How the Targeting Engine Works

The targeting engine lets you define segments — named groups of customers — by writing rules against customer, account, journey, and place data. Segments can then be assigned to features (campaigns, recommendations, items, etc.) to control visibility and personalisation.

Core Concepts

Segment

A segment is a named, reusable group definition. It holds metadata (name, description, active) and a list of rules that determine who belongs to it. A segment with no rules matches everyone.

Rule

A rule is a single condition on a customer attribute. Every rule has:

• attribute — the data point to inspect (e.g. account.points)
• operator — how to compare (e.g. gte)
• value — the comparison value, stored as JSON
• ruleGroup — an integer (0, 1, 2 …) that controls AND/OR grouping
• negate — when true, inverts the rule result

Assignment

An assignment links a segment to a target entity (e.g. a campaign or product item). Each assignment has a mode:

• include — the target is visible only to customers who match this segment
• exclude — the target is hidden from customers who match this segment

Evaluation Logic

AND / OR Rule Grouping

Rules inside a segment are evaluated in groups. The ruleGroup field controls this:

• Rules in the same group are combined with OR — the group passes if any rule matches
• Rules in different groups are combined with AND — the segment passes only if every group passes

Include / Exclude Precedence

The engine always evaluates exclusions first:

1. If the customer matches any exclude assignment → result is false (hidden), regardless of includes
2. If there are no include assignments → result is true (visible to all)
3. If the customer matches any include assignment → result is true
4. Otherwise → false

The negate Flag

Setting negate: true on a rule inverts its outcome. A rule that would normally pass will fail, and vice versa. This avoids needing to create an extra segment just to express "not in this tier".

Operators

Available Attributes

Account namespace

Data scoped to the customer's loyalty account at a specific place.

Customer namespace

Data from the customer's global profile.

Journey namespace

Data about an active journey execution for the customer.

Place namespace

Date Values

Date attributes expect values as YYYY-MM-DD strings in rule definitions. Internally the engine converts them to UTC midnight millisecond timestamps for comparison, so the time component is ignored. For between, pass {"from": "2024-01-01", "to": "2024-12-31"}.

Practical Examples

1. High-value VIP customers

Customers in the Gold or Platinum tier who have spent more than 5,000.

// Rule Group 0 — tier must be Gold OR Platinum
{ attribute: "account.tier", operator: "in",  value: ["Gold", "Platinum"], ruleGroup: 0 }

// Rule Group 1 — AND spend must be over 5000
{ attribute: "account.spend", operator: "gt", value: 5000, ruleGroup: 1 }

2. At-risk lapsed customers

Customers who haven't ordered in over 60 days.

{ attribute: "account.daysSinceLastOrder", operator: "gt", value: 60, ruleGroup: 0 }

3. Birthday month promotion

Customers born in a specific month. Use between with the month's date range.

{ attribute: "customer.dob", operator: "between", value: { from: "1900-07-01", to: "1900-07-31" }, ruleGroup: 0 }

4. New customers (first 3 orders)

{ attribute: "account.orders", operator: "lte", value: 3, ruleGroup: 0 }

5. Customers with a points balance to redeem

{ attribute: "account.points", operator: "gte", value: 100, ruleGroup: 0 }

6. Exclude employees / test accounts

Create a segment matching a specific email domain, then assign it as mode: "exclude".

{ attribute: "customer.email", operator: "contains", value: "@yourcompany.com", ruleGroup: 0 }

7. Customers active in a specific journey for over 7 days

{ attribute: "journey.daysSinceStarted", operator: "gt", value: 7, ruleGroup: 0 }

8. Customers in a specific country who have never ordered

// Group 0
{ attribute: "customer.country", operator: "eq", value: "DK", ruleGroup: 0 }

// Group 1 — AND no orders yet
{ attribute: "account.orders", operator: "eq", value: 0, ruleGroup: 1 }

API Quick Reference

All endpoints are under /places/{placeId}/targeting/ and require a valid Api-Key header.

Evaluation Summary