Removing Records from Existing Segments
As the members of an existing Customer Profiles for Data Collaboration segment change, you might want to update that segment to remove the records for those members whom you no longer want to be included in the segment.
To remove records from existing segments in Customer Profiles, you can upload a "deletion" file to a location that LiveRamp sets up for you (that is different from the location you use to upload files that add users to segments).
How to Indicate Which Records to Remove from Which Segments
Deletion files work a bit differently than standard files you format for uploading.
In most ways, the formatting and headers need to be the same as your original file. You still need to use the first column to include the appropriate identifier for the record you want to be removed and include the appropriate segment data columns for the segments you want to update. Name each segment data column with the exact same segment name (the field name) you used in the original file.
However, for deletion files, you'll indicate which records should be deleted from each segment (rather than included). This works a bit differently depending on whether a particular segment uses a single-value field or multi-value field to indicate segment membership.
For example, if a given segment uses a single-value field (a field that contains either a "1" or a "0", such as a field like "Likes Dogs" where you originally used a "1" to indicate segment membership), use "1" in the deletion file to indicate that that record should be removed from the existing segment.
In the deletion file example shown below, all four records will be removed from the segment "Likes Dogs."
ID | LIKESDOGS |
|---|---|
consumer1@email.com | 1 |
consumer2@email.com | 1 |
consumer3@email.com | 1 |
consumer4@email.com | 1 |
If a given segment uses a multi-value field (a field that contains multiple possible values, such as a field like "Favorite Color" that contains values such as "red", "blue", "pink", and "purple"), use the appropriate segment value to remove the record for that segment. So if the field is "Favorite Color" and you want to remove a record from the segment "Favorite Color=red", enter "red" in the "Favorite Color" segment data column for that record in the deletion file.
In the deletion file example shown below:
The first record will be removed from the segment "Favorite Color=red"
The second and third records will be removed from the segment "Favorite Color=pink"
The fourth record will be removed from the segment "Favorite Color=purple"
ID | FAVORITECOLOR |
|---|---|
consumer1@email.com | red |
consumer2@email.com | pink |
consumer3@email.com | pink |
consumer4@email.com | purple |
If you want to remove records from a dataset that has some segments that use single-value fields and some segments that use multi-value fields, your file might look like the example shown below.
ID | LIKESDOGS | FAVORITECOLOR |
|---|---|---|
consumer1@email.com | 1 | red |
consumer2@email.com | pink | |
consumer3@email.com | 1 | pink |
consumer4@email.com | 1 |
In this example:
The first record will be removed from the segments "Likes Dogs" and "Favorite Color=red"
The second record will only be removed from the segment "Favorite Color=pink"
The third record will be removed from the segments "Likes Dogs" and "Favorite Color=pink"
The fourth record will only be removed from the segment "Likes Dogs"
Remove Records from Existing Segments
To remove records from existing Customer Profiles segments:
If this is the first time you're removing records from a particular dataset, create a case in the LiveRamp Community portal to have LiveRamp set up the location for you to upload your deletion files to for that dataset.
Format your file in the same way you formatted the original file you used to create the segments for that dataset, but include only the records you want to be removed from existing segments. Use each segment data column to indicate which records you want to be removed from which segments. See the "How to Indicate Which Records to Remove from Which Segments" section of this article.
Upload the file using your usual method to the location specified by your LiveRamp representative (see "Getting Your Data Into LiveRamp" for more information on file uploading).