# Audience VS Segment

> Understand the difference between audiences and segments, and when to use each.

Source: https://support.amazeful.com/contacts/audiences-and-segments/audience-vs-segment
Documentation index: https://support.amazeful.com/llms.txt

### When to use an audience and when to use a segment?

* **Audiences** are the most common way to organize and group contacts.
* A **Segment** is an organized list of contacts automatically generated by a set of conditions.

For most businesses, having multiple audiences provides enough granularity in data separation.

**Examples of audiences:** Contact belongs to a specific agent or contact is a loyal customer, or a parent etc.

Segments are useful when you want to divide your contacts into specific groups based on shared information or common characteristics.

**Examples of segments:** Contact was created in the current month, left a positive rating in the reviews automation, and answered YES to our referral program when surveyed by our survey automation.

Conclusion: Audiences are used to group contacts based on a common characteristic obtained outside our platform. Segments are groups of contacts based on common characteristics obtained on our platform.