How to Sync a Segment

Syncing sends the customers in a segment to a marketing or ad platform, such as Klaviyo or Meta Ads, as a list you can email or target. With auto-sync on, By the Numbers sends the segment again every 2 to 4 days, so the list keeps up as customers join and leave.

A segment's page with a Sync Destinations card listing Klaviyo and Meta Ads, each with its last sync time and Sync now and Configure buttons.

Before You Start

  • Segments sync to Klaviyo, Google Ads, Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, Reddit Ads, Mailchimp and Attentive.
  • Connect the platform on Integrations first, or from the sync menu in step 3.
  • You need the Manage integrations permission to add, change or remove a sync. Without it, you can see where a segment syncs, but you can’t change it. On Customer Segments the Sync control is disabled, and on a segment’s own page the Sync, Sync now and Configure buttons are hidden. Configure on a connected integration is hidden too.

Steps

  1. Open the segment from Customer Segments.
  2. In Sync Destinations, click Sync.
  3. Under Available, turn on the switch next to the platform. A platform under Connect to Sync needs connecting first: click Connect and approve access.
  4. For Google Ads, Meta Ads, TikTok Ads and Reddit Ads, choose the ad account to send the segment to.
  5. Click Save.

Klaviyo, Mailchimp and Attentive skip steps 4 and 5. Their sync is set up as soon as you turn on the switch. The platform then moves to Syncing Now.

The Sync menu on a segment, listing the destinations already syncing, the connected ones available to add, and the ones that still need connecting.

You can also open the same menu from the segment’s row on Customer Segments: click Sync, or the platform logos once the segment syncs somewhere. Brevo, ActiveCampaign, Drip and Omnisend are listed under Coming Soon. Notify me asks to hear when one is ready.

Meta Custom Audience Terms

Meta only takes a customer list once you’ve accepted its Customer List Custom Audiences terms for that ad account. Until then, the dialog shows a warning and Save stays grayed out:

  1. Click Accept Terms and accept them on Meta’s site.
  2. Come back and click I’ve Accepted.
  3. Click Save.

What Happens Next

With Sync automatically (every few days) on, the first sync starts within about 15 minutes. Your store’s syncs run one at a time, so a sync can wait behind others. To start it straight away, click Sync now.

A sync saved with Sync automatically off never starts on its own. It runs only when you click Sync now.

Each sync sends the segment’s customers as of that moment. Customers who have left the segment are taken off.

There’s one exception. If none of the segment’s customers can be sent, Meta Ads skips the upload, and its audience keeps the customers from the last sync.

Membership comes from your customer data, which updates on its own schedule: see How Often Is My Data Updated?.

With auto-sync on, the segment is sent again every 2 days to Klaviyo and Attentive, and every 4 days to the other platforms. Each time can be up to 6 hours later than that.

What Each Platform Gets

Only customers with a valid email address are sent. Klaviyo, Mailchimp and Attentive also need the customer’s marketing consent in Shopify:

  • Klaviyo and Mailchimp: only customers who accept email marketing are sent.
  • Attentive: only customers who accept email marketing, or who accept SMS marketing and have a valid mobile number, are sent. It gets their email address if they accept email marketing, and their phone number if they accept SMS marketing.
  • Google Ads, Meta Ads, TikTok Ads and Reddit Ads: consent isn’t checked. To leave out customers who don’t accept email marketing, add the rule Accepts email marketing to the segment.

When a sync holds customers back, its line under Recent Activity on Integrations ends with the count, for example 40 skipped (no marketing consent). The segment’s own customer count doesn’t change.

Mailchimp, Attentive and newer Klaviyo connections also receive consenting customers outside the segment. Mailchimp adds a customer it doesn’t already have as subscribed, and never changes the status of a contact it already has.

A customer who stops accepting marketing isn’t sent again. Nothing already on the platform is deleted or unsubscribed:

  • Mailchimp and older Klaviyo connections: the customer is taken out of the Mailchimp segment or Klaviyo list at the next sync.
  • Newer Klaviyo connections and Attentive: the customer keeps the value from their last sync, so they can stay in the segment there.

Here’s what each platform gets:

  • Google Ads, Meta Ads, TikTok Ads and Reddit Ads: a customer list in the ad account you chose. It’s named “[By the Numbers]” followed by your segment’s name.
  • Klaviyo: what you get depends on when you connected Klaviyo. Older connections get a list, named the same way, holding the segment’s customers who accept email marketing. Newer connections get a segment of that name, built from a list named “[By the Numbers] Shopify Full Customer List” that holds every customer who accepts email marketing. Klaviyo updates that segment itself, so it can still be filling after a large sync finishes. Reconnecting Klaviyo moves an older connection to the newer kind.
  • Mailchimp: an audience named “[By the Numbers] Shopify Full Customer List”. It holds every customer who accepts email marketing. When there is no such audience and your account has exactly 1, By the Numbers uses that one. Inside it, a segment named “[By the Numbers]” followed by your segment’s name.
  • Attentive: a custom attribute on each customer it sends, named btn_segment_ followed by the segment’s number. It’s true for the segment’s customers and false for the rest, so build an Attentive segment on it. The segment’s number is the last part of its page address in By the Numbers.

If you rename a segment, it keeps syncing to the same list. Each sync remembers the list it sends to:

  • Klaviyo and Meta Ads: the next sync renames the list, Klaviyo segment or audience to match. A name you gave it in Klaviyo or Meta Ads stays until you rename the segment again.
  • Google Ads, TikTok Ads, Mailchimp and Reddit Ads: the list keeps its old name and keeps updating.
  • Attentive: nothing changes, since the attribute is named by the segment’s number.

A sync remembers its list from its first run after this update. Until then, renaming the segment makes a new list under the new name, and the old one stops updating. Reddit Ads and Attentive syncs aren’t affected.

To be sure, click Sync now and let it finish before you rename the segment.

Google Ads doesn’t allow 2 lists with the same name. So a new Google Ads sync fails when its segment has the old name of a renamed segment that still syncs to the same Google Ads account. Give the segment another name to fix it.

Change or Stop a Sync

Each platform’s row under Sync Destinations shows when it last synced, and Auto-sync on or Manual only.

  • Sync now sends the segment straight away. It’s grayed out while a sync is waiting or running.
  • Configure changes the ad account, or turns Sync automatically (every few days) on or off. With it off, the segment is sent only when you click Sync now.
  • Remove, in Configure, stops the sync. So does turning off the platform’s switch in the Sync menu.

Stopping a sync, or deleting the segment, doesn’t delete anything on the platform. The list keeps the customers from the last sync.

To connect a platform, see How to Connect Klaviyo, How to Connect Meta Ads or How to Connect Google Ads.

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