Basic and Advanced Segmentation in Zoho Campaigns 3.0
Basic segmentation in Zoho Campaigns 3.0 lets you segment contacts using their profile details, custom fields, CRM account and deal data, list, workflow, and segment memberships, topic subscriptions, and form submissions. Advanced segmentation adds every field marked with a lock icon, including email, SMS, and WhatsApp engagement, e-commerce activity, event and webinar attendance, workflow, contact scoring, and tags. Basic segmentation is available in the Standard plan, and Advanced segmentation is available in the Professional plan.
In the pricing page of Zoho Campaigns, you may have come across the terms “Basic segmentation” under the Standard plan and “Advanced segmentation” under the Professional plan and wondered what the difference between the two is. This answer explains which fields belong to each, what you gain with Advanced segmentation, and how segmentation has changed since Zoho Campaigns 2.0.
How do you know if a segment is basic or advanced?
Segmentation refers to the process of creating segments under the Audience module in Zoho Campaigns. From the Navigation Toolbar on the left, you can click Audience and select Segments. You’ll create segments on this page.
When creating a segment, you can view the Criteria section. The first field under this section lists all of the available fields, grouped into categories such as Contact Attributes, Associations, and Email Engagements. Some fields have a lock icon next to them. These are advanced fields. Fields without a lock icon are basic fields. The lock symbol is visible only in the Standard plan. Based on the fields you choose, Zoho Campaigns decides whether you’re creating a basic or an advanced segment. If even one criteria in your segment uses a field with a lock icon, the segment is treated as an advanced segment.
A sample view of the Contact Attributes category. Contact Source and Pop-ups Converted have a lock icon, so they’re advanced fields. X Handle, Facebook Handle, LinkedIn Handle, Imported from File, and Inferred City from IP don’t have one, so they’re basic fields. |
Notes:
- In the trial version of Zoho Campaigns, you can create both basic and advanced segments.
- If you created an advanced segment during the trial and purchased the Standard plan when the trial expired, you won’t be able to use that segment unless you upgrade to the Professional plan.
- Segments aren’t available in the Forever Free plan.
- Segments are dynamic. Any contact you add after creating a segment is included automatically if they meet its criteria.
- A segment can have a maximum of 10 groups and 50 criteria.
Basic segmentation
As the name suggests, basic segmentation covers the data that’s stored with each contact, along with the CRM and membership information connected to them. You can use every field without a lock icon, along with any custom fields you’ve created. When creating a segment, the fields under the categories below come under basic segmentation:
Category | What you can segment by | Example fields |
Contact Attributes | Profile, location, social, and subscription details, plus your custom fields | Contact Email, First Name, City, Country, Subscription Type, X Handle, Imported from File, Contacts Added by |
Account Attributes | CRM company data | Industry, Annual Revenue, Number of Employees, Account Owner, Company Size |
Deal Attributes | CRM deal data | Deal Stage, Deal Amount, Deal Closing Date, Deal Owner, Days to Close First Deal |
Associations | Membership in lists, workflows, and segments | List Associated, Workflow Associated, Segment Associated |
Topics | Topic subscriptions | Subscribed Topics, Unsubscribed Topics |
Form Attributes | Signup form submissions | Form Submitted |
Every criteria follows the format Field > Modifier > Value. For example, you can create a segment of contacts whose Country is equal to any of United States and whose Subscription Type is equal to any of Marketing. If you’ve integrated Zoho CRM, you can narrow this down by adding Deal Stage is equal to any of Closed Won. You can find the meaning of every field and modifier in Segment Criteria.
Advanced segmentation
Basic segmentation lets you segment on who a contact is. Advanced segmentation goes further and lets you segment on what a contact has done. When you use fields with a lock icon, you can build segments around campaign activity, purchases, event and webinar participation, workflow progress, and scores. Here’s what that makes possible:
- Engagement across three channels. Use Email Activity, SMS Activity, or WhatsApp Activity to find contacts who have received, opened, clicked, or replied to your campaigns. For example, Latest Email Opened Date was more than 90 days finds contacts who have gone quiet.
- Purchase behavior. Segment contacts by what they bought, didn’t buy, or left in their cart. For example, Total Spent greater than 1,000 combined with Abandoned Product in Cart is equal to any of Water Bottle.
- Event and webinar participation. Add Webinars Registered is equal to any of Effects of Climate Change and Webinars Attended isn’t equal to any of Effects of Climate Change to follow up with contacts who registered but didn’t attend.
- Lead quality. Use Scoring Attributes such as Total Score or Email Engagement Score with conditions like greater than or is between to focus on your most engaged contacts.
- Automation and tags. Use Number of Days in Workflow greater than 30 to find contacts who have stayed in a workflow for over a month, or Tag assigned is equal to any of Hot Contacts to target a tagged group.
- Contact origin. Use Contact Source and Pop-ups Converted to separate contacts based on how they were added.
Which fields, conditions, and data sources are exclusive to Advanced segmentation?
Fields and data sources
Every field with a lock icon is exclusive to Advanced segmentation. At least 70 fields in the criteria list carry the lock icon. The table below lists them by category, along with the data each one draws from.
Category | Fields with a lock icon | Data source |
Contact Attributes | Contact Source | Contact records |
Associations | Tag assigned | Contact tags |
Email Engagements | Every field in this category, including Email Activity, Email Campaign Received, total counts of emails sent, opened, clicked, and replied to, and the first and latest campaign and date fields | Your email campaigns |
SMS Engagements | All 12 fields, including SMS Activity, SMS Campaign Received, Total Number of SMSes Delivered, and the first and latest delivered and clicked fields | Your SMS campaigns |
WhatsApp Engagements | All 12 fields, including WhatsApp Activity, WhatsApp Campaign Received, Total Number of WhatsApp Campaigns Delivered, and the first and latest delivered and clicked fields | Your WhatsApp campaigns |
E-Commerce Attributes | All 14 fields, including Purchased Product, Hasn’t Purchased Product, Abandoned Product in Cart, Total Spent, Average Order Value, and Last Order On | |
Event Attributes | Events Registered, Events Attended | |
Webinar Attributes | Webinars Registered, Webinars Attended | |
Workflow Attributes | Number of Days in Workflow | Your workflows |
Scoring Attributes | All 6 fields: Total Score, Contact Fit Score, Engagement Score, Email Engagement Score, SMS Engagement Score, WhatsApp Engagement Score |
Integrating an app doesn’t decide whether a field is basic or advanced. The lock icon does. For example, Zoho CRM fields under Account Attributes and Deal Attributes are basic fields even though they need the Zoho CRM integration, while fields from e-commerce, event, and webinar apps are advanced.
Conditions
Conditions, which are called modifiers in Zoho Campaigns, aren’t locked on their own. Each modifier comes with the field you choose, so you can use it whenever you can use that field. The comparison conditions you already use on basic fields, such as is equal to any of, greater than, and is between, also work on advanced fields like engagement counts, order values, and scores. Date-based fields accept a unit of days, weeks, or months with conditions like was more than and was less than.
The activity conditions are the only ones that appear exclusively on advanced fields:
- Email Activity and SMS Activity: has been received, hasn’t been received, has been opened, hasn’t been opened, has clicked any link, hasn’t clicked any link, has replied, and hasn’t replied.
- WhatsApp Activity: has been received, hasn’t been received, has been read, hasn’t been read, has clicked any link, hasn’t clicked any link, has replied, and hasn’t replied.
How has segmentation changed from Zoho Campaigns 2.0 to 3.0?
The biggest change is that several sections that were advanced in Zoho Campaigns 2.0 are now basic. List-based, topic-based, CRM deal, and CRM account fields no longer need the Professional plan in Zoho Campaigns 3.0. At the same time, Advanced segmentation now covers more channels and more data, including SMS, WhatsApp, events, workflows, and contact scoring.
The table below shows where the 2.0 advanced sections that map directly to a 3.0 category now sit:
Advanced section in 2.0 | Where it is in 3.0 | Segment type in 3.0 |
List Based | List Associated under Associations | Basic |
Topic Based | Subscribed Topics and Unsubscribed Topics under Topics | Basic |
CRM Deals | Deal Attributes | Basic |
CRM Accounts | Account Attributes | Basic |
Campaign Activity | Email Activity and the other fields under Email Engagements | Advanced |
Webinar | Webinars Registered and Webinars Attended under Webinar Attributes | Advanced |
E-Commerce | All fields under E-Commerce Attributes | Advanced |
Here are the other changes you’ll notice when creating a segment in Zoho Campaigns 3.0:
- Five new advanced categories. SMS Engagements, WhatsApp Engagements, Event Attributes, Workflow Attributes, and Scoring Attributes weren’t part of the 2.0 list of advanced sections.
- Behavior segments work per channel. In 2.0, you chose an option under Campaign activity fields, then the campaign, and then the activity. In 3.0, you choose the Email Activity criteria, then the sub-criteria, and finally the modifier and value. SMS Activity and WhatsApp Activity work the same way.
- Tag-based segments use the Tag assigned criteria. In 2.0, you used conditions such as Tag is or Tag contains. In 3.0, you choose Tag assigned and then a modifier such as is equal to any of or is not equal to any of. Tag assigned has a lock icon, so tag-based segments need the Professional plan.
- Fields are grouped by what they describe. Categories such as Contact Attributes, Associations, Deal Attributes, and Form Attributes replace the 2.0 sections, so you can find a field by the type of data it holds.
Related questions about segmentation in Zoho Campaigns 3.0
Can you use advanced segments in the Standard plan?
No. Segments that include one or more fields with a lock icon need the Professional plan, while segments built only with basic fields work in the Standard plan. This applies if you move from the Professional plan to the Standard plan, and it also applies if you purchase the Standard plan after your trial ends. In both cases, you won’t be able to use an existing advanced segment until you upgrade to the Professional plan. Tag assigned also has a lock icon, so tag-based segments need the Professional plan too.
Why can’t you see the E-Commerce, Event, or Webinar fields when creating a segment?
These fields depend on the apps you connect to Zoho Campaigns. E-Commerce Attributes become available once you integrate an e-commerce app such as Shopify, Zoho Commerce, or WooCommerce. Event Attributes are useful once you integrate an event app such as Zoho Backstage, and Webinar Attributes once you integrate Zoho Webinar or GoToWebinar. All three categories have a lock icon, so you’ll also need the Professional plan to use them in a segment.
Why has a segment moved to the Inactive filter?
Zoho Campaigns moves a segment to the Inactive filter automatically if it hasn’t been used in an email campaign, SMS campaign, WhatsApp campaign, segment membership, or workflow within 60 days of its creation. An inactive segment can’t be used in campaigns or workflows until you reactivate it. To do this, go to Audience → Segments, click the All filter, choose Inactive, open the segment, and click Reactivate. If you don’t reactivate an inactive segment within 120 days, Zoho Campaigns deletes it automatically and you’ll have to recreate it. To help you avoid this, reminder emails are sent to the admin and the segment’s creator 30, 60, and 119 days after the segment is inactivated. You can read more in Inactive Segments.
What happens to your Zoho Campaigns 2.0 segments when you migrate to 3.0?
Segments that aren’t affected by the points below are migrated in full. These are the exceptions:
- Long-inactive segments. Segments that have been inactive for more than 120 days are paused after migration. A paused segment can’t be used in a campaign until you reactivate it.
- Bulk segments. You can’t create new bulk segments in 3.0. Existing ones are migrated with only the parent condition, so a migrated bulk segment can return more contacts than it did in 2.0.
- Deprecated contact fields. List added time, Opt in type, Consent status, Last sent on, and Average amount spent are deprecated in 3.0. A bulk segment whose parent condition uses one of these fields isn’t migrated, and workflows that use them are paused until you update them.
How do you check which contacts a segment will include before using it?
While creating the segment, click the Preview button at the top-right corner. A slide-in window lists the contacts that satisfy your criteria, and you can search it to confirm that the right contacts are included. Click Save Segment when you’re satisfied. After saving, the segment shows an In-Progress status while contacts are being captured, and the status changes to Active once it’s done. You can review the contacts of a saved segment at any time in its Contacts tab.
Who can create segments in Zoho Campaigns 3.0?
Users with the Admin, WorkSpace Admin, or Manager role can create segments. A user with a custom role can also create segments if the role has the Create permission for segments. The role decides who can create a segment, while your plan decides whether the segment can use advanced fields.
You can find the full list of fields and modifiers in Segment Criteria. To see everything else that changed in the new version, refer to what’s changed and what’s deprecated in Zoho Campaigns 3.0. This helps you decide whether Basic segmentation is enough for your audience or whether you need the Professional plan for Advanced segmentation.