AND vs OR match types in audiences
How AND and OR affect audience evaluation, and how to compose multi-level logic with Extend an Audience.
Overview
Every SiteDetour audience has a top-level match type that's either AND or OR. This single boolean dictates how every rule inside the audience is combined. This article covers the practical differences, composition patterns, and common mistakes.
AND: intersection
With match type AND, a visitor must satisfy every rule in the audience to match. Rules effectively intersect.
Example — audience High-intent US mobile:
Visitor's Country = United StatesVisitor's Device Type = MobileRequest Query Parameters: utm_source = paid-search
Match type: AND. A visitor must be in the US and on a mobile device and have come from paid search. Anyone missing even one attribute falls through to the next Smart Target.
Use AND when you want a precise segment that narrows with each added rule.
OR: union
With match type OR, a visitor matches as long as at least one rule fires. Rules effectively union.
Example — audience Spanish speakers:
Visitor's Preferred Language = es-ESVisitor's Preferred Language = es-MXVisitor's Preferred Language = es-AR
Match type: OR. Any Spanish-locale visitor matches, regardless of country variant.
Use OR when you want a broad segment that grows with each added rule.
Pitfall: mixing intended AND and OR in one audience
The match type is audience-wide. You cannot say "rule 1 AND rule 2, OR rule 3" inside a single audience. That requires two audiences composed with Extend an Audience.
Composing multi-level logic with Extend an Audience
Extend an Audience imports every rule from another audience, and the current audience's match type applies across the combined set.
Example — you want (Mobile visitors from the US) OR (Desktop visitors from Canada):
- Audience US mobile: Country=US, Device=Mobile, match type AND.
- Audience Canada desktop: Country=CA, Device=Desktop, match type AND.
- Audience Combined: Extend US mobile + Extend Canada desktop, match type OR.
The top-level OR across two extended audiences yields the union of their ANDed results.
Truth-table mindset
When a match type feels counterintuitive, write out the truth table. For each rule, list what a visitor's attribute value would need to be to fire that rule, then check whether AND (all fire) or OR (any fires) matches your intent.
Debugging no-match audiences
If an audience unexpectedly doesn't match anyone:
- Check match type first. A narrow audience with AND and many rules can be impossible to match by accident (e.g. Country=US AND Country=CA can never be true for a single visitor).
- Check for implicit empty rules. An incompletely configured rule can silently fail.
- Test with broader rules. Temporarily switch to OR to see if at least one rule is firing; if not, your data source is the issue (e.g. IP geo missing, UA parse wrong).
Next steps
