Zero-Copy Segments

A Zero-Copy Segment lets you build audience segments directly from your own Data Warehouse (DWH), such as Snowflake, BigQuery, or Databricks, without importing your data into Insider One.

Instead, Insider One runs your query on your warehouse, matches the returned users with your Unified Customer Database (UCD), and stores only the matched audience and segment metadata. Your raw warehouse data always remains in your own environment.

Why use Zero-Copy Segments?

No data replication → lower infrastructure and warehouse-sync cost.
Fresher segments → you query live warehouse data instead of a scheduled copy.
Fewer moving parts → no sync pipeline to break when schemas or permissions change.

Prerequisites

Make sure you have:

The Zero-Copy add-on enabled.
A configured DWH connection. You can reuse a warehouse connection your team set up earlier, or create a new one during the flow.
A known identifier in your warehouse data that maps to Insider One: email, phone_number, user_id, etc.
The right data on your users inside Insider One (UCD). Matching a user from your warehouse isn't enough to message them. For each user you intend to reach, Insider One must already hold:
- an identifier (the one your query returns: email, phone_number, user_id, etc.),
- the contact field for your channel: an email address for email, a phone number for SMS/WhatsApp,
- a valid consent / opt-in for that channel.

Only users who already exist in your Insider One UCD can be activated. If your SQL returns 100 users but only 10 exist in Insider One, the segment will contain 10.

Navigate to InOne > Audience > Segments and select Zero-Copy Segments.
You will land on the Zero-Copy Segments listing page.

Step 2: Create a Zero-Copy Segment

On the listing page, you will see all Zero-Copy segments in your account. For each segment, you can see:

Segment name
Status: e.g., Syncing, Ready, Action Required.
Connected DWH: which warehouse the segment runs on.
Last sync time: when it was last refreshed.
User count: matched Insider One users from the last refresh.

Click Create to start a new segment.

Enter a name for your Zero-Copy segment.
Add a tag if needed and click Create to proceed.

Step 3: Select a Data Warehouse connection

Select an existing DWH connection, or create a new one.

Only one connection can be used per segment.

You should add a connection to proceed to the Segmentation tab.

Important: After the segment's first successful save, the DWH connection becomes locked. To use a different warehouse you must create a new segment. You will receive a warning about this before your first save.

Step 4: Build your audience

In the Segment tab, you will build the query that returns your audience.

4.1: Select the identifier

Pick which identifier your query returns: email, phone_number, user_id, etc.

Selecting an identifier is mandatory.
The SQL editor is auto-prefilled with a non-editable SELECT DISTINCT template so the chosen identifier is always referenced correctly, for example:

SELECT DISTINCT <column> AS phone_number
-- Be sure that phone numbers are in E.164 format

4.2: Write the query

AI input is the default. Describe the audience in plain language (e.g. "customers who purchased more than 3 times in the last 90 days") and the assistant generates the SQL. This lets non-technical users build segments.
If you prefer SQL, switch to the editor to write, review, and run it directly. It supports syntax highlighting and query execution.
You can browse databases, schemas, and tables in the connected warehouse, and join multiple tables within the same connection.

4.3: Validate your query

The editor guides you with clear feedback:

Warehouse execution errors are shown directly.
Referencing a non-existent table or schema surfaces the related error.
Execution is blocked if the query returns more than one column (only the identifier is needed).
Execution is blocked if the selected identifier is missing from the query.
You can ask the AI assistant to explain and fix SQL errors.

4.4: Preview the results

Preview shows up to the first 100 rows returned by the query.
The preview page displays the total row count returned by the SQL in the warehouse.

Step 5: Review and save the segment

5.1: Review the matched user count

The count bubble shows the final number of Insider UCD users matched; not the raw warehouse row count.

Flow: your SQL runs on the DWH → results are matched against Insider UCD → the final Insider user count is displayed.

If execution runs long, you'll see the message below:

"Fetching data is taking longer than expected. You can keep using Insider One — save the segment and leave, and we'll notify you by email and in-app once it's ready."

You can save and leave; you'll be notified when it's done. Note that once you save, the connection can no longer be changed.

5.2: Set the refresh behavior

Scheduled refresh: Choose how often the segment re-runs.
Manual refresh: Re-run any time with the Refresh action.

5.3: Save and activate the segment

Click Save as Active. You will be redirected to the listing page while the segment runs its first query.

If the source count and the Insider One count differ, that's expected; only users already in Insider One are counted.

On the listing page, the segment shows an in-progress state: Syncing/Querying until the first run completes and it becomes Ready.

While the segment is querying:

You can view and edit the SQL.
You cannot save changes or preview results until the run finishes.

Step 6. Use the segment in campaigns

Once the Zero-Copy Segment status changes to Ready, it becomes available under Saved Segments and can be used in the following channels when building a campaign:

Bulk campaigns (for example, SMS, Email, and Push campaigns)
Architect > On Past Behavior triggers (the segment refreshes according to the trigger frequency)

Zero-Copy Segments are unavailable in the following channels. If you attempt to use them, a clear validation message is displayed:

OnSite campaign segment steps
Architect Check nodes