Note: Your user group must have a custom data object (CDO) set up and have uploaded data to the CDO to use this filter.

1. Create a new segment. (If you aren't sure how to do this, see Eloqua - Creating a new Segment.
   
   
2. Add a step to your segment by clicking the plus sign and selecting Filter Criteria.
   
   
   
3. In the list of filters on the right side of the screen, select Has Linked Contact in Custom Object. You can drag it to the canvas (grid area in the center) or double-click it.
   
   
   

4. On the canvas (in the middle of the screen), you'll see a blue bar that says Has Linked Contact in Custom Object. Double-click that bar to see a pop-up window with a dropdown menu.

   
   
   

5. In the popup window that says Contacts who have a linked contact in custom object ... select your CDO from the dropdown. If you don't have a CDO or do not understand this part, please contact the Marketing Automation Team before proceeding.
   
   

6. Once you select your CDO, you can click the Add button to add criteria. (The examples below show the CDO called z.Loritest. This is not a real CDO. Please use your CDO instead.)
   
   

7. Then double-click Double-click to edit this field condition.
   
   
   
8. Next, you can select the CDO field you want to filter by, the operator you want to use, and the selection or text you want to include.
   
   
   Depending on how the field was set up, you will have different operators available. For instance, if it's a number, you may see "greater than" and "less than," but if it's a text field, it may include "exactly" and "contains."
   
   
9. Repeat steps 3-8 for each additional filter you want to add. Once you have multiple filters, you can change the AND to OR and group filters.
   
   
   
10. As you add additional steps to your segment, you can also switch them to be excluded instead of included.
    
    
    
11. Make sure you save to see the changes take effect!

Things to remember about segments

• Note the difference between exactly and contains in your options dropdown.
  
  
  • For example, if you were to select Gender contains male, the filter will pull contacts whose gender field contains "male." This will include contacts who have "male" or "female" in that field.
    
    
  • If you select Gender exactly male, the filter will pull contacts whose gender field equals "male" only.
  
  
  
• An excluded step is all powerful. It doesn't matter if it's the first or last step, and it doesn't matter if a contact is on 13 included steps. If a contact is ever on an excluded step in a segment, it will be excluded from the entire segment.
  
  
• You can always refresh a segment's contact count by saving it.
  
  
• However, assuming you have complete filters selected (no errors on your segment), the segment will autorefresh before a campaign sends (no matter when you created the segment or how long ago you scheduled a campaign).