Segmentation not updating automatically? Aren't these dynamic?

[Dory_Viscoglio]

Hi All, I have a segmentation issue.. will probably open a support ticket, but figured I'd ask here first. We are using segmentations to define what type of user each of our seatholders is. Our active and inactive subscriber definitions are based on a date field that we have called "Last Login Date". Active subscribers are those who have logged in within the past 45 days, inactive subscribers have logged in in the past, before 45 days. The filters look like this in our two campaigns:



The issue I'm having is that when someone has logged in within the last 45 days they aren't automatically dropped into the active segment, and when their last login date goes from 45 to 46 days they aren't moved to the inactive segment. 

When I run a smartlist of the exact same criteria as my segment rules, I come up with 5x as many people in on the smart list as what I actually have in my segment. The people who are missing from my segmentation and appearing in my smart list, are mainly in the default segment.

Has anyone else had a problem with segmentations not updating dynamically? And is there any other way to force someone into the right segmentation? Right now this segmentation is basically useless, and we're triggering onboarding, inactivity and other campaigns off of it!

[Tara_Petre]

Hi Dory, 

I've heard that these segmentations are not updated as instantaneously as we would like.  Please let us know what you find regarding the time needed between the data value change and when those updates are reflected in the segmentation.

Thanks!
Tara

[Dory_Viscoglio]

AGGGH. I was digging into how quickly segments should update and came across this little nugget...



There has GOT to be some kind of way that Marketo could inform people when they've used something somewhere and it won't work!

[Brendan_Gallagh]

Do you know if this also applies to using formula fields for segment, or could that be a workaround. For instance, instead of using a "in past" on the segment level if I created an Age formula field that calculated age based on the birthdate, and then created a 18-25 segment based on the values in that age field, would that workaround move people between segments automatically?

[Nicholas_Manojl]

I think an easier workaround would be using the "in past" and "in timeframe" filters on a smart list, and then using the smart list membership in the segment.

Technically there is a Marketo formula field but it isn't as useful as what you've described.

[Anonymous]

Having exactly the same issue and thought I was going batty. Something like this should either work or not work...right now I see data that works sometimes.

Like Dory said, if it's not supported, the system shouldn't let you do it.

Will be looking for a workaround.