Configuring Segmentation with ContextHub configuring-segmentation-with-contexthub
Segmentation is a key consideration when creating a campaign. See Understanding Segmentation for information on how segmentation works and key terms.
Depending on the information you have already collected about your site visitors and the goals you want to achieve, define the segments and strategies needed for your targeted content.
These segments are then used to provide a visitor with specifically targeted content. Activities defined here can be included on any page and define which visitor segment the specialized content is applicable for.
AEM lets you easily personalize your users’ experiences. It also lets you verify the results of your segment definitions.
Accessing Segments accessing-segments
The Audiences console is used to manage segments for ContextHub and audiences for your Adobe Target account. This documentation covers managing segments for ContextHub.
To access your segments, in global navigation select Navigation > Personalization > Audiences. Select your configuration (for example, WKND Site) to see your segments:
Segment Editor segment-editor
The Segment Editor lets you easily modify a segment. To edit a segment, select a segment in the list of segments and click the Edit button.
Using the components browser you can add AND and OR containers to define the segment logic, then add additional components to compare properties and values or reference scripts and other segments to define the selection criteria (see Creating a New Segment) to define the exact scenario for selecting the segment.
When the entire statement evaluates to true then the segment has resolved. In the event of multiple segments being applicable, then the Boost factor is also used. See Creating a New Segment for details on the boost factor.
Containers containers
The following containers are available out-of-the-box and allow you to group comparisons and references together for boolean evaluation. They can be dragged from the components browser to the editor. See the following section Using AND and OR Containers for more information.
Comparisons comparisons
The following segment comparisons are available out-of-the-box to evaluate segment properties. They can be dragged from the components browser to the editor.
null < 30 // will return trueprofile/age, you already know that the compared type is a number, so even if profile/age is not set, a comparison profile/age less-than 30 is returned false, as you would expect.References references
The following references are available out-of-the-box to link directly to a script or another segment. They can be dragged from the components browser to the editor.
Creating a New Segment creating-a-new-segment
To define your new segment:
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After accessing the segments, navigate to the folder where you would like to create the segment.
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Select the Create button and select Create ContextHub Segment.
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In the New ContextHub Segment, enter a title for the segment and a boost value if necessary and then select Create.
Each segment has a boost parameter that is used as a weighting factor. A higher number indicates that the segment is selected in preference to a segment with a lower number in instances where multiple segments are valid.
- Minimum value:
0 - Maximum value:
1000000
- Minimum value:
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From the segments console, edit your created segment to open it in the segment editor.
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Drag a comparison or reference to the segment editor it will appear in the default AND container.
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Double-select the configure option of the new reference or segment to edit the specific parameters. In this example, we are testing for people in Basel.
Always set a Data Type if possible to ensure that your comparisons are evaluated properly. See Comparisons for more information.
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Click Done to save your definition:
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Add more components as required. You can formulate boolean expressions using the container components for AND and OR comparisons (see Using AND and Or Containers below). With the segment editor you can delete components not needed anymore, or drag them to new positions within the statement.
Using AND and OR Containers using-and-and-or-containers
Using the AND and OR container components, you can construct complex segments in AEM. When doing this, it helps to be aware of a few basic points:
- The top level of the definition is always the AND container that is initially created. This cannot be changed, but does not have an effect on the rest of your segment definition.
- Ensure that the nesting of your container makes sense. The containers can be viewed as the brackets of your boolean expression.
The following example is used to select visitors who are considered in our Swiss target group:
People in Basel
OR
People in Zürich
You start by placing an OR container component within the default AND container. Within the OR container you you can add the property or reference components.
You can nest multiple AND and OR operators as required.
Using Script References using-script-references
By using the Script Reference component, the evaluation of a segment property can be delegated to an external script. Once the script is configured properly, it can be used as any other component of a segment condition.
Defining a Script to Reference defining-a-script-to-reference
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Add file to
contexthub.segment-engine.scriptsclientlib. -
Implement a function that returns a value. For example:
code language-javascript ContextHub.console.log(ContextHub.Shared.timestamp(), '[loading] contexthub.segment-engine.scripts - script.profile-info.js'); (function() { 'use strict'; /** * Sample script returning profile information. Returns user info if data is available, false otherwise. * * @returns {Boolean} */ var getProfileInfo = function() { /* let the SegmentEngine know when script should be re-run */ this.dependOn(ContextHub.SegmentEngine.Property('profile/age')); this.dependOn(ContextHub.SegmentEngine.Property('profile/givenName')); /* variables */ var name = ContextHub.get('profile/givenName'); var age = ContextHub.get('profile/age'); return name === 'Joe' && age === 123; }; /* register function */ ContextHub.SegmentEngine.ScriptManager.register('getProfileInfo', getProfileInfo); })(); -
Register the script with
ContextHub.SegmentEngine.ScriptManager.register.
If the script depends on additional properties, the script should call this.dependOn(). For example, if the script depends on profile/age:
this.dependOn(ContextHub.SegmentEngine.Property('profile/age'));
Referencing a Script referencing-a-script
- Create ContextHub segment.
- Add Script Reference component in the desired place of the segment.
- Open the edit dialog of the Script Reference component. If properly configured, the script should be available in the Script name drop-down.
Organizing Segments organizing-segments
If you have many segments, they can become hard to manage as a flat list. In such cases, it can be useful to create folders to manage your segments.
Create a New Folder create-folder
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After accessing the segments, select the Create button and select Folder.
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Provide a Title and a Name for your folder.
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The Title should be descriptive.
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The Name becomes the node name in the repository.
- It is automatically generated based on the title and adjusted according to AEM naming conventions.
- It can be adjusted if necessary.
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Select Create.
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The folder will appear in the list of segments.
- How you sort your columns will affect where in the list the new folder appears.
- You can select the column headings to adjust your sort.
Modify Existing Folders modify-folders
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After accessing the segments, select the folder you want to modify to select it.
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Select Rename in the toolbar to rename the folder.
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Provide a new Folder Title and select Save.
Delete a Folder
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After accessing the segments, select the folder you want to modify to select it.
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Select Delete in the toolbar to delete the folder.
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A dialog presents a list of folders selected for deletion.
- Select Delete to confirm.
- Select Cancel to abort.
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If any of the selected folders contains subfolders or segments, their deletion must be confirmed.
- Select Force Delete to confirm.
- Select Cancel to abort.
Testing the Application of a Segment testing-the-application-of-a-segment
Once the segment has been defined, potential results can be tested with the help of the ContextHub.
- Preview a page
- Click the ContextHub icon to reveal the ContextHub toolbar
- Select a persona that matches the segment you created
- The ContextHub will resolve the applicable segments for the selected persona
For example, our simple segment definition to identify users in Basel is based on the location of the user. Loading a specific persona that matches those criteria shows if that the segment is successfully resolved:
Or if it is not resolved:
Such tests can also be performed on content pages and in combination with targeted content and related Activities and Experiences.
If you have set up an activity and experience, you can easily test your segment with the activity. For details about setting up an activity, see the documentation on authoring targeted content.
- In editing mode of a page where you have set up targeted content, you can see that the content is targeted via arrow icon on the content.
- Switch to preview mode and using the context hub, switch to a persona that does not match the segmentation configured for the experience.
- Switch to a persona that does match the segmentation configured for the experience and see that the experience changes accordingly.
Using Your Segment using-your-segment
Segments are used to control the actual content seen by specific target audiences. See Managing Audiences for more information about audiences and segments and Authoring Targeted Content about using audiences and segments to target content.