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Sequential Segments: Replace "Only Before/After Sequence" options with enhanced options for desired data returned

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Level 2

7/20/23

Replace the current "Only Before Sequence" and "Only After Sequence" options with these options:

  • "Apply to [First/Last] sequence match (Required)"
    • Currently this is not configurable. "Only Before Sequence" setting is applied to (and includes) the first hit of the last matching sequence and everything before. "Only After Sequence" setting is applied to (and includes) the last hit of the first matching sequence and everything after.
    • Presenting this option would also help users understand how "match first/last sequence" is necessary part of how sequential segments work when there are multiple sequence matches within a visit/visitor. 
  • "Include data from [All/First/Last] hit(s) within the matched sequence in the results (Optional)"
    • "I only want my sequential segment to return just the first/last hit from the sequence." has got to be a common desire among analytics users, as others have requested this in other idea submissions. The "Include First/Last hit in the sequence" option would enable that use case, and the "Include All hits" and No selection (unused) options enable many other use cases.
    • Currently this is not configurable. As previously mentioned, the "Only Before Sequence" setting includes the first hit of the last matching sequence, and the "Only After Sequence" setting includes the last hit of the first matching sequence.
  • "Include [All/<number of>] hits of data from [Before/After] the sequence match (Optional) in the results"
    • "I want my sequential segment to show me what the user encountered just before/after they encountered <desired sequence>" also has got to be a common desire among analytics users.
    • Currently this is not configurable. The "Only Before/After Sequence" options return everything before/after the sequence from the visit or visitor, plus the first/last within the sequence (as previously mentioned).

I think these options would dramatically improve the capability and value of sequential segments, and make it easier for users to understand exactly what data is potentially included in their segment results.

2 Comments

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Community Advisor

7/20/23

Also, this would solve the discrepancy between the name and the actual behaviour... as "only after" really isn't after it's after and including