How to Share Segments in Google Analytics

Creating custom segments in Google Analytics 4 is one of the best ways to find meaningful insights about your audience. But those insights are even more powerful when you can share them with your team. This article will show you exactly how to share your segments in GA4 and collaborate on your data analysis.

A Quick Refresher: What's a Segment?

Before we get into the details of sharing, let's quickly review what a segment is. A segment is simply a subset of your Google Analytics data. It allows you to isolate and analyze specific groups of users or sessions based on shared attributes or behaviors.

Think of it like filtering your data to tell a more specific story. Instead of looking at all your users, you might create a segment for:

• Users from Canada who visited on a mobile device.
• Sessions that started from a specific Facebook ad campaign.
• Users who have purchased more than twice in the last 60 days.
• Visitors who landed on your blog and then viewed a product page.

Segments move you beyond surface-level metrics like total users and pageviews, helping you understand the why behind your data. You can compare how different segments behave, what content they engage with, and which channels are most effective at bringing them to your site. This is where the real strategic gold is mined.

Can You Directly Share Segments in GA4?

Here’s the million-dollar question, and for anyone coming from Universal Analytics (UA), the answer might be a little frustrating. In Universal Analytics, you could share a segment template by generating a unique link that others could use to import it directly into their own GA view. It was quick and simple.

In Google Analytics 4, that direct "share segment" link feature no longer exists.

You can't generate a URL to send to a colleague. However, that doesn't mean you can't collaborate. GA4 has a different, more powerful method for sharing an analysis of a specific user group: by turning your segments into Audiences. This shifts the process from sharing a static template to creating a dynamic, shared resource your whole team can use.

How to "Share" Segments by Creating an Audience

The primary way to share a segment in GA4 is to create it within an Exploration report and then build a reusable Audience from it. Once an Audience is created, anyone in your organization with the appropriate permissions can access and apply it to their own reports and explorations.

Here’s how to do it, step-by-step.

Step 1: Create a Segment in an Exploration Report

First, you need to build the segment. The best place to do this is in the Explore section of GA4, which gives you the flexibility to create and test segments on the fly.

1. Navigate to Explore in the left-hand navigation panel of your GA4 property.
2. Start a new exploration by choosing a template like "Free form" or "Blank."
3. In the "Variables" column on the left, find the Segments section and click the plus icon (+) to add a new segment.
4. You'll be prompted to choose a segment type: User segment, Session segment, or Event segment. For this example, let's build a User segment for high-value customers.
5. Define your conditions. Let's say we want to create a segment of all users from the United States who have purchased an item over $100. The conditions would look like this:
6. Give your segment a clear name, like "US High-Value Customers," and click Save and Apply.

Your Exploration report will now update to show data only for this new segment. Now comes the sharing part.

Step 2: Turn Your Segment into an Audience

Now that you've built and validated your segment, you can create a GA4 Audience based on its rules.

1. In the segment builder (you can get back to it by clicking the three dots next to your segment name in the Variables column and selecting "Edit"), look for the checkbox in the top-right that says Build an Audience.
2. Check this box. You will see a few options appear:
3. Give your Audience a name. It's good practice to keep it consistent with your segment name, so you might name it "Audience - US High-Value Customers."
4. Once you've configured your settings, click Save and Apply at the top.

That's it! Google Analytics will begin populating this new Audience with any users who match the criteria you defined. It's a dynamic list that will update automatically.

Step 3: Have Your Team Members Use the New Audience

Now, anyone on your team with at least Viewer level permission can access and use this new Audience. They won't see it under their "Segments" section immediately. Instead, they can find it in a couple of key places:

As a Standalone Audience

The Audience you created now lives permanently in your GA4 property. Your team can find it by navigating to Admin > Data display > Audiences. From here, they can see a list of all custom audiences, including the one you just made.

In Reporting and Explorations

This is where it gets truly collaborative. A team member can now go to any report or create their own Exploration and use the Audience you built.

• In a standard report (like Reports > Monetization > E-commerce purchases), they can use the "Add comparison" tool at the top. They can then select "Audience name" as the dimension and choose your newly created audience from the list. This lets them compare the behavior of your special audience against all other users.
• In an Exploration, they can click the plus icon (+) under Dimensions, search for "Audience name," and import it. Then, they can drag this dimension into their report or use it as a filter to analyze just that group.

Alternative Method: Document and Recreate the Segment

If you need an absolutely identical segment for someone else to use and the Audience method isn't suitable (perhaps due to permission issues or a need for a one-off analysis), the old-fashioned way works perfectly: just tell them how you built it.

This method lacks the elegance of a shared resource but is foolproof.

1. Take Screenshots: Open the segment builder and take clear screenshots of all the conditions you set up. Every filter, every AND/OR statement, and every SCOPE (e.g., across all sessions, within the same session).
2. Write Clear Instructions: Accompany the screenshots with simple text instructions. For our example, you could write:
3. Share via Email or Slack: Send the instructions and screenshots to your team member. They can use this blueprint to manually build an identical segment in their own Exploration report.

It's low-tech, but it guarantees that you are both looking at the exact same slice of data.

A Note on User Permissions

Collaboration in GA4 lives and dies by user permissions. For your team to access and use an Audience you've created, they need permission to view the GA4 property. At a minimum, users will need the Viewer role. An Analyst role will allow them to create their own Explorations and apply the audience, while an Editor or Administrator can also edit or create new audiences.

If a team member tells you they can't find the Audience you created, the first thing to check is their permission level in Admin > Property Access Management.

Final Thoughts

While Google Analytics 4 gets rid of the simple "share link" for segments from Universal Analytics, it replaces it with a more sustainable system for team collaboration via Audiences. By building an Audience from your segment, you create a living, dynamic group that your entire team can use for analysis, a much better way to ensure everyone is working from the same playbook.

Collaborating on data shouldn't require complex workarounds or manual report building. We built Graphed to remove this friction by letting you analyze and share insights using natural language. Instead of navigating clicks to build a segment and an audience, you can simply ask a question like "show me our revenue from Facebook Ads campaigns in the US this month" and get an interactive, shareable dashboard instantly. It's an easier way to get your entire team on the same page, focused on insights instead of configuration.