User tags
User tags are one of the data tools the system provides for segmenting users. A user tag can be seen as a characteristic used to describe users, such as "Gender", "Age", or "Account balance". In daily life, you can describe a user with multiple characteristics, such as "Gender: Male", "Age: 40–50", or "Account balance: over 5000 yuan". In the system, you can label users with the tag values of user tags, and then use these tags in analysis to filter users or to group users for statistics.
Different tag values of the same tag divide users into multiple categories, each labeled by a tag value. For example, under the tag "Gender", users are labeled with the tag values "Gender: Male" and "Gender: Female". If the tag values have a hierarchical or numerical progression, the tag can also be seen as a way of tiering users from a certain perspective, such as "Days since last payment: 1 day/1–3 days/3–7 days/...".
Compared with cohorts, which select users, user tags are more about labeling users, and such labels are highly reusable. We generally recommend creating a tag for an abstract user characteristic, such as the tag "Payment capability: Low/Medium/High" or the tag "Active hours: 11–01/2–4/...". Also, keep the definition rules and naming of tag values as consistent as possible with the shared understanding in your company, so that a tag can be reused in multiple scenarios once it's created.
1. Create a user tag
In Users - Tags, you can create a tag in several ways. See the following table for details:
| Definition method | Cohort type | Description |
|---|---|---|
ID set (Saves the labeling relationship between users and tag values as the tag definition. The labeling scope of a tag defined this way almost never changes.) | ID tag |
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Data condition (Saves the calculation rule for labeling users with tag values as the tag. Each time the tag is calculated by the rule, whether a user is labeled depends on whether the user currently meets the rule. The default project limit for this type is 200.) |
| |
| First or last tag |
| |
| Metric tag |
| |
| SQL tag |
|
When you create a tag, in addition to its conditions, you also need to select its entity and time zone.
Entity
User tags are a tool for segmenting users, and there are many kinds of "user" identifiers, such as device ID, account ID, character ID, and platform ID. In project configuration, you can add user identifiers (properties) other than the AE user ID as entities. These entities can also be segmented with user tags.
When you create a tag, first select its entity. The calculated result is the labeling relationship between that entity and tag values, and the Users in cohort count you see for the tag is also the number of that entity.
Note that when the selected entity was created from an event property, behavioral tags can't use the Have not done condition.
Timezone
If your project has the Time Zone Converter switch turned on (configured in Settings), you also need to select the tag's settlement time zone first when you create a tag. If the definition of a Behavioral tag, First or last tag, Metric tag, or SQL tag uses event data, the time range in event conditions is by default the time range in the tag's time zone. Events reported in other time zones are first converted to that time zone and then checked against the conditions. For example, if the display time zone is UTC+10 and the condition is "paid yesterday", the payment time is first converted to UTC+10 and then checked to see whether it occurred yesterday.
Note that if you choose a different display time zone to view dashboards and reports during analysis, the tag data used is the result in the original time zone, and the settlement time zone doesn't change accordingly.
2. Update user tags
User tags are pre-computed data (as opposed to ad hoc queries). That is, the system calculates user tags in advance and then uses the result data in later analysis and operations, instead of recalculating tags each time they are used. Pre-computation greatly reduces computational complexity at use time and avoids repeated calculation, which improves data efficiency, but at the cost of data timeliness. For most analysis scenarios, tags updated daily are sufficient.
For tags defined by data conditions, the system supports multiple update modes, as described below:
| Update Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| Scheduled | If you turn on the Scheduled Update switch of a behavioral tag, first or last tag, metric tag, or SQL tag when you create or edit it, the system automatically updates the tag at the scheduled time every day. ID tags don't support this update mode. |
| Manual | Behavioral tags, first or last tags, metric tags, and SQL tags can be updated manually. When you need the tag data in its current state, you can trigger an update manually. ID tags must be updated by importing a new file again. |
| Create calculation | All tags are calculated once immediately after they're created. |
| Edit calculation | The tag is calculated once immediately after you change its conditions or time zone and save. |
Note that because user and event data in the system are updated in real time, if you use a Today event condition in a tag definition, the tag calculation can only use today's data up to the time of calculation. To use data for a full day, use an event condition that ends yesterday.
When you analyze historical data, you may need users' tag values at a point in the past. Tags keep users' tag values on a given date as Versions. For details about date versions, see Tag date versions.
3. Manage user tags
On the user tags page, you can edit, delete, download (ID tags only), update, and manage versions of created tags. For tag version management, see Tag date versions.
Because tags can be used by assets such as custom properties, reports, cohorts (created in the Engage module), and alerts, editing or deleting a tag can cause abnormal fluctuations in these assets' data or even make them impossible to calculate. When a tag you delete or edit has dependent assets, the system shows its scope of impact, and you need to assess the impact before you continue with the deletion or edit.
4. User tag details
Click a user tag's name to view the tag details. Tag details consist of two parts, tag definition and tag data, as shown below:
Click the number of users in the data table to drill down to the list of users labeled with the tag value on the corresponding date.
The table shows data for up to 1,000 users. For more data, click the download button in the upper right of the table to download data for up to 500,000 users.
Note that clicking update in the upper right of the table on the user list page only queries the tag result data again. It doesn't recalculate the tag itself, but the property data of the users with the tag value is updated.