Is Segmentation Possible in Google Analytics?

The short answer is yes, you can absolutely create segments in Google Analytics - in fact, it's one of the platform's most essential features for uncovering meaningful insights. Moving beyond surface-level metrics like "total users" or "pageviews" is where true analysis begins. This article will guide you through exactly what segments are, how to create them in Google Analytics 4, and several practical examples you can use to better understand your audience and improve your marketing performance.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

What Exactly is Segmentation in Analytics?

Think of segmentation as sorting your website visitors into different groups based on shared characteristics or actions. Imagine you have a large bucket of mixed building blocks. By itself, it's just a huge pile. But if you sort the blocks by color (all the reds together, all the blues together) or by shape (all the squares, all the cylinders), you can start to understand what you have and how you can use them more effectively.

Segmentation in Google Analytics does the same thing with your website traffic. Instead of looking at everyone as a single, homogenous group, you can isolate specific audiences like:

• Visitors from a certain country (e.g., Canada)
• Users who are browsing on a mobile device
• Customers who have made a purchase in the last 30 days
• People who arrived on your site from a specific Facebook ad campaign

By analyzing these smaller, more specific groups, you can understand their unique behaviors and motivations. This allows you to answer critical business questions like, "Do mobile users from my email campaign convert better than desktop users?" or "Which blog posts are most popular among visitors from organic search?"

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

Types of Segments in GA4

Google Analytics 4 offers three core types of segments, each designed to answer different kinds of questions. Understanding the difference is key to creating useful reports.

1. User Segments

A user segment groups together users who have met a certain condition at any point during their entire history with your website or app. This segment is 'sticky' — once a user meets the criteria, they are part of that segment for all of their future sessions, too (within the data's lookback window).

• When to use it: When you want to analyze the long-term behavior of a specific group of people.
• Example: "Create a segment of all users who have ever made a purchase." You can then analyze everything those purchasers do — what pages they visit, where they come from, and what content they engage with — to find patterns you can use to attract more high-value customers.

2. Session Segments

A session segment groups together individual sessions (or visits) during which a specific condition was met. This segment is not 'sticky'. A user might have ten different sessions on your site, but only the specific sessions where they met the criteria will be included in the segment.

• When to use it: When you want to analyze what happened during a specific type of visit.
• Example: "Create a segment of all sessions that started from an organic search." This lets you see which landing pages organic visitors are hitting, how long they stay, and what actions they take during that specific visit, separate from a later visit they may make by coming directly to your site.

3. Event Segments

An event segment isolates specific events (actions) that occurred on your site. Rather than grouping users or sessions, this allows you to analyze subsets of the actions themselves.

• When to use it: When you need to drill down into the specifics of a particular action.
• Example: "Create a segment of all 'purchase' events where the revenue was greater than $200." This isolates your high-value transactions, allowing you to see if they share any commonalities, like coming from a specific campaign or involving a certain product.

How to Create a Custom Segment in GA4: A Step-by-Step Guide

Creating segments in GA4 happens within the "Explore" section. This is where you can build free-form reports, funnels, and path explorations. Let's walk through creating a common and useful segment: Mobile Users from the United States.

Step 1: Navigate to the Explore Hub

In the left-hand navigation of your GA4 property, click on Explore. You can either start with a "Blank exploration" or choose a template like "Free form."

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

Step 2: Locate the Segments Panel

Once you're in the exploration canvas, you'll see a column on the left labeled Variables. Within this column, there's a section called Segments. Click the plus sign (+) to start creating a new segment.

Step 3: Choose Your Segment Type

You’ll be prompted to choose a starting point. Since we want to analyze a group of people based on their characteristics (device and location), we'll select User segment.

Step 4: Build Your Conditions

This is where you define the rules for your segment. The builder is quite intuitive. You'll see a box that says "Add new condition."

1. Add the First Condition (Location):
2. Add the Second Condition (Device):

Your finished conditions should define a group where the user's country is the United States AND their device category is mobile.

Step 5: Name and Save Your Segment

At the top of the segment builder, give your segment a descriptive name, like "US Mobile Users." Then click the blue Save and Apply button in the top right corner. Naming your segments clearly will save you a lot of confusion later!

Step 6: Use the Segment in Your Report

After saving, GA4 will automatically apply the segment to your exploration report. You’ll now see it listed under "Segment Comparisons" in the Tab Settings column. All the data in your report will now be filtered to show only information for users who match your criteria.

To compare this segment against another (for example, all users), you can simply drag the "All Users" segment from the Variables pane into the "Segment Comparisons" box as well. This side-by-side view is where incredible insights are found.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

5 Practical Segments Every Marketer Should Use

Ready for inspiration? Here are five handy segments you can build right away to get more value from your data.

1. Converters vs. Non-Converters

• Type: User segment
• Condition: Include users when Event Name is purchase. Then, create a second segment by copying the first and changing the filter to does not contain the purchase event.
• Why it's useful: Compare the onsite behavior of people who buy with those who don't. Do your converters visit specific pages first? Do they come from a certain channel? This can inform your entire conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategy.

2. High-Engagement Users

• Type: User segment
• Condition 1: Include users when Session engagement is event_count > 1. Add an AND condition.
• Condition 2: Add another condition where Page Path and screen class is event_count > 3.
• Why it's useful: This isolates your most interested visitors. What content do these highly engaged users consume? They are prime candidates for your newsletter or a retargeting campaign.

3. Organic vs. Paid Traffic

• Type: Session segment
• Organic Condition: Include sessions where Session campaign contains (organic).
• Paid Condition: Include sessions where Session campaign does not contain (organic) OR Session medium contains terms like cpc or paid.
• Why it's useful: This is fundamental for judging ROI. Does your paid traffic convert at a higher rate? Does your organic traffic stick around longer? Use these segments to optimize your ad spend and content strategy.

4. Cart Abandoners

• Type: User segment
• Condition 1: Include users when Event name is add_to_cart.
• Exclusion Condition: Add a group to exclude, and choose 'Permanently Exclude Users' when Event name is purchase.
• Why it's useful: This gives you a list of high-intent visitors who didn't complete their purchase. Look at their behavior — did they all stop at the shipping page? Did they primarily use a specific browser? You can use this data to identify friction points and even build an audience for a "come back and finish your checkout" email campaign.

5. Blog Readers

• Type: Session segment
• Condition: Include sessions where Page path and screen class contains /blog/. (You'll need to adjust this to match your website's URL structure).
• Why it's useful: Find out which marketing channels drive the most engaged blog traffic and what your readers do after they finish an article. Do they navigate to a product page? Do they sign up for your newsletter? This helps you measure the true value of your content marketing.

Final Thoughts

Segmentation in Google Analytics empowers you to move beyond averages and understand the nuances of how different groups of people interact with your business. By isolating user groups based on their source, behavior, or demographics, you can find actionable insights that lead to better campaigns, a better user experience, and better results.

While creating these segments in GA4 is powerful, we know it can become a time-consuming process of setting up conditions and building reports — especially when the answer you're looking for requires combining that GA data with information from another platform, like Shopify or Facebook Ads. At Graphed, our goal is to eliminate that friction. Instead of manually building a segment for mobile visitors, finding your revenue metrics, and setting up a report, you can simply ask a question like, "Show me my revenue from mobile users for the last 30 days." We link all your sources and use AI to create the report for you instantly. If you spend too much time wrangling reports instead of acting on insights, feel free to give Graphed a try and see how easy it can be to get answers.