What is even more interesting is that if I define the rule more generically, so that the https://exp.com/de/studies/search can be visited at any point in the session, I get no data at all, even though the aforementioned visit corresponds to this rule.
Page URL is https://exp.com/de/studies/search
AND
Exit Page URL Starts with https://exp.com/de/studies
AND
Clicked Outlink Contains doi
This makes me doubt that I am configuring the segmentation correctly.
Just means that one page during the visit has https://exp.com/de/studies/search as referrer, that has been catched in the example you provided.
In my opinion, the 2nd segment definition should give almost same result as 1st segment definition… except maybe if the segmentation for action and page URL is done on the same action (ie the clicked outlink should happen on https://exp.com/de/studies/search).
In both definitions, I think you don’t segment on 2. he must then have visited a page that begins with https://exp.com/de/studies/.; you always defined a visit that ended with page URL starting with https://exp.com/de/studies (Exit Page URL Starts with).
One way to achieve your goal could use a custom visit dimension Has visited page 1, and probably use a 2nd custom dimension Has visited page 2 (only set when condition is met)? Then you can create a segment:
Has visited page 1 = true
AND
Has visited page 2 = true
AND
Clicked Outlink Contains doi
Hi @heurteph-ei, thank you very much for your answer. That helped me a lot to understand how the segmentation works. I’ll take a look at your idea with the custom dimension.