Example segment taxonomies
Three ready-to-copy segment sets — performance e-commerce, lead-gen SaaS, and content/awareness.
Segments work best when the taxonomy is small (5–8 segments) and consistent across clients in the same vertical. Three patterns we see most often:
Performance e-commerce
For shops where the goal is purchases and ROAS at scale.
| Segment | Code | What goes in | Colour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acquisition | ACQ | New-customer prospecting (Search non-brand, social cold audiences, lookalikes) | Red |
| Remarketing | REM | Visitors / cart abandoners / past purchasers warming up | Blue |
| Retention | RET | Existing-customer LTV plays — VIP, win-back, cross-sell | Purple |
| Brand | BRAND | Branded search, brand-awareness video | Amber |
| Awareness | AWA | Top-of-funnel reach campaigns | Pink |
A Segments report on this taxonomy answers the classic CMO question: "Where did we spend, and what did each part of the funnel return?"
Lead-gen SaaS
For B2B / lead-gen funnels where Purchases is rare and Lead is the primary metric.
| Segment | Code | What goes in | Colour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demand | DEM | Search intent / problem-aware audiences | Red |
| Account-based | ABM | Targeted account lists (LinkedIn lookalikes, custom audiences) | Cyan |
| Content | CONT | Top-of-funnel ebook / webinar / whitepaper download campaigns | Teal |
| Brand | BRAND | Branded search, retargeting on brand-aware visitors | Amber |
| Free trial | TRIAL | Lower-funnel campaigns optimising for trial signup | Green |
Pair this with a Lead system metric mapped to your demo-request and trial-signup conversion definitions (conversion mapping) for a clean funnel view.
Content / awareness
For media properties or product-led brands where reach and engagement matter more than direct conversion.
| Segment | Code | What goes in | Colour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reach | REACH | Pure CPM / impressions plays | Pink |
| Engagement | ENG | Video views, post engagement, social participation | Purple |
| Subscribe | SUB | Newsletter / app-install / channel subscribe campaigns | Blue |
| Brand | BRAND | Branded search, branded display | Amber |
For this taxonomy, custom metrics like engagement_rate = engagements / impressions and cost_per_subscriber = cost / subscriptions matter more than ROAS — define them on the Metrics page once.
Picking codes
A few rules of thumb that hold across all three patterns:
- 3–5 letters, uppercase — readable in narrow columns and chips.
- No platform suffix — Acquisition, not Acquisition - Google. Segments are platform-agnostic; that's the point.
- No date suffix — Brand, not Brand 2026. Segments stick around for years; date filters belong on the report.
Migrating an existing taxonomy
If you already have segments defined in spreadsheets or a tagging tool:
- Pick the Level codes that match your existing taxonomy as closely as possible.
- Create the segments on the client.
- Use bulk-assign on the Campaigns page to tag campaigns in batches by name pattern.
- Spot-check a few reports to confirm the rollup looks right.