Segmentation in reports

  1. Creating a segment
  2. Choosing conditions
  3. Operations with segments

Creating a segment

You can use a segment to pull necessary data from a full set of statistics. A segment is formed from criteria that are used for selecting data.

A segment created in Yandex Metrica is recalculated daily. The user data is always up to date.

You can create a segment using:

The criteria are combined into groups in the list, and groups are combined into categories.

Segmentation can be done for multiple statistical objects:
Views
For example, the Views that condition group. The report only contains data on sessions that include views with the specified condition.
Sessions
For example, the Sessions that condition group. The report will only contain data on sessions with the specified condition.
Users
For example, the For people with condition group. The report only contains data on users whose sessions meet the specified condition at least once.
You can also create a segment for certain actions, such as external click-throughs or calls. Yandex Metrica provides reports designed for collecting statistics on such actions. For example, for file downloads. When generating a report on the specified segment, Yandex Metrica selects only actions that meet the specified condition from those taken during the user sessions.

Since the segment is based on different objects, but the same metrics are calculated (like the number of views), the totals in different reports may differ.

Example

You need to find out how often users view one page on your site. Keep in mind that during a single session, a user can view a lot of other pages apart from the one being analyzed. You can see this information in various reports, such as “Traffic” and “Popular”. Demo tag reports are given as an example.

Traffic

Report

Popular

Report

The reports show a different number of views. This is due to the fact that, in the case of session-based segmentation, the report considers the number of views for other pages during the selected sessions in addition to the number of views for the specified page.

Choosing conditions

If you add multiple conditions to a segment:

  • For conditions from different groups, the service uses the “AND” operator.
  • For conditions from the same group, the service uses the “OR” operator by default.
Restriction. You can add no more than 20 conditions.

Conditions are divided into several types that you can apply rules to:

For example, conditions related to specifying a URL, page title, or search query. You can set these types of conditions in the text box. If you are setting multiple conditions, each condition must start on a new line.

You can choose one of the following rules for these conditions:

  • Meet any condition (same as the “OR” operator).
  • Meet all conditions (same as the “AND” operator).

String conditions can also use special characters. If you don't want to specify a strict match, you can define the beginning, a substring, or more complex conditions using regular expressions.

Characters used for segmentation
Character Description Example
* Matches any number of any characters

Show data for all pages beginning with https://example.com/tariff/, including the specified page: https://example.com/tariff/*

Using the * character

You can use the * character when setting conditions related to a search query.

For example, you can filter all the search queries that brought visitors to the site and select just the data for phrases that somehow contain the company name: *Alice in Wonderland*.

The following queries will match this condition: website of Alice in Wonderland; Alice in Wonderland site; official Alice in Wonderland site.

@ The selected data contains the specified string (but doesn't have to match exactly) Show data for all pages with a URL containing the string: @tariff
~ The condition is a regular expression Show data for pages with a URL matching a regular expression
! Negates condition Exclude data for pages with a URL that begins with the string https://example.com/tariff/: !https://example.com/tariff/*

When using special characters, case is ignored.

The characters @, !, and ~ can only be used at the beginning of a string. You can use the following combinations:

Operator Example
!@ Exclude data for pages with a URL containing "tariff": !tariff
!~ Exclude data for pages with a URL that matches the regular expression

Operations with segments

Comparing segments

Comparison lets you view data for two segments at once.

After getting a segment, you can compare it with:

  • A previous period.
  • A segment specified manually.
  • A predefined segment (for example, New users or Search traffic).
  • A saved segment (that you created previously).
Saving a segment
  1. Click Segment → Save as.
  2. Enter the segment name and click Save.

After saving, the segment is available in the drop-down menu Segment → Saved segments, and on the page Segments.

Restriction. You can save 500 segments max.

Questions and answers

What are incompatible conditions?

When you switch from report to report, the segmentation conditions are saved. If the supported conditions are different, a message about their incompatibility appears in Yandex Metrica. In this case, delete the conditions and set a new segment.