Segmentation helps you identify your best future customers by learning from your existing ones.

Instead of manually applying filters like "industry = SaaS" or "company size = 50–200," you provide a list of your best customers. Segmentation analyzes what they actually have in common, then finds similar companies across Ocean's entire database.

In simple terms: you show us your best customers → we find more companies like them.

Building a segment isn't a manual filter-setting exercise, Ocean's AI helps you build it using natural language. Describe what you're looking for, and the assistant translates that into the underlying segmentation logic for you, rather than requiring you to manually configure every trait and weight yourself.

(This ties into Segmentation Preview mode, covered in Using Segmentation, a free AI mode for refining your segments right after you generate them, before saving.)

At the core of Segmentation is Ocean's own algorithm: we analyze the actual context of a company's website, what it does, who it serves, how it describes itself, rather than relying on surface-level labels like an industry tag. Every company that appears in your segments is found this way: it's a lookalike match, grounded in real website context, not a keyword or category filter.

Segmentation draws on Ocean's database of tens of millions of companies, and looks at far more than basic firmographic data. It evaluates:

Based on your input, Segmentation builds a customer profile model from this context, then ranks other companies by how closely they match it.

This goes well beyond traditional "lookalike" tools that rely only on surface-level filters like industry or headcount, Segmentation learns the actual pattern behind who your best customers are, straight from how those companies present themselves online.

Segmentation is built for:

Most tools rely on simple attributes: industry, company size, location.

Segmentation goes deeper, analyzing what companies actually do, how they position themselves, and real-world signals, hiring, technology, growth. The result: more accurate ICPs and higher-quality lead lists, grounded in who you actually win, not generic category assumptions.

And it doesn't stop at finding companies, it shows you the business impact. Every segment comes with:

This means you're not just told "these companies look similar", you can immediately see which segments are actually winning, how fast, and at what deal size, so you can prioritize the segments worth doubling down on.

Here's where it goes a step further: Segmentation doesn't just tell you which companies to target, it tells you who to talk to at each one.

This works best with a connected CRM: if your win rate is highest when you're talking to VPs of Sales, Segmentation surfaces the top matching contacts in that role at each company in your segment. If Finance leaders are actually your best conversion path, it connects you there instead, the recommendation follows your real success pattern, not a generic assumption about who the "right" buyer should be.

You don't need a CRM connection to get value here, though, this works with a CSV upload or manually pasted domains too. Without CRM data to learn your actual win pattern from, Segmentation surfaces the most relevant contacts at each company based on role and seniority fit instead, still a strong starting point, just without the "who you actually convert with best" layer that a connected CRM adds.

From there, you're one step from reveal data, and, paired with Ocean Chat, one more step from a drafted outreach message. Find the segment, find the right person, reveal their details, and draft the outreach: the whole path from insight to action, in a handful of clicks.

As with every step in Segmentation, none of this is a black box, you can review and manually adjust the recommendations at any point along the way.

Segmentation is something we're actively building on. Expect ongoing improvements to accuracy, new signals, and new ways to act on your segments as real usage shapes what we build next.