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!

      Zoho Campaigns Resources


        • Desk Community Learning Series


        • Digest


        • Functions


        • Meetups


        • Kbase


        • Resources


        • Glossary


        • Desk Marketplace


        • MVP Corner


        • Word of the Day


        • Ask the Experts


          Zoho CRM Plus Resources

            Zoho Books Resources


              Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                Zoho Projects Resources


                  Zoho Sprints Resources


                    Zoho Orchestly Resources


                      Zoho Creator Resources


                        Zoho WorkDrive Resources



                          Zoho CRM Resources

                          • CRM Community Learning Series

                            CRM Community Learning Series


                          • Tips

                            Tips

                          • Functions

                            Functions

                          • Meetups

                            Meetups

                          • Kbase

                            Kbase

                          • Resources

                            Resources

                          • Digest

                            Digest

                          • CRM Marketplace

                            CRM Marketplace

                          • MVP Corner

                            MVP Corner




                            Zoho Writer Writer

                            Get Started. Write Away!

                            Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                              Zoho CRM コンテンツ




                                ご検討中の方

                                  • Recent Topics

                                  • Exchange Rate Updates

                                    Hi, It would be great that when you work with multiple currencies, the exchange rate updates automagically every day (as seen on Zoho Books) or at least that when you create/update an opportunity the exchange rate could be manually updated, or maybe both!

                                  • Locked Out of Super Admin Account

                                    I'm locked out of my Super Admin account and the external e-mail is no longer associated with it. There seems to be a problem during set up, the system ought to ask to assign a new password instead of using Google accounts. Please help me get back access.

                                  • Emails are going to notification folder and not in inbox

                                    emails are going to notification folder and not into inbox

                                  • 550 5.4.6 Unusual sending activity detected. Please try after sometime

                                    Hi, I am receiving this error message when trying to send my emails. The only reason I can think why this is happening is my previous two emails were bounced back to me due to a non working mailbox error. I have followed the online links for unblocking

                                  • Projects Home Customization

                                    Hello! We've been in Zoho One since July of last year, and my team has started providing feedback on what they'd like to do. Their latest wish is that they could have more control over the Projects Home content. For example, they want a card that shows

                                  • IMAP search support

                                    Does Zoho Mail support IMAP search? https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9051.html#name-search-command TEXT <string> Messages that contain the specified string in the header (including MIME header fields) or body of the message. Servers are allowed to implement

                                  • Performance is degrading

                                    We have used Mail and Cliq for about three years now. I used to use both on the browser. Both have, over the past 6 months, had a severe degradation in performance. I switched to desktop email, which appeared to improve things somewhat, although initial

                                  • Cannot reorder fields in Page Layout in Expenses and Purchase Requests

                                    It is very inconvenient that the custom fields in Page Layout cannot be re-ordered. The only way is to remove the fields and re-create them; however, it is impractical. This would affect the reports and dashboards we are having. Not able to re-order the

                                  • bouncing emails

                                    My recurring invoices have bounced back

                                  • Probable Scam / Phising attempt from email pretending to be Zoho

                                    I think this is a scam email right? It says "zohCworkplace.com". I'm on the Mail Free plan The link in the CTA button seems to go to a redirect. Just wanted to bring it up to the security team.

                                  • Feature Request: Ability to set Default Custom Filters and apply them via URL/Deluge

                                    I've discovered a significant gap in how Zoho Creator handles Custom Filters for reports, and I'm hoping the Zoho team can address this in a future update. This limitation has been raised before and continues to be requested, but remains unresolved. The

                                  • Email Address Search in "To" Field Search is broken, Zoho refuses to fix it

                                    Typing a part of the email address string other than the beginning of the string does NOT work, I kindly urge Zoho to fix this. Let's say you remember writing an email so someone called "smith" from company "corp.com", but can't remember their first name,

                                  • Emails not being received by @hotmail.com, @outlook.com and a few others

                                    When I try to send emails from zoho mail to people with email addresses ending @outlook.com and @hotmail.com (and a few others), I get a 'delayed' automatic email and then a few hours later, an 'undelivered' automatic email. This has started a few months

                                  • scroll bar for far left of screen

                                    I am unable to even see the scroll bar to the right of "inbox" etc on the left; it is stuck at "streams" and I can't get to inbox or anything else. It would help if it could be made a lighter color as the black or dark grey can't bee seen.

                                  • OUt of office every friday

                                    Hi, I tryed to configure my out of office, because i'm not working or emailing on fridays. But when i select only friday as unavailable day, the out of office still sets for the whole week. What am I doing wrong?

                                  • Signature line

                                    How do I set signature line in email

                                  • Zoho email

                                    I cannot send email to mail.ru

                                  • 【参加無料】東京 Zoho ユーザ交流会 NEXUS ー CRMで始めるマーケティング事例 / AI活用法(Zia Agents)

                                    ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの藤澤です。 3月27日(金)に東京、新橋で東京 Zoho ユーザー交流会 NEXUS を開催します！ 昨年度までより、さらにパワーアップして戻ってきました！ ユーザー活用事例は、2人のユーザーさんからお話しいただきます。Zoho サービスの活用の幅を広げたい方や、他のユーザーの利用法を気軽に知りたい方など、多くの方にとって学びのあるセッションになること間違いなしです✨ また今年は、これまで以上に、AI機能にも焦点を当てて行く予定です。 初回として、Zoho社員からZoho

                                  • Issue Exporting Data – CSRF Token Invalid Error

                                    Dear Zoho Team, We are experiencing an issue when exporting data from our Analytics workspace. Whenever we attempt to export data from our analytical pool, the system displays the following alert message: Alert Message: The CSRF token is invalid. It could

                                  • Deluge Learning Series – Client functions in Deluge | January 2026

                                    We’re excited to kick-start the first session of the 2026 Deluge Learning Series (DLS) with Client functions in Deluge. For those who are new to DLS, here’s a quick overview of what the series is all about: The Deluge Learning Series takes place on the

                                  • Zoho Mail 505 error I can not send email

                                    Hi, I’m having issues sending emails from my custom domain email address. When I send emails to Outlook addresses, I receive an “Undeliverable 505” error. However, emails send and receive correctly when I use Gmail. This is important for my business,

                                  • Multiple MFA Methods

                                    With SMS-based MFA methods being discontinued, there is now no way to have mutliple MFA methods. I'd like to add my zoho account on two seperate phones using the Google Authenticator app. In the https://accounts.zoho.com/home#multiTFA/modes you can only

                                  • Reuse Standalone Function

                                    I noticed that there's a missing information in documentation to reuse a standalone function and it is because the parameters require an argument. Here is my code and it is working. response = invokeurl [ url: "https://people.zoho.com/api/v3/function/sample/execute"

                                  • Domain renewals

                                    Need to know how hoe to renew the domain

                                  • MX shopify problem

                                    hello, i added all MX values in my shopify DNS - it shows those values on the shopify panel + your toolkit. I tried to send some email and it works, however on my gmail it says they cant verify this email. When i try to answer into my domain's email -

                                  • Best Way to Manage Email Notifications While Running a Strategy Website

                                    I am currently managing a content-based website, and I use Zoho Mail for handling contact forms, user queries, and collaboration emails. One challenge I am facing is organizing incoming emails efficiently, especially when messages come from different

                                  • What is the maximum email domains ?

                                    I help manage about 20 associations and I'm looking for a way to centralize them in one place. Does Zoho Mail pro or enterprise support 20-30 domains for 3-5 users each?

                                  • Add to Workdrive filter

                                    I'm trying to create a filter that will upload attachments in emails and the e-mail body to a folder in workdrive. I am able to do one or the other (attachment, or e-mail content), but not both. I first tried it using the "Email (EML) + attachment" option.

                                  • Forgot my admin Panel Id and password

                                    Sir, I have an account , where a domain mycityestate.in is added for Zoho email , now it is hard for me to manage email because i have forgotten the Email account and password registered with Admin Panel of Zoho. Just need email name which is registered

                                  • MCP no longer works with Claude

                                    Anyone else notice Zoho MCP no longer works with Claude? I'm unable to turn this on in the claude chat. When I try to toggle it on, it just does nothing at all. I've tried in incognito, new browsers, etc. - nothing seems to work.

                                  • Knowledgebase SEO

                                    We have a custom-domain mapped help center that is not restricted via login. I have some questions: a) will a robots.txt file still allow us to control indexing? b) do we have the ability to edit the sitemap? c) do category URLs get indexed by search

                                  • Problem with CRM Connection not Refreshing Token

                                    I've setup a connection with Zoom in the CRM. I'm using this connection to automate some registrations, so my team doesn't have to manually create them in both the CRM and Zoom. Connection works great in my function until the token expires. It does not refresh and I have to manually revoke the connection and connect it again. I've chatted with Zoho about this and after emailing me that it couldn't be done I asked for specifics on why and they responded. "The connection is CRM is not a feature to

                                  • New Features: Repeat Last Action, Insert Cut/Copied Rows/Columns and Hyperlink

                                    You might have noticed the constant updates to Zoho Sheet of late. Here are 3 more features that have been added to Zoho Sheet recently: F4 - Repeat Last Action Insert Cut/Copied Rows and Columns Insert Hyperlink Here is a screen cast demonstrating each of these features. Read further below to learn more about these new features. F4 - Repeat Last Action: You can now repeat the last action you made on your spreadsheet by using the keyboard shortcut, F4. It is quite handy and helps you get your work

                                  • Need help getting my mail on iPhone and Tablet

                                    I need to access my Zoho mail via the iPhone Mail app. I have entered the login name, password and the incoming and outgoing servers, which my Mail Settings page says are imappro.zoho.com and smtppro.zoho.com. The iPhone keeps saying it cannot authenticate.

                                  • Add an background image to an email template in CRM

                                    Hi all, We wants to put an background image behind all our email templates. Is there a way to import this thru html. If i put the option background image in <body style="background-image:...</body> and i look to the preview it shows our background, but

                                  • Is there a way to show contact emails in the Account?

                                    I know I can see the emails I have sent and received on a Contact detail view, but I want to be able to see all the emails that have been sent and received between all an Accounts Contacts on the Account Detail view. That way when I see the Account detail

                                  • How do I bulk archive my projects in ZOHO projects

                                    Hi, I want to archive 50 Projects in one go. Can you please help me out , How can I do this? Thanks kapil

                                  • Copy contents of File Upload Field into Workdrive

                                    Hello, I have set up our CRM so that a Workdrive folder is automatically created for each Deal via workflow, this adds the id of the folder into a dedicated field. We also have a field on each Deal called 'Approved Layout', which is a file upload field.

                                  • Deleting a memorized email address

                                    How can I delete a memorized email address? Even though the address has been deleted from Contacts, Zoho mail still auto suggests the address when typing it into the TO field. Thanks!

                                  • ZeptoMail API

                                    Hello Since today, we experience issues with the ZeptoMail API. When trying to send e-mails using: https://api.zeptomail.eu/v1.1/email we receive the error: (503) Site unavailable due to a traffic surge. Please try again shortly. I kindly ask you to identify

                                  • Next Page