency window | | kids_shoes_interest_7d | States the product
interest and the lookback | | Segment 3 | Nobody knows who is inside it, including the person who built it |
Include the time window in the name whenever the rule has one. Two segments with the same rule and different lookbacks
are otherwise impossible to tell apart in the table.
Viewing Who Is Inside a Segment
Press the eye icon on any row to open Segment Visitors. The list shows the LayerFive Person ID and the email address
where one is resolved.
- Exclude converted visitors: tick this to drop people already recorded as converted, so you avoid spending budget on
people who already bought.
- Download icon: exports the visitor list.
- Expand icon: opens the list full screen for scanning.
The visitor list count often runs lower than the Users column, because not every person in a segment carries a resolved
identity record. Size an audience from the Users column, not from the visitor list.
Sending a Segment to a Destination Platform
Press Send on the segment row and choose the destination. The Destination Platform, Activated On, and Last Sent values
update once the push completes.
The destination account has to be connected first. See Integrations for connecting Meta and Klaviyo, and for refreshing
an expired authorization.
Creating a Segment with Juno
The Create with Juno button builds a segment from a description in plain language instead of a manual condition builder.
How to Use Segments to Make Decisions
1. Start on the Default tab. Six audiences are maintained for you, so check whether one already answers the brief
before building anything.
2. Rank by Potential Revenue rather than by Users. A smaller audience with more revenue behind it earns budget first.
3. Match the audience to the destination. Meta suits paid targeting and exclusion lists. Klaviyo suits owned email and
SMS flows, at no incremental media cost.
4. Tick Exclude converted visitors before exporting a retargeting list, so spend goes to people who have not bought.
5. Read Likely to Churn and Lapsed Customers alongside the Cohort Analysis Dashboard to see whether retention, and not
acquisition, is the real gap.
6. Build a custom segment only once a Default audience has been ruled out, and give it a lookback window in the name.
What to Check and When
| When | What to check | | ------------------------------------ |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| | Weekly | Segments with a Not_activated status. Anything built and never sent is unused work. | | Before every
campaign | Last Sent on One Time segments. A list older than the campaign window sends money at stale people. | |
Monthly | Potential Revenue across the table, to reprioritize which audiences receive budget | | After any integration
change | User counts on your top segments. A broken Shopify, Meta, or Klaviyo connection shows up first as a sudden drop
in segment size. | | Before building a new custom segment | The Default tab, to avoid rebuilding an audience LayerFive
already maintains |
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix | | ---------------------------------------------------- |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| | Segment shows 0 or near-0 users | Conditions are too narrow, or an AND toggle is doing the work of an OR | Open the
segment with the pencil icon and loosen one condition at a time | | Users count looks right, visitor list is far smaller
| Not every person carries a resolved identity record | Expected. Size the audience from the Users column. | | Segment
sits at Not_activated | The segment was saved but never sent | Press Send and pick a destination platform | | Last Sent
has not moved on a Self Updating segment | The refresh runs, the push to the destination does not | Re-send the segment,
then raise a support ticket if Last Sent stays stale | | Same segment name appears twice | The audience was sent to two
destination platforms | Expected. Check the Destination Platform column. | | Audience is missing inside Meta or Klaviyo
| The destination account lost authorization | Disconnect and reconnect the integration, then re-send. See Integrations.
| | Segment size drops sharply overnight | An upstream data feed broke, or a date-bound condition rolled past its window
| Check integration status first, then the recency condition inside the segment |
Common Questions
Why is the visitor list smaller than the Users column?
Segment membership counts every person matching the conditions. The visitor list shows the people with a resolved
identity record attached, so the two numbers differ by design. Use the Users column when sizing an audience for a
campaign.
Why does the same segment appear twice in the table?
Each destination gets its own row. A segment sent to Meta and to Klaviyo shows twice, with identical Users and Potential
Revenue values and different Destination Platform values.
What happens to a One Time segment after it is sent?
Membership stays fixed at the moment of the send. People matching the conditions later are excluded until you re-send.
Re-send before every new campaign, or switch the segment to Self Updating.
Coverage of my segment dropped suddenly. What should I check?
Check the integration powering the condition first, then the condition itself. A recency window such as last 7 days
shrinks whenever traffic dips, while a broken Shopify or Meta connection produces a sharper, flatter drop. See
Integrations.
Related Articles
- Getting Started with LayerFive
- Integrations
- Attribution Analytics
- Cohort Analysis Dashboard
- Shopify Order Analytics Dashboard
- Glossary of Terms