Segments and Audiences

Flashcards cover definitions, creation methods, use cases, and advanced features of GA4 segments and audiences, including overlap analysis, predictive audiences, audience triggers, and practical examples such as apparel purchasers and cart abandoners.

What is a segment in Google Analytics?

A subset of your data (users, sessions, or events) that you define and analyze in Explorations to understand specific customer behaviors.

Where are segments created and viewed in GA4?

Within the Explore workspace.

At what three data levels can segments be built?

User-level, session-level, and event-level.

Name two common business uses for segments.

Identifying high-value customers, spotting website strengths/weaknesses, tailoring marketing campaigns, evaluating purchase funnels, etc.

How many segments can you apply at the same time in an Explore report?

Up to four.

What does the Segment Overlap technique allow you to do?

Compare up to three user segments simultaneously to see how they intersect and draw insights.

In the summer-promo example, what key insight did segment overlap reveal?

More purchases came from returning users who saw the promo than from new users who saw it, suggesting targeting should focus on returners.

Define an audience in GA4.

A group of users who share characteristics you specify; can be shared to Google Ads or GMP for remarketing or bidding.

How far back can Analytics backfill data when you create a new audience?

Up to 30 days, if data is available.

What platforms can GA4 audiences be shared to for activation?

Google Ads and Display & Video 360.

What is a predictive audience?

An audience containing at least one predictive metric (e.g., likely 7-day purchasers or churners) generated by GA4’s machine-learning models.

How do comparisons differ from segments in GA4?

Comparisons appear in standard reports; segments are used in Exploration analyses for deeper, customizable slices of data.

Outline the basic steps to create an "Apparel Purchasers" segment from scratch.

Open Explore ➔ click + next to Segments ➔ choose Purchasers prebuilt suggestion ➔ add condition Item category contains "apparel" ➔ name it and Save & Apply.

What checkbox converts a segment into an audience?

The "Build an audience" checkbox in the segment editor (upper-right corner).

Besides the segment editor, what are the two other ways to create an audience?

1) From a selection inside an Explore report (e.g., funnel step). 2) From scratch using the Audience Builder in Admin.

What is an audience trigger?

An optional event that automatically fires each time a user is added to an audience (e.g., "apparel_purchasers"), useful for analysis or conversions.

Describe how to build an abandonment audience from a funnel report.

Right-click on the desired funnel step’s abandonment metric ➔ choose "Create segment from abandonments" ➔ enable Build an audience ➔ set membership duration ➔ Save & Publish.

In the Audience Builder, which two conditions create a "Cart Abandoners" audience?

Include users who triggered addtocart AND exclude users who triggered purchase.

Which navigation path opens the Audience Builder from Admin?

Admin ➔ Data display ➔ Audiences ➔ New Audience.

What default membership duration was used in the example when publishing a new audience?

30 days.

Give one example of how segments can pinpoint competitive loss of customers.

Create a segment of users whose purchase frequency or spend recently declined to identify potential churn due to competitor pricing.

How can you use segments to see which landing pages and sources drove users who spent over $100?

Create a revenue-based user segment (e.g., spend > $100) and analyze Landing Page and Source/Medium dimensions within an Exploration.

Why convert a segment into an audience for remarketing?

To deliver personalized ads or adjust bids specifically to that user group on platforms like Google Ads, improving conversion efficiency.