Segmentation

You are reading the AEM 5.6 version of Segmentation.
This documentation is also available for the following versions: CQ 5.5 CQ 5.4 CQ 5.3

Segmentation in CQ

Depending on the information you have already collected about your site visitors and the goals you want to achieve, you will need to define the segments and strategies needed for your targeted content.

These segments are then used to provide a visitor with specifically targeted content. This content is maintained in the Campaigns section of the website. Teaser pages defined here can be included as teaser paragraphs on any page and define which visitor segment the specialized content is applicable for.

CQ allows you to easily create and update segments, teasers, and campaigns. It also allows you to verify the results of your definitions.

The Segment Editor allows you to easily define a segment:

You can Edit each segment to specify a Title, Description and Boost factor. Using the sidekick you can add AND and OR containers to define the Segment Logic, then add the required Segment Traits to define the selection criteria.

Boost Factor

Each segment has a Boost parameter that is used as a weighting factor; a higher number indicates that the segment will be selected in preference to a segment with a lower number.

Segment Logic

The following logic containers are available out-of-the-box and allow you to construct the logic of your segment selection. They can be dragged from the sidekick to the editor:

AND Container	The boolean AND operator.
OR Container	The boolean OR operator.

Segment Traits

The following segment traits are available out-of-the-box; they can be dragged from the sidekick to the editor:

IP Range	Defines a range of IP addresses that the visitor can have.
Page Hits	How often the page has been requested.
Page Property	Any property of the visited page.
Referral Keywords	Keywords to match with information from the referring website.
Script	Javascript expression to be evaluated.
Segment Reference	Reference to another segment definition.
Tag Cloud	Tags to be matched with those from the pages visited.
User Age	As taken from the user profile.
User Property	Any other information that is available in the user profile.

You can combine these traits using the boolean operators OR and AND (see Defining a New Segment) to define the exact scenario for selecting this segment.

When the entire statement evaluates to true then this segment has resolved. In the event of multiple segments being applicable, then the Boost factor is also used.

Defining a New Segment

To define your new segment:

Open the Tools console.

Click on the Segmentation page in the left pane, and navigate to the required location.

Create a new page using the Segment template.

Open the new page to see the segment editor:

Use either the sidekick or the context menu (usually right mouse button click, then select New... to open the Insert New Component window) to find the segment trait you need. Then drag it to the Segment Editor it will appear in the default AND container.

Double-click on the new trait to edit the specific parameters; for example the mouse position:

Click OK to save your definition:

You can Edit the segment definition to give it a Title, Description and Boost factor:

Add more traits if required. You can formulate boolean expressions using the AND Container and OR Container components found under Segment Logic. With the segment editor you can delete traits or containers not needed anymore, or drag them to new positions within the statement.

Using AND and OR Containers

You can construct complex segments in CQ. 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 either:

Male and between the ages of 16 and 65

Female and between the ages of 16 and 62

As the main operator is OR you need to start with an OR Container. Within this you have 2 AND statements, for each of these you need an AND Container, into which you can add the individual traits.

Testing the Application of a Segment

Once the segment has been defined, potential results can be tested with the help of the Client Context:

Select the segment to be tested.
Press Ctrl-Alt-C to open the Client Context, which shows the data that has been collected. For testing purposes you can Edit certain values, or Load another profile to see the impact there.
Depending on the traits defined, the data available for the current page may or may not match the segment definition. The status of the match is shown underneath the definition.

For example, a simple segment definition can be based on the age and gender of the user. Loading a specific profile shows that the segment is successfully resolved:

Or not:

Note

All traits are resolved immediately, though most only change on page reload. Changes to mouse position are visible immediately, so useful for testing purposes.

Such tests can also be performed on content pages and in combination with Teaser components.

Mouseover on a teaser paragraph will show the segments applied, whether they currently resolve and therefore, why the current teaser instance has been selected:

Using Your Segment

Segments are currently used within Campaigns. They are used to steer the actual content seen by specific target audiences.

Your comments are welcome!

Did you notice a way we could improve the documentation on this page? Is something unclear or insufficiently explained? Please leave your comments below and we will make the appropriate changes. Comments that have been addressed, by improving the documentation accordingly, will then be removed.

COMMENTS

By leekyungmin - 6:26 AM on Mar 12, 2013 Reply
Hello, now I am managing 6 languages site from using CQ5, So I would like to segment person depending on IP address, and then show that suitable site for people. in this case how can I make logic more suitable? just using the IP Range value??, or any other better idea?

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