Build a Segment and Target It

By Orqestra · Published September 2, 2026

What you will end up with

A named group of contacts you can broadcast to and branch on in automations — for example “bought in the last 90 days” or “asked about pricing but never ordered”.

Before you start

  • Contacts in Orqestra. If you are importing a list, do that first from Contacts → Import.
  • Permission to edit contacts.

Steps

1. Create the segment

The Segments screen listing saved contact segments
Segments. Each one shows how many contacts currently match its rule.
  1. Open Segments from the sidebar.
  2. Select New segment and give it a name your team will understand later. “VIP Jakarta” beats “Segment 3”.

2. Build the rule

Add conditions to describe who belongs. You can filter on channel, tags, custom attributes, and conversation history. Conditions combine, so each one you add narrows the group.

A worked example — customers worth re-engaging:

  • Channel is WhatsApp
  • Tag is pelanggan-lama
  • Last replied more than 30 days ago

The matching count updates as you edit, so you can see immediately whether a rule is too broad or too narrow before you send anything to it.

3. Use it

  • As a broadcast audience. When creating a broadcast, choose the segment instead of uploading a CSV.
  • As an automation condition. A Journey can branch on segment membership to treat returning customers differently from new ones.
  • From the API. Segments are readable and writable over the public API, which is how you keep one in step with a list that lives in your own system. See the Segments API.

How to check it worked

Open the segment and confirm the member count looks like what you expected, then spot-check a few contacts to make sure they belong.

When it does not work

  • The count is zero. Usually conditions that cannot all be true at once — a contact cannot be on two channels in the same record. Remove conditions until the count moves, then add them back one at a time.
  • The count is far bigger than expected. Check whether a tag is applied more widely than you think from Settings → Tags.

Check the audience before a paid broadcast.
A WhatsApp broadcast to a segment costs credits per recipient. A rule that is broader than you intended is discovered expensively.