Mailchimp Auto-Update segmentation or Advanced segmentation?

Segmentation is one of the most powerful Mailchimp tools at your disposal to generate an even higher ROI from your email marketing. A segment helps us identify, and market to, contacts with similar interests, demographics or behaviours. For example if we have a WooCommerce or Shopify store connected with Mailchimp we could create a segment containing all people that last purchased more than six months ago (as we may want to send a re-engagement campaign).

The two Mailchimp segment types

Auto-Update segmentation is available to all Mailchimp subscribers (even if you’re on the free account). Mailchimp Pro subscribers get access to Advanced segmentation in addition to the Auto-Update segmentation. The basic differences between Auto-Update segmentation and Advanced segmentation are:

• Auto-Update segmentation allows a maximum of five conditions.
• Auto-Update segmentation allows either of AND or OR logic.
• Advanced segmentation allows for nested conditions and allows for AND and OR logic within the same segment.

Should I use Auto-Update segmentation or Advanced segmentation?

Whenever possible, use Auto-Update segmentation. The reason for this is that Advanced segmentation can become very complex and unwieldy very quickly. If you have a list with many fields of reliable data (over about 30 fields) and over several hundred thousand subscribers is it usually beneficial to use Advanced segmentation.