Segmenting your audience

A Segment is a grouping of audience members selected by unique or shared identifiers. Multiple identifiers can be combined within a Segment.

• Send an announcement about a new app version and encourage users to upgrade. — Identifier: app version
• Send messages to a list of users created from your CRM data. — Identifier: Audience list
• Send a re-engagement message based on users’ likelihood to stop using your app or website. — Identifier: Predicted to Churn status
• Display different in-app messages based on your users’ language and country settings. — Identifier: Locale

Identifiers you can use for segmentation

You can create single-use segments when:

• Targeting specific users in the Message, A/B Test, In-App Automation, and Scene composers
• Adding trigger conditions for sequences
• Using the /api/segments endpoint

You can create and save reusable segments, with the option of including a saved segment in another segment, using our segment builder tool and with the API.

This table lists available identifiers per creation method.

Segment builder, Message and A/B Test composers, Sequence trigger and message conditions, API

In-App Automation and Scene composers

AttributesMetadata used for audience segmentation and personalization. They extend the concept of Tags by adding comparison operators and values to determine whether or not to target a user, helping you better evaluate your audience. Audience ListMessaging recipient groups based on either your own data or automatically-generated app user lifecycle information. You can use audience lists to target specific users. AutogroupA default tag group. When devices are registered in Airship, they are automatically assigned a tag within the autogroup tag group; the tag is a numeric value of 1 to 100. Some uses for autogroup tags are creating a control group, and to randomly Segment your audience. Autogroup must be enabled for your account — contact Support or your account manager. Channel IDAn Airship-specific unique identifier used to address a channel instance, e.g., a smartphone, web browser, email address. Channel CoordinationA group of strategies you can use to target users where they are most likely to receive your message. — Last active, Priority channel, and User preference Device PropertiesMetadata representing the default attributes and property tags of a device, such as language and time zone settings, OS and browser versions, and notification opt-in status. Device properties are used for audience segmentation. The data used for the tags and attributes is collected automatically from the Airship SDKs, and are updated daily. EventsEvents represent activities in the Airship system, as well as user behavior in your app or website. You can also send external activities (e.g., POS transactions) into the Airship system as events. Events power Airship data products and can be used in audience segments, as Automation triggers, and for partner integrations. Named UserA customer-provided identifier used for mapping multiple devices and channels to a specific individual. NPS CategoryA category based on the score a user submits in an NPS survey. Ratings 9 and 10 have category Promoter, 7 and 8 are Passive, and 6 or lower are Detractor. They are available in survey reporting and are also a text attribute assigned to a user. NPS ScoreThe score (0-10) a user submits in an NPS survey. It is available in survey reporting and is also a number attribute assigned to a user. Predicted to Churn statusAnalyzes your audience for users that exhibit behaviors indicating they are likely to become inactive, and tags the users as High, Medium, or Low Risk. TagMetadata that you can associate with channels or Named Users for audience segmentation. Generally, they are descriptive terms indicating user preferences or other categorizations, e.g., wine_enthusiast or weather_alerts_los_angeles. Tags are case-sensitive.

App version Device PropertiesMetadata representing the default attributes and property tags of a device, such as language and time zone settings, OS and browser versions, and notification opt-in status. Device properties are used for audience segmentation. The data used for the tags and attributes is collected automatically from the Airship SDKs, and are updated daily. LocaleThe combination of a language and country. A user’s locale is determined by their device settings. Location opt-in status New users Platforms Predicted to Churn statusAnalyzes your audience for users that exhibit behaviors indicating they are likely to become inactive, and tags the users as High, Medium, or Low Risk. Push opt-in status Tag GroupAn array of tags that you can associate with both channels and Named Users. AttributesMetadata used for audience segmentation and personalization. They extend the concept of Tags by adding comparison operators and values to determine whether or not to target a user, helping you better evaluate your audience.1 Audience ListMessaging recipient groups based on either your own data or automatically-generated app user lifecycle information. You can use audience lists to target specific users.1 Channel IDAn Airship-specific unique identifier used to address a channel instance, e.g., a smartphone, web browser, email address.1 EventsEvents represent activities in the Airship system, as well as user behavior in your app or website. You can also send external activities (e.g., POS transactions) into the Airship system as events. Events power Airship data products and can be used in audience segments, as Automation triggers, and for partner integrations.1 Named UserA customer-provided identifier used for mapping multiple devices and channels to a specific individual.1 TagMetadata that you can associate with channels or Named Users for audience segmentation. Generally, they are descriptive terms indicating user preferences or other categorizations, e.g., wine_enthusiast or weather_alerts_los_angeles. Tags are case-sensitive.1

1. Cannot be targeted directly. You must first create a reusable segment that includes this data, then select that segment when configuring your audience. See Segments in Targeting Specific Users: In-App Experiences. Required: iOS SDK 14.2+Android SDK 14.1+

Client-side vs server-side data

Airship client-side data mostly comes from apps and websites that use our SDK. This is the source of client-side data used for targeting. Client-side data includes Device PropertiesMetadata representing the default attributes and property tags of a device, such as language and time zone settings, OS and browser versions, and notification opt-in status. Device properties are used for audience segmentation. The data used for the tags and attributes is collected automatically from the Airship SDKs, and are updated daily. and AttributesMetadata used for audience segmentation and personalization. They extend the concept of Tags by adding comparison operators and values to determine whether or not to target a user, helping you better evaluate your audience.. See reference: Default Attributes.

You can also group users and add attributes and tags yourself — this is considered server-side data. CRM and POS systems are common sources. For segmentation, you can create:

• AttributesMetadata used for audience segmentation and personalization. They extend the concept of Tags by adding comparison operators and values to determine whether or not to target a user, helping you better evaluate your audience.
• Audience ListsMessaging recipient groups based on either your own data or automatically-generated app user lifecycle information. You can use audience lists to target specific users.
• Named UsersA customer-provided identifier used for mapping multiple devices and channels to a specific individual.
• TagsMetadata that you can associate with channels or Named Users for audience segmentation. Generally, they are descriptive terms indicating user preferences or other categorizations, e.g., wine_enthusiast or weather_alerts_los_angeles. Tags are case-sensitive. and Tag GroupsAn array of tags that you can associate with both channels and Named Users.

You can then set attributes or tags on channels and named users, or group channels into named users. See:

• Setting Tags On your Audience
• Associating Channels with Named Users
• Attributes

Creating single-use segments

In the dashboard, select Target Specific Users in the Audience step of a composer:

• For the Message and A/B Test composers, see Target Specific Users.
• For the In-App Automation and Scene composers, see Target Specific Users: In-App Experiences.

You can also create a segment to filter audience members entering SequencesA series of messages that is initiated by a trigger. Airship sends messages in the series based on your timing settings, and you can also set conditions that determine its audience and continuation. Sequences can be connected to each other and to other messaging components to create continuous user experiences in a Journey.. See: Configuring a sequence trigger.

In the API, target specific users via the "audience" object. See: API: Audience Selection.

Creating reusable segments

You can create reusable segments instead of having to recreate your audience selections.

• Create reusable audience segments
• API: Segments

Generating audience count

You can calculate the number of Channel IDsAn Airship-specific unique identifier used to address a channel instance, e.g., a smartphone, web browser, email address. included in segments you create in the Segment Builder and with the Target Specific Users option in the Message and A/B Test composers.

When creating segments, click Generate Audience Count. Total Channel IDs is generated for all segments. Counts per block are generated for segments with fewer than five blocks. A progress bar appears until the calculation is complete. Click Regenerate Audience Count after adding or removing criteria.

In the Segment Builder, click or for a block or the entire segment to view the number of channel IDs per engagement channelA communication medium supported by the Airship service. Supported channels include app, web, email, SMS, and Open Channels. Within some channels there may be specific platforms with individual characteristics. Example platforms include Chrome for the web channel and Android for the mobile app channel.. The expanded view for the entire segment also lists the number of opted-in users per engagement channel.

In the composers, the number of channel IDs and opted-in users per engagement channel for a segment are listed in the Audience section in the composer’s Review step.

For email, the audience count (within a block and for the segment) is the sum of channel IDs for transactional and commercial messages, and you can hover over the count to see the breakdown. Opted-in is for commercial messages only.

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In Audience » Segments the count is displayed in the Audience Count column if it was already generated when creating the segment. Click Generate for any segment that does not already display its count.

Counts appear for 7 days, then you can click Generate again for a new count. A progress bar appears until the calculation is complete. Click to see the number of channel IDs and opted-in users per engagement channel.