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Creating and Editing Segment Trees

The Segment Tree Designer allows you to create and edit 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 will always be 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 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, meaning that they do not have any child splits. These end points are referred to as Target Cells, because they are the distinct groups that will be 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.

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.

All the 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 might have an eligible audience which excludes inactive customers or only selects customers in your geographic region. Optionally, your system administrator can also designate a Global Audience, which is a set of criteria that applies automatically for all 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 section contains the following topics:

• Creating a Segment Tree in Segment Tree Designer
• About Segment Tree Branch Properties
• Splitting Segments or Branches
• Constraining List Data for a Segment Tree
• Adding or Removing Constraints to the Eligible Audience

Creating a Segment Tree in Segment Tree Designer

Use the segment tree selection pane to create a new segment tree, select the segments you want to sample in the tree, and select the fields you want 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.

When you begin editing a tree, the selection pane displays all the available segments that you can use in the tree. To add a segment to the segment tree, just 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 see 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 you want to add.
3. If you want to save the segment tree, click the save icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
4. Select the folder location where you want to save the segment tree.
5. Type a segment tree name.
6. 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 all 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.
5. Click OK.
6. Click Yes in the dialog box to confirm that you want to save over the previous version.

About Segment Tree Branch Properties

The properties dialog box for a segment tree branch provides the following options:

• 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, anytime you split or sample this branch, a remainder group is automatically added.
• Include overlapping members from higher priority cells. When selected, disables deduplication for this cell.
• Cache this block for future Update Counts. Select this option for the following reasons:
  • When selected, this option temporarily caches the members who qualified for that branch, allowing you to save time 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 all 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 will not include any of the original criteria, it will include 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.