CRM tags and queries – decoded
Many CRMs use tags to select similar groups: audiences.
Think of a CRM tag as a kind of finder shortcut: you place a tag-word you want into a field, and instruct the system to select every record with that tag.
For more complex needs, Pipedrive enable users with queries (filters) to select audiences too:

Let’s imagine you want to find out all the companies (in your CRM) that have bought the service “Business Growth” and are based in Edinburgh.
You may use a single CRM tag on each company and then create a very simple boolean (yes/no) selection {tag}
Or instead, you could design a query in your CRM Pipedrive to segregate companies based in the city of Edinburgh where services included in deals won are “Business Growth”.
What is the difference?
- Using a single tag, you will end up with a very simple selection – but it required you to be certain each company has the correct tag within the data
- Using a Pipedrive filter may require you to develop a more complex query, but you won’t miss any companies that have entered the 3 parameters dynamically
What are the benefits?

The tag method is a manual selection, controlled by adding and deleting the tag for each record.
If the promo you want to run (via a CRM tag) is aimed at upselling another service {e.g. Consolidate Your Growth} at a special price to clients that already bought the Business Growth service, you won’t want to promote the special offer to companies that already have bought the Consolidate your Growth service at its standard price.
To avoid mistakenly communicating to the wrong companies if using the tag method, you must delete the tag one by one from each client that matches both conditions (bought Business Growth and bought Consolidate Your Growth). Or, alternatively, make life easier and create a different tag for them.
With the Queries method (one of Pipedrive’s filters) you simply add a line in that says: Product/deals/[does not contains] = {Consolidate Your Growth}
Adding one or many lines in the query dynamically segregates the correct audience, without needing to change the data set of each record.
As the saying goes: simpler solutions are not always the right solutions. More complex solutions often perform much better in complex environments, especially by matching the needs of the customer and the salesperson.