What are examples of customer segments?

For a direct-response offer: recent buyers, one-time buyers, repeat buyers, high-value customers, buyers who took or declined the upsell, buyers who took the order bump, and refunders. Each of these is a template in ElasticFunnels Audiences.

What are the steps of customer segmentation?

Decide what you want to do with the group, choose the rules that define it (what they bought, when, how much), check how many people match, save it, then use it: filter your reports by it or export it, and check again as it refreshes.

What is an audience in ElasticFunnels?

A saved group of customers (identified by email) or anonymous visitors, defined by rules on orders, page actions, traffic source and lifetime value. It refreshes on its own and can filter any dashboard.

Do I need AI credits to build an audience?

No. Templates and the Rules builder are free. Only the Ask AI tab, where you describe the audience in a sentence, uses AI credits.

How often is an audience updated?

Automatically, at least every 30 minutes, and each time you save it. The audience page shows when it was last updated.

What is the difference between a customer audience and a visitor audience?

A customer audience holds people who bought or checked out, identified by email, and lists their orders and revenue. A visitor audience holds anonymous traffic, identified by visitor or session, and lists when they were last seen, their country, device and source.

Can I exclude an audience from my reports?

Yes. On the dashboard, set the Audience filter to is not, or click Everyone except this audience on the audience page. Use it to leave out test buyers, a partner's traffic or your best customers.

Why does conversion rate show a dash when I filter by a customer audience?

Everyone in a customer audience already bought, so their conversion rate would be circular. The dashboard hides it and keeps revenue, orders and the other cards.

Do test orders count?

No. Test orders never make someone a member of an audience.

Can I export a customer segment?

Yes. Export CSV on the audience page downloads the members; for customers it includes email, name, orders, revenue and first and last purchase.

Can I change an audience after saving it?

Yes. Click Edit on the audience page, change the rules or the definition and save again; the members are recomputed on save.

What is lifetime value?

The total a customer has spent with your brand over their whole history. The Lifetime value rule uses it, so a VIP audience can be "spent 200 or more in total".

How much do Audiences cost in ElasticFunnels?

Every feature is on every plan, Audiences included; plans differ only in usage limits. Plans start at $97 a month, with a 14-day free trial.

How to Segment Customers in ElasticFunnels (Step by Step)

How to segment customers

How to segment customers in ElasticFunnels: start from a template or your own rules, then filter your numbers by it.

What you'll build

Two customer segments (in ElasticFunnels they are called audiences) on the demo brand: One-time buyers, started from a template, and VIP buyers, built with two rules: bought in the last 30 days and spent 200 or more in total, your lifetime value (LTV) list. Then the dashboard filtered to one audience, and to everyone except another.

New to customer segmentation? Read the full guide first: what customer segmentation is, the four types, RFM analysis and examples for funnels and checkouts.

You need an ElasticFunnels brand with some orders or traffic: every count you see comes from your own data. Rules and templates are free to use; only the AI builder uses AI credits.

1Open Audiences

In the sidebar, open Reports › Audiences. Before you have any audiences, the page suggests a few templates that already have people in them on your data, with the count next to each.

From the dashboard, Reports and then Audiences in the sidebar; the Audiences page suggests templates such as Video watchers and Meta ads traffic, each with a count of people — The counts are live: they come from your brand's own orders and traffic, not from an example.

2Start from a template

Click New audience. Pick a group on the left (here Buyers & lifetime value) and click a template (One-time buyers). The panel on the right shows who it is for and how many people it holds On your data now. Click Add audience: the audience page opens with its members.

New audience opens the template picker; Buyers and lifetime value, then One-time buyers, shows its live count; Add audience opens the One-time buyers page with 244 members listed by email — Templates cover retargeting, upsells and order value, buyers and lifetime value, VSL engagement, traffic source and quality, and refund and payment risk.

3Build your own with rules

In New audience, click Or open an empty builder. On the Rules tab, click + Purchase, refund or checkout (it adds Had a purchase), then + Lifetime value and set Has at least lifetime revenue of to 200. Keep in the last 30 days at the top. The count on the right updates each time you change a rule.

The empty rules builder: a purchase rule and a lifetime revenue rule of at least 200 are added, and the live preview count drops from 294 to 38 customers — Rules are free and update as you go. The Ask AI tab writes the audience from a sentence instead, and uses AI credits.

4Save it and see who is in it

Click Save, give the audience a name (VIP buyers) and an optional description, and click Save Audience. The audience page shows how many Members it has, whether they are Customers (by email) or visitors, when it was last updated, and Who's in it: email, name, orders, revenue, last purchase and country. Export CSV downloads the list.

Save opens Save audience; the name VIP buyers and a description are typed and saved; the VIP buyers page shows 38 members, the Customers badge, the member table and the Export CSV button — Audiences refresh on their own, at least every 30 minutes, and each time you save one. Test orders never make someone a member.

5Filter your dashboard by the audience

On an audience page, click Only this audience in analytics: the dashboard opens with an Audience filter, and every card counts only those people. To see everyone else, click the filter, choose is not, pick the audience and click Apply (the audience page also has Everyone except this audience).

Only this audience in analytics opens the dashboard filtered to One-time buyers; the Audience filter is switched to is not VIP buyers and applied, and the cards show everyone except the VIP buyers — The audience picks the people and the date range picks which of their activity is counted. With a customer audience, conversion rate shows a dash: it would be circular.

Common mistakes when you segment customers

Mixing up customers and visitors. Rules on orders make a customer audience (by email); rules on what people did on a page make a visitor audience. Check the badge on the audience page.
Forgetting the time window. In the last 30 days at the top of the rules applies to the whole audience. A lifetime value rule always looks at the whole history.
Reading a customer audience's conversion rate. Everyone in it bought, so the dashboard hides that rate; compare revenue, orders and average order value (AOV) instead.
Building from scratch what a template already does. Check the templates first: they are already written for direct response and show their count before you add them.
Judging an audience by one day. Membership refreshes on its own, so a small audience can move day to day. Pick a window that matches how often people buy.

Keep going

Why segments work, the four types and RFM: what is customer segmentation. Where the numbers come from: analytics. The offers your segments react to: what is an upsell and add an order bump. All tutorials: the Academy.