Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has a custom segment feature that allows you to zoom in on the behaviour of specific users to understand how they interact with your product in comparison to other groups. Segments are limited to GA4's 'Exploration' reports but can be converted into audiences and applied to any of your GA4 reports.

This document explains how to create user segments based on a couple of key attributes:

• User ID - allowing you to measure the behaviour of logged in users
• Subscriber Status - breakdown your users by their subscriber type 

Creating a new user segment

Head to the Explore section of GA4 and open the report you'd like to add a segment to.

In the Segments section, click on the + and then select User Segment

Creating a user segment

Segment by User ID 

From the 'Add a new condition' dropdown select 'User' > 'Signed in with user ID'

Selecting 'Signed in with user ID' from the condition list

Add a filter to the segment and select 'is one of' > 'Yes'. If you want to include any user who has ever signed in, ticket the 'At any point in time' box. If you only want to include users who have been signed in within the date range selected for your exploration leave the box unticked.

Filtering the 'Signed in with user ID' dimension to 'Yes'

Give the segment a title and click 'Save and apply' to add it to your exploration.

Segment by Subscriber Status

Create a segment for each subscriber state that is available to you. This will include some/all of the following:

• None
• ExistingSubscriber
• iTunesSinglePurchase
• AmazonSinglePurchase
• GooglePlaySinglePurchase
• iTunesSubscriber
• AmazonSubscriber
• GooglePlaySubscriber
• InactiveSubscriber

Click here for more Subscriber definitions

Steps to create a segment:

• From the 'Add new condition' dropdown select KGSubscriberStatus
• Select '+ Add filter' and change the condition dropdown to 'exactly matches (=)'
• Select a subscriber state

Select 'exactly matches (=)' and choose one subscriber status

• Name the Segment after the state you have chosen

Name the segment after the subscriber state you have filtered the segment to

• Copy this process for each subscriber status available to you
• The segments can then be applied to your report.

Apply each segment to your report to compare behaviour among different user groups

Creating an audience from segments

If you would like to create an audience from your segments, allowing you to apply the filtered user group to any report in your GA4 property, just tick the 'Build an audience' box in the top right hand corner of your segment editor and choose the membership duration (the number of days users stay in the audience once they're added to it).

Build an audience from your segment

Useful Links

Pugpig Analytics Specification

Google's segment builder document

Google's introduction to audiences in Google Analytics document