Your gut’s right. I’ve watched segments completely fall apart this past year across multiple apps.
It’s not just demographics either. Behavioral patterns shift way faster now. That user who opens daily but never converts? Six months ago they were dead weight. Now they’re my highest LTV segment after we tweaked onboarding.
I rebuild segments quarterly using fresh 90-day data. Mix behavioral triggers with engagement patterns and purchase timing. Ditch the static stuff.
One thing that’s helped - I layer in micro-moments data. Screenshots of features, time spent on pricing pages, notification settings. These tiny signals predict buying intent way better than broad categories.
Test new segments on small budgets first. I burned through ad spend assuming old patterns would stick. They didn’t.
Your conversion rates are tanking because you’re targeting people who aren’t ready to buy.
I ditched age and location targeting last year. Now I track what people actually do before converting - screens viewed, features clicked, time spent on pricing pages.
I build segments around these behaviors and spend ad money on people showing real buying signals, not just demographic checkboxes.
Demographics died years ago. That 25-34 college-educated crowd? They’re not buying the same way they did in 2022. Go behavioral instead. Watch what people actually do in your app - forget the paper profiles. Group them by how they use features, when they buy, what patterns they follow. I’ve rebuilt segments for three apps using behavioral data. Conversions shot up 15-30% because we targeted real actions instead of guessing based on age.