What is an Audience Definition Segment?

Yahoo! Web Analytics's audience definition segment feature enables publishers to export user defined segments to the Right Media Exchange (RMX) and/or Yahoo! Premium Display. Once exported, advertising can be booked against these user-defined segments.

Note: Yahoo! display advertising customers can contact their account managers to enable audience definition.

How are Audience Definition Segments Used?

It's expected that advertisers initially wishing to define target audiences will either have an existing conception of their target demographics based on an overall strategy and data from various sources, or will want to use the insights offered through Yahoo! Web Analytics's reports to identify particular segments. In the latter case, you will probably want to implement Yahoo! Web Analytics before you begin identifying audience segments; the insights from Yahoo! Web Analytics's reports can be used to inform the creation and publishing of segments.

Segments can be created from either Settings > Segmentation > Manage Segments or 'on the fly' from within the main flow of Yahoo! Web Analytics reports. The Segmentation Wizard lets you add a wide variety of dimensions and metrics to groups, and use and/or logic within or between groups to define the number of visitors for which each segment would apply. This highly flexible setup lets users assess the size of each segment prior to publishing and export. Users can add just one or a few parameters to create a broad segment, or additional parameters to create a smaller (but more targeted) segment for export.

In order to export segments, users or their account managers will configure their login to RMX from within Yahoo! Web Analytics (in Settings > Ad Channels). (Note that all segment exports go to Yahoo! Premium Display automatically.)

Finally, segments can be published using a segment export rule, which specifies the date range for which the segment export rule is active and various publishing aspects for the segment.

Note: Customers provided with Audience Definition capabilities will be able to maintain up to 50 active Segment Export rules by default.

Creating a Link Between Yahoo! Web Analytics and the Segment's Destination: Login Credentials

After logging in to Yahoo! Web Analytics, you must set up your RMX credentials so that you can export your segments to that exchange:

1. Navigate to Settings > Ad Channel Configuration.
2. Click on Add to establish connectivity to a new ad channel
3. Select RMX from the list of options. (Only a Yahoo! account manager can create a link to Yahoo! Premium Display.)

Fill in the screen that appears as follows:

Note: You can define only one RMX ad channel per project. You specify which RMX network seat you want to connect to by supplying the API login/password credentials that are specific to that seat. You should also supply the specific advertiser/publisher entity, along with a username/password of someone with rights to that entity or rights to the network that the entity sits on.

Creating an Audience Definition Segment

This section covers the basic steps for creating an audience definition segment.

Note: Users should install Yahoo! Web Analytics tracking code before defining any segments, as having an existing base of data will enable you to gain a better idea about the relative weight of each audience definition. (If needed, see the Quick Install Guide.)

Create the Segment

There are two methods by which you can define a segment:

• Settings > Add Segments
• Segmentation Wizard

Creating a Segment from the Settings Page

If you want to define a segment (or several segments) without first generating a report, you can do that from the Settings page.

Note: If you want to calculate the effect of the defined segment for a specific period, you will need to set that date range using the calendar on the Reports tab before you start. The default period when creating a segment is the previous week.

To create a segment from the Settings page:

1. Choose Settings > Segmentation > Manage segments.

   The Segment Setup page appears. The Segment Setup page contains a list of saved segments and segment export rules.





2. Choose Create Segment.

   The Create Segment overlay appears.

3. At the top of the page, specify which type of segment you are defining:
   • Visitors
   • Visits
   • Tracked Events

   The segment type determines what data Yahoo! Web Analytics includes in a segment for each qualified user. This choice affects how data is aggregated for reporting.

   For example, assume you want to gather data over the last week where Mary viewed a trailer page for "Movie X" exactly 1 time over 3 separate visits to the "Movie Trailers" website. Also assume that with each site visit, Mary viewed trailers on 2 different pages.

   If you select...	Visitors	Visits	Tracked Events
   This is the effect...	In addition to data specific to Mary's pageview of the Movie X trailer, all of Mary's visit and pageview data on the website over the week applies to the segment.	All of Mary's activity within the one visit where she viewed the Movie X trailer page applies to the segment.	Only data specific to Mary's view of the Movie X trailer page applies to the segment.
   Total page views	6	2	1
   Sample use cases	Evaluate users' activity across visits for a specific region (like the UK). Export the segment to these Yahoo! ad systems for retargeting (enabled accounts only):	See how visits from a specific region trend over time (Visits report) or how many pageviews the visits generate (Page Views report).	See how many times a specific page was viewed (Page Views report or Most Requested Pages report) by users from a given region.

4. Start defining the first group in your segment by dragging and dropping either a dimension or metric from the left column to the first target areas. For example, you could drag Demographics > Gender and choose either Female or Male (when a set number of options are available, they are displayed in a pulldown menu).



5. Specify whether ANY or ALL of the metrics or dimensions must match to be added to the segment.
6. Check the size of the segment. Depending on the segment type you specified, the button below the groups you are adding will be one of the following:
   • Calculate Visitors
   • Calculate Visits
   • Calculate Tracked Events

   An "Estimating..." message displays while Yahoo! Web Analytics is calculating the number of members in the segment. When Yahoo! Web Analytics has calculated the results, they are displayed below the groups in the Edit Segment dialog.



7. You can add more groups to the segment definition by dragging dimensions and/or metrics to the "Click here to add a new group" area of the overlay. Define whether the groups should be considered using "and" or "or" logic using the pulldown between each group.



8. Optionally, save the segment. Click on the Segment tab above the tabular data in the report and choose Save as Segment. In the dialog that appears, specify a segment name and description.

   Note: If you mark the "Overwrite existing segment" checkbox, any segment with the specified name will be overwritten with the newly defined segment.

Once you have saved a defined segment, you can apply it to other reports. Segments can be applied by choosing the Segment tab above the tabular data, then choosing the existing segment from the Select Segment pulldown, then choosing Apply.

You can then export the segment for use on supported destination ad channels.

Creating a Segment with the Segmentation Wizard

The benefit of creating a segment using the method in this section is that you can apply it immediately to the selected report and see the visual impact of the segment.

To create a segment with the Segmentation Wizard:

1. Generate a report which displays the Segment tab above the tabular data. (Note that not all reports will include this tab.)
2. Click on the Segment tab above the tabular data returned for a selected report.
3. Choose Define New Segment Criteria. This opens the Edit Segment overlay.

   The Edit Segment overlay lets you define and "preview" the size of a segment, based on the currently selected date range and website.

4. Follow the same steps defined above for creating the segment.
5. When you are done creating the segment, choose "Apply to This Report" at the bottom of the Edit Segment dialog. You are returned to the original report where you can see the effect of the segment being applied.
6. Optionally, save the segment. Click on the Segment tab above the tabular data in the report and choose Save as Segment. In the dialog that appears, specify a segment name and description.

   Note: If you mark the "Overwrite existing segment" checkbox, any segment with the specified name will be overwritten with the newly defined segment.

Export the Segment: Segment Export Rules

Segments can be published using a segment export rule, which specifies the date range for which the audience definition is in effect, who receives email notification when the rule is close to expiring, and various publishing aspects for the segment.

To define a segment export rule:

1. Choose Settings > Segmentation > Manage segments.

   The Segment Setup page appears. The Segment Setup page contains a list of segment export rules and saved segments.

2. Choose Create Segment Export Rule.

   The Settings for Segment Export Rule overlay appears.



3. Specify the following parameters for the segment:

   Parameter	Description
   Export Name	The name for the segment export rule.
   Export Status	Export status can be any of the following: New – export has not been connected to any ad channel. Before Activation – active period has not yet started, qualified visitors are currently not being sent. Active – qualified visitors are currently sent on a regular schedule several times a day. Suspended – qualified visitors accumulate without being sent. Expired – active period is over, qualified visitors are currently not being sent. To activate or suspend export, edit the definition by clicking its name link.
   Export To	Choose the external system to which the segment should be exported: Right Media Exchange - select this option to export to the Right Media Exchange. Yahoo! Premium Display - all segments are exported to this target by default. This option can only be modified by Yahoo! Account Management.
   Category ID	Category ID is a read-only field relevant to Yahoo! internal systems and automatically assigned at the time the segment is first made active. It may be useful in troubleshooting scenarios. The segment will be named in the destination ad channel based on a combination of the Export Rule Names Prefix chosen when setting up the ad channel, together with the name of the specific segment being exported.
   Current Segment	Choose the segment to be exported with this rule.
   Qualifying Period	Set the time range (up to 90 days) for eligible visitors, who are then evaluated against the criteria in the selected segment. You can specify either: A rolling interval that moves with today's calendar date (e.g., last 30 days). A fixed date range (for example, dates around a holiday, public event, or campaign).
   Qualified Unique Visitors	Click on the Calculate button to display an estimate of unique visitors who have qualified based on the selecte segment for the given qualifying period. If you change either of those settings, click Calculate to view the revised estimate.

4. Choose Save as Active to create and activate the segment export rule.
5. Choose Save as Suspended to create a segment export rule that you want to activate later.