Did you know?#3: How to target and run your experiment based on custom audience segments in PageSense

Did you know?#3: How to target and run your experiment based on custom audience segments in PageSense


Whatever kind of online business you're running, defining your target audience is the key factor to delivering relevant messages and further positioning your brand in the industry. Most marketing efforts revolve around this basic strategy of segmenting people who have similar needs, values, or characteristics and later targeting them with products or services meant to appeal to these ideal audience groups.  

Luckily, the same concept applies to website testing and optimization processes. By choosing a target audience for your experiment, you get to decide whom you should focus on and where you should run your experiments on your site. This method of audience targeting helps you reach the right consumers interested in your products or services with relevant messaging rather than entire audience groups who are less likely to convert on your website.

So, how do you target the right audience for your experiment? 

Using Zoho PageSense's audience targeting, you can both target basic audience segments (for instance, visitors coming to your site for the first time, visitors from a social media platform, and more) and tailor your own segments using the custom audience feature.

In today's post, we'll learn about what custom targeted audience segments are and how to successfully build your own custom audience condition in PageSense to boost your website's conversions.

A custom audience in PageSense is a more refined approach of audience targeting. This feature lets you target and run your experiment to more precise subgroups or subsets of audiences based on visitor parameters like their geography, age, gender, browser used, purchase behavior, language, or industry type, which cannot be done using the preset audience segmentation options available in PageSense. Furthermore, the option allows you to create a more powerful combination of audience groups using the ‘AND’ and ‘OR’ operations.

Say, for example, you run an ecommerce website and you want to A/B test the revamped product pages to visitors coming only from the United States region AND who access your website using Desktop devices. This could easily be done by manually creating custom audience conditions in PageSense as explained below:
  1. Click the +Custom Audience button on the AUDIENCE page of your experiment.

  2. Enter a title and description for the custom segment you want to create.

  3. From the Segment dropdown, choose the modifier and value for the selected audience segment as shown in the screenshot. Learn more about the different types of custom audience segments and the modifier conditions available in PageSense. 


  4. Ensure you choose the condition as ‘AND’ or 'OR' depending on the segment you want to create.

  5. From the Segment dropdown, choose the second modifier and value for the selected audience segment as shown in the screenshot.
    The final selection looks like:

  6. Click the Save Audience button.
    The saved segment will appear under the Custom Segments section across all of your experiments in PageSense and you can apply the same for any experiment.
Below are a few examples that show you the most effective ways to define custom audiences in PageSense for running your experiments better:

Target your experiment by geographical location
If you're looking to expand your online business to international audiences and want to understand which city or country markets are good for your business, choose to target your experiments to audiences based on the location.

Targeting your experiment by your visitors' geographic location, such as country, city, or region, is a powerful option when you want to show personalized web page content or run advertisement campaigns that match the interest of audiences from specific areas. This type of targeting is driven by factors like local festivals celebrated, popular regional news, tourism attractions, or business events happening in a region.

For example, say you own an ecommerce site, and you want to show personalized product recommendations to visitors from United Kingdom during the Christmas season. In this case, you can create a custom audience segment that targets your experiment page to visitors from this particular location as shown in the screenshot below.


Note: You can also use this option to target your experiment based on the languages spoken by visitors in different countries.

Target your experiment by query parameters
While running ad campaigns, it's important to both target the right consumers and provide the most relevant information to them on your website. If you find the right user who clicks on your ad, but the landing page for that ad isn’t customized, that conversion could be lost.

Targeting your experiment to visitors who reach your website pages that include (or exclude) a certain query string in their URLs could be useful when you want to understand the effectiveness of different ad campaigns on your website. This is usually tied to audiences who come through a specific utm_source like Facebook or Google and utm_campaigns like paid ads, Google Adwords, and more.

For example, say you own an online car dealership website and you want to redirect customers who click on a paid ad campaign with the utm_campaign=luxurycars to a landing page displaying luxury vehicles with prices and offers. For this, you can create a custom audience segment that explicitly targets your landing pages to visitors who contain this particular query string as shown in the screenshot below.


Target your experiment by user information
To achieve a specific goal or purpose of your online business, you will sometimes need to target your experiment to visitors with exact custom attributes such as age, email address, subscription plan, fields of interest, gender, marital status, or job role on your website. These attributes or visitor information can be collected when a user completes a form on your website, such as a signup, contact, purchase, or any other sort.

Targeting your experiment to visitors based on specific user attributes can help deliver the right message to the right audience and improve brand experience with ease. This is also considered the most precise method of audience targeting as it makes visitors stand out from the wide segment of users on your site.
 
For example, let's say you run a SaaS business and you want to show a personalized pricing page that offers an additional 30-day period to visitors who are subscribed to the Premium plan. In this case, you can create a custom audience segment to target your experiment to visitors who match this specific user attribute and value as shown in the screenshot below.
 
Note that to use 'user information' in audience targeting, you need to add an additional code snippet to your experiment page as explained in the steps here.

Target your experiment by weather/climatic conditions
Do you see your website sell more products when the temperature rises? Or does your tourism business attract more new bookings during cooler seasons?
 
Targeting your experiment based on the local weather of the visitors coming to your website is another modern technique used by marketers to craft influential website content, product pages, and ad campaigns. Weather-based audience targeting allows businesses to anticipate patterns of demand and tap into the needs and purchase intentions of customers during different seasons of the year. It's also a great way to gain a competitive advantage and increase the average value of orders and conversions on a website.
 
For example, say you run an ecommerce site and want to create a personalized homepage title for visitors living in climatic zones with temperatures below 41°F/5°C. In this case, you can create a custom audience segment to target your personalization experience based on audience's local weather as shown in the screenshot below.


Target your experiment by visitor activity
Visitors coming to your website will have different intentions and behaviors. For example, some might be looking to subscribe to your newsletter, some might be checking out new product releases, and others might just be there for window shopping or research purposes. If you're going to show the same home/landing page content to all visitors, you're definitely going to lose conversions and sales.

Targeting your experiment based on what pages your visitor interacts with on your site and what actions they take (or do not take) can be a great way to provide a personalized website experience during their next visit. This includes buttons clicked, products viewed, items bought, and other actions your visitor performs, revealing what your audience wants, avoids, and purchases. 

Using such specific visitor metrics, you can learn why specific actions or events on the site were not successful and later reach customers with more apt content or product offers based on their current activity.
 
For example, say you run an online tourism website and want to provide customized tourist packages with attractive coupon codes to customers who viewed the Adventure tourism package but exited your web page without completing a booking. In this case, you can create a custom audience segment to target your experiment for these segments of visitor interest and behavior as shown in the screenshot below. 

Note that to use 'visitor activity' in audience targeting, you need to add an additional code snippet to your experiment page as explained in the steps here.


Currently, weather-, user-, and visitor-activity-based audience targeting options are only available for personalization experiments in PageSense. However, the user and visitor activity(custom dimensions) based segmentation option is available under report filtering across all of the experiments in PageSense except for push notifications. Learn how to filter reports based on custom dimensions.

Target your experiment by specific referral site URLs
Depending on the ways you market your website online, you'll likely have numerous different referral sources. Analyzing which source brings in more traffic and revenue to your business is a surefire way to get more traffic from multiple channels. Targeting your experiment based on referral URLs—sources that your visitors came from, such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Quora, influencer blogs, and other external sites—can help you promote your website and products on these specific channels. 
 
For example, say you own an ecommerce site, and you want your experiment to only target visitors referred by 'facebook.com'. In this case, you can create a custom audience segment to target visitors from this specific Referral site as shown in the screenshot below. 

 
Bonus tip: Have no clear target audience in mind to run your experiments? Or don't know how to decide where to start when segmenting a target customer audience? Consider these points in choosing the right target audience segments:
  • Do you have seasonal-only customers or customers who are only interested in certain types of products, services, or events?
  • Are you an organization that needs to send different content to partners, sponsors, users, or other patrons?
  • Does it matter if your contacts are local, domestic, or international?
  • Have you thought about the requirements of users based on different weather conditions?
Was that useful? Please leave us your comment/feedback in the comment box below.

Are you looking to create a new custom audience segment to target in your experiment but aren't sure how to implement it? Just write to us at support@zohopagesense.com and we will be happy to guide you.

Start learning. Start customizing!
    • Recent Topics

    • Is it possible to disable Chat Waiting Time, or to make it indefinite?

      We have used many online chat services over the years. However, Zoho's SalesIQ appears to be the only one we've tried that has a mandatory time limit where we must respond to new customer queries. We are a small business so we have no dedicated staff
    • Access CRM Variables from Formula field

      Is it possible to use a CRM variable (defined in Developer Space -> CRM Variables) in a formula field for calculations ?
    • Client Script: $Client.refresh({ triggerOnLoad: true }); not triggering onLoad Client Scripts

      Hey friends! I'm trying to store a temporary var, refresh the page for the user, then check that temporary var and do some actions. Theoretically using the title's code: $Client.refresh({ triggerOnLoad: true }); should refresh the page and trigger on
    • Super Admin login to delete certain folders and passwords and clearing the trash folder, they are still appearing on my dashboard

      Hi Zoho Team, I need help with an issue I've encountered. Despite using the Super Admin login to delete certain folders and passwords and clearing the trash folder, they are still appearing on my dashboard. I would like to understand why this is happening
    • Pulling Specific Products from Sales Orders in Books to a CRM Record

      We currently process orders directly through our website (woocommerce) as well as through manual sales orders in zoho books. When an order comes through the website, all of the individual products from that order show up in the CRM record of that customer.
    • Automatically add a retainer to every estimate

      Hi all, I've been trying to find a way to automatically add a retainer at a set % to every estimate we create and send. So far I haven't been successful, does anyone know of a way to do this? Thanks,
    • Clear String field based on the value of other field

      Hello everyone, We would like to be able to clear a string field (delete whatever has been written and make it empty) when another field (picklist) is changed to a specific value. While I can empty other types of fields, I noticed that I can't do this
    • Custom Deal Name in Lead Conversion Mapping

      I know there are ways to change the name of a Deal after conversion using a custom function, so no need to repost that information. I would like to see the CRM Improved with Deal Name Customisation and I think the Lead Conversion Mapping page would be
    • Within the Basic KPI component in Analytics, it is impossible to set "next" day range as a filter

      Hi there, I am currently setting up a deal dashboard for the Sales team. While it is possible to filter deal records to show records that were created LAST X days only, it looks like a NEXT X days Closing date filter is not available. Would it be possible
    • Invoice status on write-off is "Paid" - how do I change this to "Written off"

      HI guys, I want to write off a couple of outstanding invoices, but when I do this, the status of the invoices shows as "Paid". Clearly this is not the case and I need to be able to see that they are written off in the customer's history. Is there a way
    • For each loop with available time slots

      I am very new to Deluge, and this question was unable to be answered by Zoho Creator tech support upon request. Task at hand: I have a Form with 4 fields: - Date Start - Date End - Dropdown: Time Start: contains time slots (12:00PM, 12:15PM, etc) - Dropdown:
    • Can we have Backorder Management ?

      Can we have Backorder Management ?
    • Converting Amazon Sales Order to Invoice

      Hi there, We need  advice on the Amazon integration with Zoho Inventory. Now, we want to convert all the Sales orders synced from Amazon to Invoices. We want also to include and record the Amazon fees associated with the sales (Amazon fees, FBA fees, Cost of Advertising etc.) However, Sales order only captures the sales proceeds (Gross Sales) in Zoho Inventory. Does anyone currently work with Amazon and can suggest how to correctly process the sales and Amazon payments through Zoho Inventory and
    • Zoho Inventory | Can't uncheck/turn off Advance Tracking

      Hi, I wanted to know if there's a way to turn off Advanced Tracking (such as Serial Number or Batch Tracking) for an item in Zoho Inventory. I’ve read that you might need to delete associated transactions and clear the opening stock to disable these features.
    • Landed Cost application to Vendor Bills from dropship Purchase Orders

      When trying to apply a Landed Cost to a Vendor Bill generated from a dropship Purchase Order, the Landed Cost pop-up window generates a message that "Landed Cost cannot be applied to Bills from dropship Purchase Orders" when trying to save the landed
    • Condition-based data sharing rules are now available in CRM

      Dear All,   We are excited to introduce a much awaited feature: condition-based data sharing rules. We'd love to explain more about this enhancement.   Specify record conditions in data sharing rules Data sharing rules enable you to share all the CRM
    • 2 serial numbers for 1 item (Mac address and Serial number)

      There is a way to track 2 serial number type for 1 Item. Ex: Some electronic devices have a MAC address and a serial number. I need to track those 2 numbers
    • Zoho Projects Roadshow, USA - 2024

      Dear Users, We are happy to announce the Zoho Projects Roadshows 2024 in USA. This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about Zoho Projects and gain in-depth knowledge of the advanced features. Our team will also discuss industry specific solutions
    • [Zoho Writer Webinar] Tips on collaboration control in Writer

      Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for the month of October 2023: Tips on collaboration control in Writer. This webinar will help you understand the various features available in Writer to control collaboration. We'll
    • [Zoho Writer Webinar] Working with tables in Zoho Writer

      Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for the month of September 2023: Working with tables. This webinar will help you understand the various ways you can use tables to meet your specific needs. The webinar will take
    • [Zoho Writer Webinar] Customize Writer to suit your business process

      Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for the month of August 2023: Customize Writer to suit your business process. This webinar will cover the various ways to customize Writer to streamline business processes and improve
    • Is there a way to print the dashboard?

      I would like the capability of printing the dashboard - is that possible?
    • Workflows for Timesheet

      Good day, Any way to have timesheet as triggers? I looked into Zoho Flow and into Zoho Project automation but no where can I have timesheet as a trigger. Basically, I would like to trigger something upon timesheet approval. Right now, the only way to
    • Linkedin - Recruiter System Connect

      Hi there! Does anyone here know how to connect Zoho Recruit to Linkedin Recruiter via Recruiter System Connect?
    • [Webinar] A recap of Zoho Writer in 2024

      Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce Zoho Writer's webinar for December 2024: A recap of Zoho Writer in 2024. This webinar will provide a recap of the features, enhancements, and integrations released in 2024 to enhance your productivity. There
    • Learn how to automate IT asset and incident management with Zoho Writer

      Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for November 2024: Learn how to use Zoho Writer's fillable forms for IT asset and incident management. This webinar will focus on how Zoho Writer can help you automate your organization's
    • [Webinar] Learn how Zoho Writer can streamline your finance and admin operations

      Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for October 2024: Streamlining finance and admin operations with Zoho Writer. This webinar will focus on how Zoho Writer can help you generate payslips and automate claim processes.
    • [Zoho Writer Webinar] Learn how Zoho Writer can enhance the productivity of sales teams

      Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for August 2024: Streamlining sales operations with Zoho Writer. This webinar will focus on how Zoho Writer can help you create sales documents and automate sales routines. There
    • [Zoho Writer Webinar] Learn how to simplify your HR operations: Part 2

      Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for July 2024: Learn how Zoho Writer can simplify your HR operations: Part 2. This webinar will focus on how Zoho Writer can help HR teams streamline and automate their entire hiring
    • [Zoho Writer Webinar] Learn how to simplify your day-to-day HR operations

      Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for June 2024: Learn how Zoho Writer can simplify your day-to-day HR operations. This webinar will focus on how to automate your entire hiring process and generate various types of
    • [Zoho Writer Webinar] Use formulas and conditions in Zoho Writer's document automation

      Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for May 2024: Learn how to use formulas and conditions in Zoho Writer. This webinar will focus on how to use formulas and conditions when automating document generation in Zoho Writer.
    • [Zoho Writer Webinar] Personalize Zoho Writer to suit your needs

      Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce the Zoho Writer webinar for April 2024: Learn how to personalize Zoho Writer to suit your needs. This webinar will focus on how to easily customize Writer's features at the user and organization level for
    • How to refresh/update module fields in

      Hi, I created a Workspace for CRM years ago. Since that time I've updated the layouts in several modules in CRM but Zoho Analytics displays the previous state fields only. How to refresh the module fields to reflect the actual state in Analytics? BR
    • Data update/pull from a specific field or module

      Hi Team, Currently, if I need a data from a newly added field on a product like Zoho CRM, I need to refresh the whole module to get the new field. This is taking much time for the data to be visible. If the data pull/refresh can be granularized to fetch
    • Lookup field in User module cannot look up to custom modules!

      Hi there, Expense has been great so far but it's sad to see that a simple thing such as allowing a lookup to custom modules from the Users module is not yet implemented. Hope to see this in the next release. Do you have any plan for that?
    • Trigger Zoho Cliq Channel Workflows for API Messages

      Dear Zoho Cliq Team, I hope this message finds you well. We have noticed that reminders or messages posted to Zoho Cliq channels via the API do not trigger channel-based workflows. This limitation means that any bot configured with a participation handler
    • Webhook Trigger for New Messages in Cliq Channels

      Hello, I would like to request a feature to enable webhook triggers when a new message is added to a Cliq channel. This functionality would allow us to seamlessly send important information from Cliq to other relevant systems. This webhook trigger can
    • Ability to Edit the "Current Job Title" dropdown field

      Current experience/Issue: When a user (candidate) uploads resume to Zoho Recruit candidate portal, some fields are prefilled with the info from the resume/cv correctly. However, we've observed that; 1. the "Current Job Title" dropdown field is usually
    • I'm getting an "Invalid_scope" error, even though I used an access token generated with the correct scope.

      I'm getting an "Invalid_scope" error, even though I used an access token generated with the correct scope. Here’s what I did in Postman: Generated the code to create an access token using the following URL: https://accounts.zoho.eu/oauth/v2/auth?scope=ZohoCampaigns.contact.UPDATE&client_id=<client_id>&response_type=code&access_type=offline&redirect_uri=https://1882-2-26-193-161.ngrok-free.app
    • Zoho Marketing Campaign

      I want a details report of marketing API . which API i can use to get a full flexed detail of email campaign , sms , social media ,and all other campaigns ?
    • Next Page