Limits to Date-Based Segmentation

Marketo segmentations can’t reliably use date-based filters. While segmentations with date fields initially work, they won’t update over time because no triggers activate to update the segmentation.

Example: Customer Date Segmentation

Suppose you want to segment leads based on when they became a customer. Your segments might include:

• Customers from the past 90 days
• Customers from the past 6 months
• Customers from the past 9 months
• Customers from a year or longer
• Default (non-customers)

When you first approve the segmentation, leads will fall into the correct segments. However, as time passes, people won’t update automatically because Marketo doesn’t trigger re-evaluation for date-based criteria.

Best Practices

For date-based segmentation, consider creating a smart campaign to manage updates. This campaign could periodically compare the lead’s date field with their segment, and if misaligned, either add them to a list or adjust a data value to force the segmentation to refresh.