Segments
Build reusable customer groups — "VIPs who opted in", "signed up this month, never bought" — and send campaigns to them.
A segment is a saved group of customers, defined by rules rather than a fixed list. "Customers tagged VIP who've opted into WhatsApp." "People who signed up this month and haven't bought yet."
The important part: a segment is live. Unlike a spreadsheet you upload, it updates itself. Someone who becomes a VIP tomorrow is in your VIP segment tomorrow, without you touching anything.
Segments are how you target campaigns.
Building one
A segment is some rules, plus a choice of how to combine them:
| What it means | |
|---|---|
| Match All | The customer must meet every rule. Narrower. |
| Match Any | The customer must meet at least one rule. Wider. |
Getting these the wrong way round is the usual reason a segment comes back empty.
Each rule is three dropdowns: a field, a comparison, and usually a value. You never type code — the builder gives you the options that make sense for whichever field you picked.
Three segments worth building first
Your VIPs
Match All
Tags contains vip
Opt-in status is Opted inSigned up recently but never bought
Match All
Created this month
Tags does not contain customerGood for a "still thinking about it?" nudge.
Everyone waiting on a restock
Match Any
Tags contains back-in-stock-waitlistGood for a "we've restocked, but only 40 left" message that reliably converts.
The comparisons you can use
Which comparisons appear depends on the field you picked — dates offer date comparisons, tags offer list comparisons, and so on.
| Field type | What you can ask |
|---|---|
| Anything | Is it filled in? Is it empty? |
| Text (name, email) | Is exactly, contains, starts with, ends with |
| Numbers (spend, order count) | Equals, is more than, is less than, is at least, is at most |
| Yes/no | Is true, is false |
| Lists (tags) | Contains, doesn't contain, contains all of, contains any of, is empty, how many |
| Dates | Before, after, between — plus ready-made ones like today, this week, last month, this year |
Use the relative date options
"Created this month" stays correct forever. "Created after 1 January" is wrong by February and you'll forget to fix it.
The relative options — this week, last month, this year — are what make a segment something you build once and reuse, rather than something you maintain.
Why your segment size and your send size differ
Every segment shows a live count of matching customers. That count uses exactly the same logic that picks recipients when a campaign sends — so it's honest.
But "matching" isn't "will receive". At send time, a campaign runs three more checks:
| Check | Who gets dropped |
|---|---|
| WhatsApp opt-in | Anyone who hasn't agreed to be messaged |
| Unsubscribed | Anyone who opted out |
| Valid phone number | Numbers that can't be read |
So a segment of 1,000 might send to 850. That's not a bug — it's Enscale protecting your number. The campaign shows you the skipped count and the reason for each before you commit to sending.
If the gap is large, your opt-in collection needs work more than your segment does.
Segments are always WhatsApp
There's no channel option in a segment, because campaigns are WhatsApp-only. A segment always resolves to people you can reach on WhatsApp.
Which means: to reach someone who's only ever DMed you on Instagram, you first need their phone number and their consent. The coupon popup is the usual way to bridge that.
Using segments in automations
Two steps let a flow move people in and out of segments as it runs: Add to Segment and Remove from Segment.
This is how you build behaviour-based groups rather than attribute-based ones. For example — add someone to a "hesitant" segment after they've abandoned two checkouts, then target that segment with a stronger offer than you'd send everyone.
Common questions
Next steps
- Tags — the field most segments are built on.
- Audiences — how a campaign picks who to send to.
- Broadcasts — sending to a segment.