New in Activation Studio v5.15.0: Custom starting point & 5-minute automation slots

We’re excited to bring you the latest update to Activation Studio! Version 5.15.0 lets you start a segment in Segment Designer from any Data Extension, gives you full control over your target Data Extension and adds 5-minute automation slots. Together they make it easier to segment on data beyond your subscribers, next to the scores you already build in Score Designer.

Custom starting point in Segment Designer

Until now every segment in Segment Designer started from All Subscribers, so data that isn’t set up on SubscriberKey was hard to reach. In step 1 you can now choose a Custom Starting Point and use any Data Extension as the base of your segment, such as account-level data, mapping tables or identifiers like SubscriberID or a Google Analytics ID. With a Custom Starting Point the wizard gets a sixth step (standard segments stay at five) where you choose the fields to include, rename them (for example an id field as SubscriberKey in your target Data Extension) and set the primary key and sendable field yourself.

Aggregations such as COUNT and SUM work on one-to-many relationships with a numeric field. You can duplicate these segments like any other. The starting point type also shows as a column in your segment overview. The result can contain duplicates and doesn’t need a SubscriberKey. That flexibility is by design, but without a key the Data Extension isn’t sendable, so choose a key when you want to activate the result. A warning on the last step reminds you.

More control over your target Data Extension

Until now the target Data Extension of a segment followed the defaults of Segment Designer for column names and order. In the Data Extension step you can now rename columns and change the field order, while SubscriberKey stays a fixed default field in standard segments. Set this before you save, because column names and field order can’t be changed once the Data Extension exists. On the same step you set the data retention policy and the data action (Overwrite or Update) and sort the results by a field and direction of your choice. Your target Data Extension is then ready for your journey or send without any post-processing.

Schedule automations in 5-minute slots

The start time of a segment automation could only be :00 or :30, so heavy segments often started at the same moment. You can now choose the exact 5-minute slot (:00, :05, :10 up to :55) for hourly, daily, weekly and monthly automations. Spread your heavier segments across the hour and avoid peak load in Marketing Cloud.

Also in this release

Segments that still run on the legacy Segment V1 configuration now show a banner. They keep running but can no longer be edited, so we recommend rebuilding them in Segment Designer.

You can now also add CreateDate from System Data as a configurable default field in Configure Fields.

Looking ahead: Activation Studio + AI

Salesforce has released the MCP Server for Marketing Cloud Engagement. For us, that’s not a threat. It is the missing bridge. AI can draft a segment and Segment Designer makes it visible, reviewable and documented before anything goes live. AI proposes. The marketer decides.

This update is part of our ongoing commitment to making Activation Studio the most powerful and user-friendly marketing tool. Start using these features today and explore the new capabilities!

Stay tuned for more exciting updates—we’re always working to help you maximize your marketing potential.