Segments using tags stopped working

[weluvbees]

This used to work but recently it has stopped working for me. I have two tags, tag 1 shows 132 users, tag 2 shows 122 users but when i create a segment with tag 1 or tag 2 i only get 117 users. However, if i go in and create a campaign and select my main email list and then 'narrow by tag' and select the same two tags i get 190 users. Any idea what is going on?

[weluvbees]

@weluvbees We are aware of some segments not calculating properly when selecting a tag criteria while building the segment. There is a ticket in with our engineers to review this issue. While this is being investigated, you will want to select the contacts who are tagged and add them to their own list. 

[William_A]

Hello @weluvbees ,

I've tracked the issue to your account for our devs to collect info on what might be causing the issue with the narrow-by-tag numbering. Since the issue is still in the info collection phase, we don't have a hard ETA on any update regarding it.

In the meantime, I'd recommend scheduling to the segment you've created instead.

[weluvbees]

The segment piece is actually what is not working the way i expect it to, the piece that works is when i do the 'narrow by tag' method.

[Kyle_R]

Thanks for reaching back out @weluvbees. I exported your list with tags, and exported the segment so that I could do some comparing.

What I think is happening is that contacts that have both tag 1 and tag 2 are being excluded from the segment. Since the segment is built around the AND/OR logic to look for tag 1 "OR" tag 2, it seems to think that if they have both tags that would qualify under the criteria of tag 1 "AND" tag 2 instead. The narrow by tag function isn't trying to strictly follow the AND/OR logic so it seems to not care if a contact has both tags. If I had to make a guess, I would think that you want to include those contacts as well.

[weluvbees]

So it is effectively doing a XOR instead of a OR?

Is there any way I can have a segment that behaves like the 'narrow by tag'?

I tried adding another criteria section to the segment but i can only add another 'AND' section and i can't add tags to that section.

thanks

[Caitlin_M]

@weluvbees We are aware of some segments not calculating properly when selecting a tag criteria while building the segment. There is a ticket in with our engineers to review this issue. While this is being investigated, you will want to select the contacts who are tagged and add them to their own list. 

[BrianJ557]

As a test, I created a segment with a single tag. It returned a count completely different from the count associated with the tag, even though the only criterion was the tag itself, ie: "Contacts who are tagged with "TagName". I tried this with a few tags and all the segment counts were different from the tag counts. This renders building segments using tags as virtually useless. I hope this fix is highly prioritized. Thank you.

[Robyn]

I am having the same problem. I went to a contact list. I checked 64 boxes of the total 258 contacts. I then created a tag called Crawfish. I am trying to send an email to those 64. I understand that even though I can go through the motions to send the email, I cant select the actual tag to complete the send. I saw another email that said CC doesn’t support that feature currently and suggested to create a segment. Which I tried to do, but every time I hit the Save and Preview button, it tells me there are no contacts with that Tag. But I can see the tag and it says there are 64!!!!! Very frustrating!!!!

[William_A]

Hello @Robyn ,

Our higher level technical team is going to take the case to investigate further. They should be following up via email within the next four business days.

In the meantime, you can either use the narrow-by-tag setup while scheduling your email, or you can create a list from the tag to directly send to.

[MichaelR8896]

Hello, William A - it's been nine months since you responded to Robyn's post (long enough to have a baby!). The problems with tags and segments seem to persist. Any idea if a solution is imminent? Thank you in advance for any information you can provide that will update the status of these issues.

[BrianJ557]

Yup, ran into same dang problem today with segments not calculating correctly. 

If you want to have some fun, create a segment with just one tag. It will calculate differently than the tag itself. It is imperative this is fixed ASAP.

[BrianJ557]

Tried to build a simple segment using one tag for inclusion and another for exclusion: Contacts who are tagged with "Tag1" AND who are not tagged with "Tag2". The count was way off from what I knew it should be close to. As a test I built a segment that ONLY INCLUDED the inclusion tag, and it gave me a completely different count from the tag itself!?! I downloaded the tag and verified that 90% of the records in the tag were ACTIVE (the rest were unsubs). So I knew the exact count that should have been displaying, and it was way off. I chatted with support, and was eventually told this is a "known issue". Folks, the ability to build segments with integrity is critical to any basic targeting we are trying to do. This must be the highest priority fix on your list. PLEASE.

[MichaelR8896]

Segmentation stopped working for me last year. When I contacted support I got the same response - it is a known issue, and it's being worked on. I had no idea the issue had such a long history. I've gotten no follow-up from Constant Contact support about the status of the issue and if or when it will be fixed. I've been able to work around it by creating separate lists, but is this really the only solution to a problem that seems to have affected members for at least the last 10 months? Any idea when a fix might be implemented?

[BrianJ557]

The issue with not being able to build accurate segments using tags has been very frustrating for us. Building new lists is a workaround but still has its limitations. One of the biggest advantages for Segments is the ability to refresh a segment with the lastest data/tags.

As an aside, another confounding limitation is the inability to use tags for creating dynamic content. We are limited to field values, and I believe only address fields. But fixing the Segment/Tags issues is paramount.