What is the difference between event, visit, visitor and user segmentation?
Choosing the right scope is essential because each one determines what gets included in your analysis when criteria are met.
Segmentation with an event scope
This type of segment allows you to limit the traffic analyzed to events that match your criteria only.
What it includes: only the events that meet the segment conditions.
What it excludes: other events from the same visit that do not match the conditions.
Example: “I want to focus my analysis on quote validations.”
Using an event segment, you will analyze only the quote validation events (and not the rest of the visitor’s actions during that visit).
When to use it: when you need a strict filter to measure the frequency or performance of a specific interaction (for example, a specific page view pattern, click, or conversion event).
Segmentation with a visit scope
Working on a set of visits corresponding to predefined criteria, over a given analysis period.
What it includes: all events in a visit as long as at least one event during that visit matches the segment criteria.
Why this matters: a visit segment can include events/pages that do not match your filter, simply because the visitor performed at least one qualifying action somewhere in the same visit.
Example: “Visits from sponsored links.”
If the visit meets your “sponsored link” criteria, all activity during that visit (page views, clicks, conversions, etc.) is included in the analysis.
Common point of confusion:
If your goal is to report only on interactions with a specific subset of pages (for example, URLs containing boutique), a visit segment may include unrelated pages viewed in the same session. In that case, an event segment is usually more precise.
Segmentation with a visitor scope
Segmentation with a visitor scope is based on a cohort notion.
A cohort is defined over a period N. It is composed of all visitors that have shared (at least once) the same visit experience during period N.
What it includes: once a visitor qualifies during the cohort definition period N (for example, “came from a sponsored link last week”), all visits made by those visitors are taken into account during your analysis period—even if some of those visits do not meet the original criteria.
Why this matters: visitor segmentation is useful for understanding behaviors over time (for example, whether an acquisition source last week influences subscription behavior this week).
Example: “Visitors that came from a sponsored link last week.”
All visits made by those visitors during the analysis period will be included.
Segmentation with a user scope
When the scope allows visitors to connect to a user account, it is possible to use the account ID (usually the CRM ID) as a reconciliation criterion for the cohort.
What it includes: behaviors tied to a recognized user identity (based on your configured user identifier), enabling analysis across devices/browsers when the same account is used.
When to use it: when you want cohorts and analysis based on logged-in/account identity rather than browser/device identity.