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Creating and Editing Segment Trees

The Segment Tree Designer creates and edits segment trees. You can select one or more segments and split the members into smaller groups (or target cells). As you split a segment into smaller groups, the groups are displayed in a tree diagram, and the resulting branch is always the same size or smaller than the parent branch.

Use the Split/Sample option to split any segment or tree branch into smaller groups. You can select from a set of splitting and sampling methods, including Random selection, Nth selection, Ranked, N-tiles, and Values.

NOTE:  For more information about adding a filter using an aggregate field, see Adding Criteria Blocks to Segments.

Each segment tree is based on a target level, which indicates what type of customer you plan to count in the tree. For example, target levels can include target levels, companies, individuals, or households. When deduplication is enforced between target cells in the tree, the deduplication is applied at the target level. For example, if the target level for the tree is Companies, then deduplication makes sure that each company is a member of only one cell.

As you split and sample from the tree branches, some of the branches are end point branches, which means that they do not have any child splits. These end points are referred to as Target Cells, because they are the distinct groups targeted in a marketing program. Each Target Cell displays a priority number. The priority is used to apply deduplication between cells that may contain some of the same members. You can click the auto-prioritization icon to update the priority of all tree nodes sequentially in ascending order, for example, 1 to 10 for 10 priority nodes.

The Segment Tree Designer displays several types of counts such as net counts and gross counts. For descriptions, see Frequently Used Terms for Marketing Segmentation.

Members of the Segment Tree are constrained by the eligible audience. The eligible audience is a set of criteria that appear in the top section of the screen. The criteria are applied to the Eligible Audience by creating a segment with the criteria and then adding the segment to the Eligible Audience section of the Segment Tree. For example, you may have an eligible audience that excludes inactive customers or only selects customers in your geographic region. Optionally, your administrator can also designate a Global Audience, which is a set of criteria that applies to the segment trees and cannot be removed by other users.

After you create a segment tree, you can save it in one of the folders in the Web Catalog.

The Segment Tree Designer has links to additional Help information on each screen. When you need more information, click the Help link in the dialog box or the small help icon next to the item.

This topic contains the following information:

Creating a Segment Tree in Segment Tree Designer

Use the segment tree selection pane to create a new segment tree, select the segments to sample in the tree, and select the fields to use for the splitting criteria. After you create a segment tree, you can save it in one of the folders in the Web Catalog. You can also choose to download the segment structure with counts to an Excel spreadsheet by clicking Download.

When you begin editing a tree, the selection pane displays the available segments that you can use in the tree. To add a segment to the segment tree, open its folder in the selection pane, and click the segment name.

As you add splitting and sampling criteria, the selection pane changes to display the available subject areas and fields for the target level on which the tree is based.

NOTE:  The subject areas that you can display depend on the security settings specified for you by your site's Administrator.

To create a new segment tree

  1. In the Segment Tree Designer, select a Target Level.
  2. In the selection pane, click the names of the segments to add.
  3. To save the segment tree, click the save icon in the upper-right corner of the screen.
  4. Select the folder location where the segment tree is to be saved.
  5. Enter a segment tree name and click OK.

To add a segment to a segment tree

  1. In the Segment Tree Designer, select the Edit Segment tab.
  2. Click the folder in the selection pane to display the segments.
  3. Click the segment name in the selection pane.

    This adds the segment to the bottom of the segment tree.

  4. Click the save icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and click OK.
  5. Click Yes in the dialog box to confirm saving over the previous version.

To generate lists for a node

  1. Save the segment tree.
  2. Select a node.
  3. Click the node's menu button and choose Generate Lists.

To update counts in a segment tree

  1. In the upper-right of the Edit Segment Tree tab, click Update Counts.

    The Update Counts window opens.

  2. In the Update Counts dialog box, click the Count Options tab.
  3. Indicate which criteria blocks to update:
    • New and changed criteria blocks
    • Selected criteria blocks
    • All criteria blocks
  4. If you are using the Cache option, you can also select Refresh Marketing Cache.

    Selecting Refresh Marketing Cache guarantees that you query against the most current data.

  5. Click the Count Type tab.
  6. Select the counts to be updated—making sure to select at least one type of count—and then click OK.

To save the results set for an entire segment tree

  1. In the Segment Tree Designer, click the Saved Result Sets tab.
  2. Click Save Result Set to create a Saved Result Set for every node.
  3. In the Save As dialog box, verify the segment name and location.
  4. Click OK.
  5. When prompted, enter a custom label for the segment tree.

    Marketing creates a static segment for each tree node. The naming format is:
    <Custom Label>-<Node Label>-<Priority>

  6. While saving a result set for a particular tree node, you have the option of either append to an already created static segment (useful for doing analysis over time) or creating a new static segment.

About Segment Tree Branch Properties

Table 16 shows the options available in the properties dialog box for a segment tree branch.

Table 16. Segment Tree Branch Properties
Control Name
Description

Label

Used to add a custom label for the branch.

NOTE:  Custom labels cannot be entered for embedded segment nodes.

Include Remainder with child cells (check box)

When selected, adds a remainder group when you split or sample the branch.

Include overlapping members from higher priority cells

When selected, disables deduplication for this cell.

Cache this block for future Jobs

Select this option for the following reasons:

  • When selected, this option temporarily caches the members who qualified for that branch, which saves time when refreshing counts while designing a segment tree.
  • When a split-by-value node is marked for caching and constrains a secondary list attribute, this attribute is also cached.
  • The segment tree designer caches the tree nodes by default.

Anticipated response rate for statistical significance test

Use this to add the assumed response rate for that cell.

Save Result Set (button)

Saves the list of members that qualify for the branch based on the most recent updated counts. When you click this button, you are prompted for a new segment name. The customers in the target cell are extracted and saved to the new segment.

NOTE:  The saved segment does not include any of the original criteria, it includes only the stored list of members.

Path

This displays the Web catalog path of the segment to which an embedded segment node refers.

Use Saved Result Set

When selected for an embedded segment node, you can select the following options:

  • Always use most recent Saved Result Set.
  • Choose a specific result set from the list.

Adding Selection Rules to a Segment Tree

Selection Rules control the items related to the segment tree cells that are included in the campaign load and list export processes. For example, for a segment tree of accounts (companies), you can control which employee or employees at the company you want to target.

For a Segment Tree, you have several options to apply the Selection Rules:

  • Selection Rules tab. Use this tab to enter explicit Selection Rules that apply to all cells on the Segment Tree.
  • Inherit Selection Rules from the segments. This option inherits any existing selection rules from the segment or segments included in the segment tree.
  • Apply constraints from the Segment Tree splitting and sampling criteria. Use this option to selectively apply the criteria for specific tree branches as part of the selection rule.

For information on creating selection rules, see Adding Selection Rules.

Rather than create Selection Rules for the entire segment tree, you can inherit the Selection Rules from each segment.

To inherit selection rules from a segment

  1. Click the view icon for the segment in the tree.
  2. Click Properties.

    The Properties dialog box appears.

  3. Check the box for Inherit Selection Rules from the segment and then click OK.

NOTE:  The inherited rules do not appear in the Selection Rules view. This occurs because the criteria may vary between different segments in the tree, while the Selection Rules view shows only criteria that apply to all cells in the tree. You can only inherit selection rules from segments with the same target level as the tree.

As a shortcut, you can add the splitting and sampling criteria from the Edit Segment Tree view directly as a Selection Rule constraint.

To reuse criteria from the Edit Segment Tree view as a selection rule constraint

  1. Click the Edit Segment Tree tab.
  2. Locate the split block to be added to the selection rules and click its icon.

    The Properties dialog box appears.

  3. Check the box for the Qualified Item to constrain, and then click OK.

NOTE:  These constraints do not appear in the Selection Rules view. This occurs because the criteria may vary between different tree branches, while the Selection Rules view only shows criteria that apply to all cells in the tree.

  
 

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