What are segments

Segments are dynamic user audiences that update based on the conditions you define. Unlike static lists that need manual updates, segments evaluate your user profiles against your criteria during a refresh, adding or removing people based on whether they match.

Segments let you target campaigns precisely by sending to customers who meet specific criteria without manually building lists. Use them to power automated workflows that direct users into journeys based on their attributes or actions, organize your audience by value, behavior, location, or any custom attributes, and maintain fresh audiences that ensure every send reaches the most current, relevant group.

What data powers segments?

Segments are built from all the customer data Vero tracks:

• Profile properties – Reserved properties like email , id and first_name plus any custom properties you track (e.g., plan_type, account_status, lifetime_value)
• Event and event data – Actions customers take in your app or website that you've instrumented with Vero's SDK or API (e.g., product purchases, page views, feature usage)
• Message engagement – Email, sms and push interactions that Vero captures automatically, including opens, clicks, deliveries, bounces, and unsubscribes
• Tags – Labels you've applied to user profiles for categorization

Learn more:

• Understanding customer profiles
• How to add or update user profiles
• Tracking events and data

How segments work

When you create a segment, you define conditions using Vero's visual builder. Vero evaluates all user profiles against these conditions during a refresh, adding or removing people based on whether they match your criteria.

When segments refresh

Segments show the user profile count as of the last refresh. They refresh in three scenarios:

• Manually – Click the Refresh button to recalculate membership and see the latest results in the UI.
• Automatically before campaign sends – Vero refreshes the segment immediately before sending a newsletter or campaign to ensure you're targeting the most current audience.
• Automatically in Journey branch logic – When a user reaches a branch point that checks segment membership, Vero refreshes that segment to make the routing decision.

This refresh model ensures accuracy when it matters—at the point of send or decision—while keeping system performance efficient.

How different message types use segments

Vero handles segments differently depending on the type of message:

Newsletters and campaigns These rely on the segment's cached membership list. Vero automatically refreshes the segment at send time, so your audience is always current when the message goes out.

Behavioral, transactional, and workflow emails These automated messages don't rely on the cached segment list. Instead, Vero evaluates the individual conditions from the segment against each user profile at send time, ensuring they still match the criteria when the message is triggered.

Understanding segment caching

Behind the scenes, Vero maintains a cache of all customers in each segment. When customers trigger events or have properties updated, Vero logs these changes but doesn't automatically update the segment cache in the UI. This is why manual refreshes are necessary to see the latest membership in the segment view.

When you need to manually refresh:

• Before exporting customers from a segment
• When searching within a segment to find specific profiles
• To see the current membership count after importing or updating customer data

Important: Segments displayed in the UI only show the population since the last refresh. Always refresh before exporting or analyzing segment membership to ensure you're working with current data.

Data availability after imports

When you import user profile data, there's a brief processing window before that data becomes available for segmentation:

1. The import completes and processes
2. Data loads into Vero's segmentation database (typically takes up to 15 minutes)
3. The data becomes available for segment refreshes

If you create and refresh a segment immediately after an import finishes, recently updated users may not appear yet. Wait a few minutes and refresh again to include the new data.

Segments vs. static lists

Unlike static lists that require manual updates, segments use complex logic with AND/OR conditions to automatically recalculate membership based on your criteria. This makes them much more powerful and reusable across campaigns and workflows, ensuring your targeting stays accurate as customer data evolves.

Next steps

• Creating and editing segments – Learn how to build segments step-by-step
• Using segments in campaigns – Target campaigns to specific audiences