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Segmentation enables data analysts to curate relevant portions of data from their analyses in Tableau and seamlessly transfer them to Salesforce Data Cloud(Link opens in a new window). Once in Data Cloud, marketing professionals can use various platforms (such as Data Cloud for Marketing(Link opens in a new window)) to quickly take high-impact steps to boost marketing campaigns with ease.

About segmentation

Overview and examples

Segmentation that starts in Tableau provides a way for analysts to visually explore their audience (typically customers) and send data about relevant portions of the target population to Data Cloud. From Data Cloud, marketers can publish to other Salesforce clouds or platforms for further analysis and action.

To better understand the benefits of segmentation and how it works, let’s consider a likely use case. A data analyst reviewing an analysis of data about a recent marketing campaign in Tableau identifies a segment with lower engagement than the overall campaign audience. The data analyst knows this is an important subset of the overall data that the marketing team will want to address. So, the data analyst sends this low-engagement segment to Data Cloud.

From Data Cloud, a member of the marketing team (or marketer) can access the segment to get a filtered view of the campaign data related to the low-engagement group. With a focused snippet of the overall data, it’s easier for the marketer to determine the actions they need to take to improve engagement.

With an action plan in mind, the marketer publishes the segment on Salesforce Marketing Cloud or a similar platform where they created the original campaign.

In this example and similar scenarios, the data analyst benefits from the robust analysis capabilities in Tableau while efficiently handing off their findings to the marketer. The marketer benefits from accessing a targeted view of data that’s relevant to them that they can manage and send to the marketing tools they’re already using. Most importantly, the customers benefit from marketing campaigns that effectively reach them.

Workflow

With segmentation, you can streamline the collaboration between data analysts working in Tableau and marketers working in Data Cloud and connected marketing platforms. The typical workflow looks like:

1. The data analyst uses a viz in Tableau to analyze and identify a subset of the customer data that’s relevant, meaningful, and actionable to marketers.

2. The data analyst creates a segment of their audience data from their Tableau viz and sends it to Data Cloud.

3. The marketer accesses the segment from Data Cloud. From there, they create a plan for acting on the segment data, and send it to their activation target. The activation target is typically a marketing platform or tool that the marketing team uses to manage marketing campaigns, such as Data Cloud for Marketing(Link opens in a new window).

4. The marketer launches the marketing campaign from the activation target, and analyzes the campaign results from their platform of choice.

Learn more

To learn more about segmentation, check out these helpful resources:

• Segmentation(Link opens in a new window) (Salesforce Help) - Get a comprehensive review of segmentation and activation on Data Cloud.

• Segmentation and Activation module(Link opens in a new window) (Trailhead) - Learn how to create, filter, and activate marketing segments with Data Cloud.

• Segmentation Filter Examples(Link opens in a new window) (Salesforce Help) - For common use cases for segmentation and get inspiration for creating your own segments.

• Data Cloud and the Ethical Use of Data trailmix(Link opens in a new window) (Trailhead) - Learn how you can use ethical practices when building marketing segments in Data Cloud.

Requirements for segmentation

License requirements

To create a segment in Tableau, data analysts need a Creator license for Tableau Cloud.

To publish a segment in Data Cloud, marketers need:

• Developer, Enterprise, Performance, or Unlimited Salesforce edition

• Segmentation and Activation add-on license for Data Cloud

• Standard Data Cloud permission set and the appropriate marketing-specific permissions (see Data Cloud Standard Permission Sets(Link opens in a new window) for more information)

• (Recommended) Data Cloud for Marketing(Link opens in a new window), for activating segments

• (Optional) The Ad Audiences add-on license for Data Cloud, for activating segments to advertising platforms

Data requirements

Data sources and connections

To create a segment, your data source(Link opens in a new window) must use a single direct connection to live data(Link opens in a new window) (no extracts) and your viz must use a single data source. Published data sources, multiple connections, and multiple data sources aren’t supported.

Data model configuration

When configuring your data model in Data Cloud, be sure to:

• Connect to a Profile DMO, and have the Profile DMO set as the left-most table in the Data Source tab

• Use only one primary key(Link opens in a new window)

When configuring your data model in Tableau, be sure to:

• Use a table that’s used only one time in the data source

• Only use a single table in the logical layer (multiple logical tables aren’t supported)

• Avoid including unions or custom SQL tables

• Only use joins between DMOs that match existing Data Cloud relationships

• Use linear joins between DMOs in which each object is only joined to a single object (rather than joining multiple objects to the same object)
  
  For example, instead of:
  
  
  Do this:
  
  

• Use join expressions that only include fields (calculations and multiple joins from a single table aren’t supported) and the equals operator (other operators aren’t supported)

When connecting your data model in Tableau to your data model in Data Cloud, you can recreate any necessary portions of the model using Tableau joins(Link opens in a new window).

Authentication

To create segments in Tableau, you must allow Tableau to connect to Data Cloud using the Salesforce Data Cloud connector. If the Data Cloud connector isn't already configured on your Tableau site, follow these steps(Link opens in a new window).

In the connected app, add the following scopes:

• Perform ANSI SQL queries on Customer Data Platform data (cdp_query_api)

• Manage Customer Data Platform profile data (cdp_profile_api)

• Manage Customer Data Platform Ingestion API data (cdp_ingest_api)

• Perform segmentation on Data Cloud data (cdp_segment_api)

User permissions requirements

To create a segment, work with your Salesforce admin to confirm that you have access to the following application programming interfaces (APIs):

• Write access for the Create Segment API(Link opens in a new window)

• Read access for the Data Cloud Metadata API(Link opens in a new window)

Field requirements

When you create a segment, use fields in your filters that are either existing database fields (rather than fields created by Tableau), or groups(Link opens in a new window). Fields that are cast to other data types might cause errors.

The following types of fields aren’t supported in segment filters:

• Measures with MEDIAN, PERCENTILE, or ATTR aggregations

• Table calculations

• Calculations

• Bins

• Groups based on sets, calculations, or combined fields

• Tableau-generated fields, such as:

  • Metadata fields (measure names/values)

  • Generated map-related fields (latitude and longitude)

  • Table type fields (count of object or logical table)

• Calculated insights

• Clusters

Filter requirements

When you create a segment, multiple filters are applied based on your configuration. Segment filters can include a combination of data source filters, context filters, view filters, and filters based on your viz selection.

Use quantitative filters for:

• A measure (with or without aggregation)

• A range of dates

Use categorical filters for segments with individual values selected.

The following types of filters aren’t supported in segments:

• Categorical filters with a top, wildcard, or condition filter

• Relative to current date filters with anything other than date and year for next/last N

• Relative to current date filters with anything other than date, month, and year for the current period

• Date filters with Month/Day/Year

• Date filters with date truncation

• Date filters with a datetime exact comparison to another datetime

Relative date filters with a specified anchor date are supported.

Create a segment using engagement data

To create a segment from Tableau to Data Cloud using engagement data, you must configure the correct modeling in Tableau using join clauses.

Use joins within a single logical table and join on the same field as defined in the relationships in the Data Model tab in Data Cloud.

For example, to create a segment using Email Engagement data for the Unified Individual in Tableau, configure your data model and map the relationships as shown.

Note: This example is for illustrative purposes only. Data in your Data Cloud instance might use different relationships.

Create a segment in Tableau

1. In Tableau, select the desired portion of the data in your viz, and then right-click and select Publish Segment to Salesforce.

   

2. Configure your segment in the Create Segment for Data Cloud dialog.

   Segment name is required. The name must start with a letter and can only contain alphanumeric characters and underscores. The name can’t contain consecutive underscores or end with an underscore, and spaces aren’t allowed. In Data Cloud, the segment name displays as the name that you specify in the Segment name field plus a timestamp of when you create the segment.

   When you add filters in the dialog, the filter field names appear under Rules.

   You can hover over a rule to learn more about it, such as the filter or mark selection that the rule was built on. Multiple rules might filter on the same field, but learning more about a rule’s origins can help you identify any duplicates.

   As you add each filter, a segment population count displays. The population count represents the count of individual data points (typically customers) who meet your filter criteria. You can use the population count to verify that your segment is working as expected by confirming that the count is the same in Tableau and Data Cloud. Tableau counts all individual records in your viz, but the segment only counts distinct individuals. To see distinct individuals in a Tableau viz that matches the segment count, use the Count Distinct (COUNTD) aggregated function.

   When you add rules, the Description is pre-populated with details about them. You can edit the description as needed, but there's a 255 character maximum. A description is optional, but it can make it easier to find the segment in Data Cloud.

3. Click Create. When the segment is created, a confirmation message appears with a link to view the segment in Data Cloud.

   

   If you receive an error after clicking Create, confirm that you meet the requirements to publish to Data Cloud and check the status of your organization’s Salesforce instance(Link opens in a new window).

4. In the confirmation message, click View in Data Cloud.

   For segments created in Tableau, you can modify the Segment Name, Description, and Publish Schedule in Data Cloud. To do so, click Edit Properties.

   You can’t revise a segment’s rules after you publish it. Instead, you must delete the segment in Data Cloud(Link opens in a new window) and create a new one in Tableau.

5. From Data Cloud, your marketing team can publish the segment to the appropriate activation targets(Link opens in a new window).