In Google Analytics, a segment is a subset of your data. Generally, Google Analytics collects the data and provides everything in the reports, which means you would be seeing all sessions, all visits, total revenue, landing pages, total time spent of all visitors.
However, if you would like to analyze traffic only from mobile devices, then you can create a segment that includes mobile devices traffic. So, segments help to narrow down the aggregated data which is collected by Google Analytics and lets you see what you need.
By default, the ‘all user’ segment is applied in Google Analytics. This segment includes traffic from all users in a date range selected in your reports.
Note that segments will not alter any data in your Google Analytics reports. You can apply up to four segments at a time in your Google Analytics reports.
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How to create a new segment in Google Analytics
Step-1: Navigate to the report where you want to create the segment. For example, audience reports in your GA account.
Step-2: Click on ‘Add segment’.
Step-3: You will now be landed on the segment builder section as shown below.
Step-4: Click on ‘New segment’.
Step-5: Provide a name for your segment. If you would like to create a segment to view only US traffic then in the location field select ‘country contains ‘United States’’ as shown below.
Step-6: When you create a segment, on the right-hand side you will also be able to view the summary of the segment.
Step-7: Save the segment and it should now be applied to the reports.
How to apply segments in Google Analytics
Step-1: Log in to your Google Analytics account.
Step-2: Click on the ‘Admin’ section from the left-hand menu.
Step-3: Now, select the view in which you would like to create a segment.
Step-4: Select the report in which you would like to apply a segment. For example, the audience report.
Step-5: Click on ‘Add segment’ at the top of your report.
Step-6: You will now see the list of segments which includes both the built-in segments and segments which you have created or imported.
Step-7: In the list of segments, select the segment that you would like to apply for the report. For example, mobile traffic.
Step-8: Click on ‘Apply’.
Step-9: The report will now include a segment that includes mobile traffic.
Note: The blue line in the report above indicates all users traffic and the orange line indicates mobile traffic.
How to remove segments in Google Analytics
Step-1: To remove the segment that you have applied, click on the drop-down button, as shown below.
Step-2: Click on ‘Remove’ and the segment will be removed from the reports applied.
How to edit segments in Google Analytics
Step-1: Log in to your Google Analytics.
Step-2: Select the report where you have applied the segment. For example, the audience report.
Step-3: Click on the drop-down next to the segment highlighted, as below.
Step-4: Click on ‘Edit’ next to the segment.
Step-5: Once you click on ‘Edit’ you will again land on the segment builder where you can make the changes and save the segment.
How to copy segments in Google Analytics
Step-1: Log in to your Google Analytics account.
Step-2: Navigate to the segment that you have created that you would like to copy. For example, mobile traffic site.
Step-3: Click on the dropdown next to the segment.
Step-4: Now select a copy from the drop-down.
Step-5: You can make the necessary changes, rename the segment as well and click on ‘Save’.
How to share segments in your Google Analytics reports
Step-1: Log in to your Google Analytics account.
Step-2: Navigate to any report in your analytics and click on ‘Add segment’, you will land on the segment builder
Step-3: Click on ‘Actions’ next to the segment and you will see a ‘Share’ option, as shown below.
Step-4: When you have clicked on ‘Share’, a popup will appear with the URL. Note that when you are sharing the segment, only the configuration is shared and no traffic data is shared.
Step-5: You can now copy this link and send it by email to share the configuration.
What is segment availability in Google Analytics?
Segment availability is the ability to share the custom created segments across different views or restrict it to the particular view in which the segment was created.
Let us see how to use this feature in Google Analytics.
Step-1: Log in to your analytics account and go to the segment builder section.
Step-2: For custom created segments, you will see an option on the right-hand side, as highlighted below.
Step-3: Click on ‘Change’ to see the different options that are available to make the segment visible in any view.
Step-4: You will see a popup like below with three options for making the segment available.
I can apply/edit segments in any view: Makes the segment available in any view that you have access to.
I can apply/edit a segment in this view: Restricts the segment to only the view where you have created a segment.
Collaborators and I can apply/edit segments in this view: Other users with collaborate permission to the view will be able to apply and make edits to the segment that you have created.
How to delete segments in Google Analytics
Step-1: Log in to your Google Analytics and navigate to the segment builder section
Step-2: Select the segment that you wish to delete and click on ‘Action’.
Step-3: A popup will appear with various options, select ‘Delete’.
Note: You will not be able to delete the default segments that are available in the account
How to analyze data with segments
To understand the data with segments let us apply two segments to the reports. For this example, I will apply two inbuilt segments which are new users and returning users.
Step-1: Log in to your analytics account and navigate to audience reports.
Step-2: Click on ‘Add segment’ at the top of your reports.
Step-3: From the inbuilt segments, select ‘New users’ and ‘Returning users’ and then click on ‘Apply’.
Step-4: From the reports, you can understand that the number of returning users (3034) is fewer than the number of new users (14707).
Step-5: Along with the users, segments will also provide data such as the number of sessions, pageviews, and bounce rate for both new and returning users.
Step-6: To analyze further, you can navigate to demographics reports and select ‘Gender’. The report below shows that there are more new male users (2775) compared to female users (2278).
Step-7: You can drill down even further into the report by navigating to the locations report under geo and see which location is top for new/returning users.
From the screenshot below, we can understand that the United States is the top location.
How to create audiences from segments
Step-1: Log in to your analytics account and navigate to audience reports.
Step-2: Click on ‘Add segment’ at the top of your report.
Step-3: Select the segment from which you would like to build an audience and click on ‘Action’.
Step-4: When you click on ‘Action’ you will see a drop-down. Select ‘Build audience’ from the options provided.
Step-5: You will now be taken back to the audience configuration page which has three steps.
Audience source, which is Google Analytics view
Audience definition
Audience destination
Step- 6: Click on the pencil icon in the audience definition to make changes, this will show you the segment builder window. You can select the membership duration for your audiences based on your requirements.
Step-7: Now, provide a name for your segment and click on ‘Next step’. I have changed the definition of the segment to include only mobile users. Now, GA will automatically populate the eligibility for your audience.
Step-8: As the last step to building audiences you can select the destination account and publish the audience.
What are conversion segments in Google Analytics?
Conversion segments let you isolate and analyze your specific sets of conversion paths in your multi-channel funnel reports. Conversion segments are only available in multi-channel funnels (MCF) reports.
Just like the normal segments, you have default segments available in MCF reports as well. To find the default conversion segments follow the below steps.
Step-1: Log in to your Google Analytics reports.
Step-2: Click on the ‘Conversion’ tab from the left-hand menu in analytics.
Step-3: Select ‘Overview’ from the multi-channel funnels reports as shown below.
Step-4: On the right-hand side below the multi-channel funnel overview report you will see conversion segments and also default segments.
Step-5: To apply the default segment, select the check box next to the segment name and click on ’Apply’.
Step-6: Once the segment is applied, you will notice it in your reports as shown below.
How to create conversion segments in Google Analytics
Step-1: Log in to your analytics account and navigate to MCF reports.
Step-2: Click on ‘Conversion segments’ below ‘Multi-channel funnels overview’.
Step-3: On the right-hand side, you will see an option to ‘Create new conversion segment’.
Step-4: You will now see a conversion segment configuration panel. For example, let’s create a conversion segment only for affiliate traffic.
Step-5: Click ‘Save’ and you will see that the user-defined segment is now applied to your reports.
How to delete conversion segments in Google Analytics
Step-1: Navigate to your MCF reports in your Google Analytics account.
Step-2: Select the conversion segment that you wish to delete. Let us consider the affiliate segment that was created previously.
Step-3: Below the segment configuration, on the right-hand side you would see the option to delete segments.
Step-4: Click on ‘Delete segment’ and you will see a popup to confirm that you wish to permanently delete the segment.
Step-5: Click ‘Delete’ to delete the conversion segment from all profiles.
Limitations of segments in Google Analytics
You can apply up to four segments at a time in any report in analytics.
Up to 1000 per user segments can be applied in any view.
A view can have only 100 segments per user that can apply/edit by that user in the view.
A view can have only 100 segments per user that can apply/edit by any users in the view.
For user-based segments, you can apply a maximum date range of 93 days to your reports. In case, if you select more than 93 days then analytics will reset the date range to include only 93 days of data.
For user-based segments only the first 1000 sessions are reported by analytics, sessions count beyond 1000 in a 93-day window will be considered as a bot or non-human traffic.
Congratulations!! You have now learned how to create, add, remove, delete and manage segments.
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