Segment helps you collect, clean, and structure your data into one place. It acts slightly like an ETL tool, especially great for standard data sources. And in the most cases it is used as an ETL tool. With all of your data in a single place, you can decide which data to keep (good data) and which to remove (bad data). With good data you can build profiles and audiences to use across every tool, everywhere your business needs. So, having data unified into complete user profiles you can try to use these profiles across varied marketing tools including Facebook, Google, Optimizely, and your internal warehouses / BI dashboards.
Data sources
It helps you to warehouse, use the data you collect and then to pipe these data to different apps with ETL jobs. It simplifies the ETL process allowing non-technical users to be involved, for teams that have no access to dedicated data engineers. Segment collects all 10 core customer data sources: mobile, web, server, offline, support, CRM, email, push notification, advertising, and payments, and integrates these streams to 180+ third party tools (Google Analytics, Amplitude, Facebook, etc.) and data warehouses (Redshift, Postgres, BigQuery). Segment has stronger mobile adoption. It provides API that allows to plug in with hundreds of different services. It eases the way in which you are able to collect data. It even gives you the ability to playback data to a new service as though you've been already sending that service data for several months.
Segmentation
“Personas” allows you to unify your customer’s touch points across varied platforms and channels to understand your customer journey. Then you can target the right customer with the right message at the right time. You can build audiences and create realtime campaigns, without relying on other teams, e.g. cart abandonment campaign whenever a user drops off the funnel. You can act fast and send an email or show an ad within minutes of a user performing an action. You can send a consistent message across all channels — email, Facebook & Google Ads, and in-product. There are 300+ marketing tools where can you your segments activate in realtime.
Identity resolution
The event tracking functionality enables to consolidate the identity of a user across multiple platforms into a single ID. It is reported that the identity resolution part needs improving.
AI
Propensity Modeling - optimize your offers by predicting the likelihood someone will buy.
Integrations
It allows to connect with hundreds of advanced tools, starting from analytics, email marketing, and many more in an easy way. It makes extremely easy to send multiple pieces of data to every tool app and tool used on websites and the app with a single script. Segment is preferred by developers and therefore some programming skills are necessary for specific use cases. Segment provides one API that allows you to plug in with hundreds of different services, greatly increasing the amount of data and the ease at which you are able to collect data.
Data updated: May 2021
Pricing
Pricing: starts at $120/mo
Pricing model: Paid
Free / trial option: yes, up to 1000 visitors
Company
Vendor: Segment Inc.
Founded: 2012
Origin: CA, USA
License: proprietary license
Website: segment.com
Address: 100 California Steet Suite 700 San Francisco, CA 94111 USA
Training
Documentation
Live / Online
Score
Current product score: 6.6
Sales
Key Features
| Data onboarding | Yes | Segment collects all 10 core customer data sources: mobile, web, server, offline, support, CRM, email, push notification, advertising, and payments |
| Identity graph | Yes | The event tracking functionality enables to consolidate the identity of a user. Limited |
| Audience insights | Yes | “Personas” allows you to unify your customer’s touch points across varied platforms. |
| Audience creation | Yes | |
| Profile enrichment | ||
| App marketplace | Yes | It allows to connect with hundreds of advanced tools, starting from analytics, email marketing. |
| AI modeling | Limited | Propensity Modeling |
| 3rd party data connectors | Yes | |
| Integration with DMP | No | |
| Integration with programmatic tools | Limited | Initial |
| Real time segmentation | Yes | Works in real time (not all targetting partners accept real time synchronization) |
| Cross-device targeting | Yes | |
| Behavioral scoring | n/a | |
| Prebuilt behavioral segments | Yes | Basic ones |
| Real-time personalization | Yes | |
| Performance reports | Yes | |
| Forensics | ||
| Recency, frequency, RFM value analysis | ||
| Real time customers view | Yes | |
| Taxonomy manager | ||
| API | Yes | Open API |
| Documentation | Yes | Online, community, support |
Privacy and security
| Data Ownership | Yes | Your data is yours to own. |
| Data deletion | Yes | Delete data when requested. Issue deletion requests from a simple interface or use Segment’s HTTP API to delete a specified user’s data from Segment. |
| Data encryption | Yes | Your data is encrypted at rest and protected by TLS in transit. |
| Suppression requests | Yes | Block data collection for specific users with one-click suppression |
| Data portability | Yes | Compile user data for access and portability requests |
| Data center location | EU | Collect customer data locally, across multiple regions |
| Data transfer outside EEA | Required | Standard Contractual Clauses for compliant user data transfer and storage outside of the EU. |
| GDPR compliant (EU) | Yes | Data Processing Agreement (DPA) reflects the requirements of the GDPR. |
| Privacy policy | Yes | Privacy Policy honors CCPA, the GDPR, the Privacy Shield Framework. |
Strenghts / Weaknesses
| Strenghts | Weaknesses |
| Good documentation available online | Can get pricey for enterprrises and for startups |
| Ready to use integrations | Visual Tagger is limited with CSS selector. |
| Easy of use | Not all metrics available |
| Simple interface | The process of integrating ad platforms could be complicated |
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