For example, if you plan to use the default Customer audience in conjunction with strategic segments, you must map the Customer Segment Membership system table to the UA_SegMembership segment membership database table. For other audiences used with strategic segments, you would map the system table <audience name> Segment Membership to the database table that defines the segment members. You can use UA_SegMembership as a template for the database table.

Running the Create Seg process populates a database table if you have mapped it to a segment membership system table. If you run the Create Seg process when the database table is not mapped to the segment membership system table, you must re-run the Create Seg process to populate the table if you map it later. Otherwise, Optimize sessions in Contact Optimization that use strategic segments may provide inaccurate results.

Using strategic segments in Campaign flowcharts and Contact Optimization sessions is optional. If you are not using strategic segments, the best practice is that you do not map the segment membership table. Mapping an audience's segment membership system table causes Campaign or Contact Optimization to refresh the table each time you run the flowchart or Optimize session that includes the audience. This is unnecessary processing overhead if you are not using strategic segments.