Split Segmentation Extension

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Use this Extension to randomly assign visitors into segments you specify. This is especially useful for A/B testing or sampling.

Configuring the Extension

1. Navigate to the Extensions tab and add the Split Segmentation Extension, located under the Advanced tab of the Extensions marketplace.

2. Enter a descriptive title.

3. Select a 'Scope' for the Extension:

• PreLoader: Recommended for A/B testing. For this scope, you may specify a standard cookie.
• A specific Tag: For this scope, you may specify a standard cookie. Do not use Tealium's utag_main cookie.
• All Tags: For this scope, you must use Tealium's utag_main cookie. Setting to this scope also lets you specify when to 'execute' the Extension.

Note: The ‘Execution’ dropdown requires utag.js v4.38 or higher; older versions may cause Extension to execute more than once.

4. From the 'Destination Cookie' drop-down, select the cookie variable to receive the output. If the cookie variable doesn't exist yet, you may create it by clicking on the plus icon to the right.

5. Enter a cookie domain. Leave this field blank to use the configuration domain setting.
Note: If you have scoped this Extension to Pre Loader, enter in the domain as location.hostname.

6. Select the Duration from the drop-down list.

• Session - This lasts until the current session expires.
• Visitor - The expiry of the cookie value set by the Split Segmentation extension depends on whether or not it is placed in the utag_main cookie. The Split Segmentation cookie values not in the utag_main cookie have an expiry of 2099. Cookie values placed in the utag_main share its expiry. So, for utag.js versions 4.27 and later, that expiry is 1 year. For versions before 4.27, the expiry is 2099.

7. Add a Segment Label and select the percentage of visitors that will be placed in that segment.

8. Click the plus icon to add a segment, and the minus icon to remove one. Regardless of the number of segments you add, the sum total must be equal to 100%.

Usage Example

For this example we will create three groups into which we will segment the users. To differentiate the groups, we will create a variable, _group, to contain a value that is unique to each group. We will run different analytics tags depending on the group.

1. Add the Split Segmentation Extension

2. Enter a title.

3. Scope the Extension to 'Pre Loader'.

4. Since we don't have a cookie variable yet, we will add one.

1. Click on the plus button next to the 'Destination Cookie' drop-down list. This will present you the Add Data Source popup.
2. Enter '_group' for the data source name, and 'split segmentation cookie' for the description. You can also provide an optional Alias for the cookie.
3. Click Apply. The new variable is now selected.

5. Leave the Cookie Domain field blank. We will be using the configuration domain.

6. From the Duration drop-down, select 'Visitor'.

7. We will create 3 groups, and label them 'Group A', 'Group B', and 'Group C'. Click the plus icon to add the additional groups. The label for each group is the value that is placed in the _group variable.

8. We will divide the visitors equally among these groups, so select 33% for each, except for Group B, which we will select 34%. The sum total of the groups must equal 100%, so one of the groups will receive 34% instead.

Configuring Load Rules

In this scenario, we want to run a different analytics tag for each group. For Group A we want to run Google Analytics, for Group B we want to run SiteCatalyst, and for Group C we want to run IBM Digital Analytics. To do this, we must create a load rule for each of the three situations.

The first load rule will state if either the domain or page_name value contains "tealium" and the cookie value" _group" equals (ignoring case) "Group A", then this load rule applies.

The other two load rules will follow almost identical logic, except for the value that "_group" contains, which will be "Group B" and "Group C", respectively.

To leverage these load rules, apply them to the appropriate Tags. In this example, we have the Group A load rule apply to Google Analytics, the Group B Load Rule apply to SiteCatalyst, and the Group C load rule apply to IBM Digital Analytics.

When visitors in Group A come to the page, Google Analytics will run; when visitors in Group B come, SiteCatalyst will run; and when visitors in Group C come, IBM Digital Analytics will run.