The difference between Exact match, Simple match, Contains & Regex

Exact Match

Will match the URL of the page exactly. Notice that browsers sometimes hide the last ”/” from the URL field – even though it exists. To get the exact URL, type ”location.href” in the console.

NOTICE: If the URL contains parameters Audience will be false with this setting. See the example below:  

Examples:

mceclip0.png

 

URL DOES EXACT MATCH: https://www.example.com/

TRUE:
URL: https://www.example.com/

FALSE:
URL: https://www.example.com
URL: http://www.example.com/ 
URL: https://example.com/
URL: https://example.com/?something=1
URL: https://example.com/#something=1

 

Simple Match

It will match exactly the URL of the page but will allow parameters (/?query=1). 
It will also ignore:

  • https://   
  • http://   

 

Examples:

mceclip1.png

 

URL DOES SIMPLE MATCH: https://www.example.com/

TRUE:
URL: https://www.example.com/ 
URL: https://www.example.com 
URL: http://www.example.com/ 
URL: https://example.com/ 
URL: https://example.com/?query=1 

FALSE:
URL: https://example.com/subpage 

 

Contains

Will check if the URL contains the string.

Examples:

mceclip2.png

 

URL DOES CONTAINS: example.com

TRUE:
URL: https://www.example.com/ 
URL: https://www.example.com 
URL: http://www.example.com/ 
URL: https://example.com/ 
URL: https://example.com/?query=1 
URL: https://example.com/subpage 
URL: https://example.com/subpage/product_page

FALSE:
Match string: example.se

 

Regex Match

Will check if the URL matches the string by regex. 

NOTE: You don't need to add the first / and the last / in your regex. You do however need to add the correct flag(s) if you for example want your match to be case insensitive.

Examples:

mceclip4.png

URL DOES REGEX: example\.com\/order\/\d

The regex above means that the URL needs to contain example.com/order/x 
x = any digit. 

TRUE:
URL:
example.com/order/1256 

URL: example.com/order/1256/thank_you
URL: example.com/order/1256/56978

FALSE:
URL: example.com/order/thank_you/1256
URL: example.se/order/1256
URL: example.com/order/m1256

 

 

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