Use the Audience Builder tool to create custom segments of individuals in your database based on their demographics, email history, purchase history, or other behavior. You can then use these audiences as email contact lists, SMS contact lists, to send into social (Meta, Google Ads), or to export into other places via SFTP.
To navigate here, click Audience > Audience Builder from the left-hand nav (or from the home page).
Fields Library
Once the Audience Selector tool has loaded, you will see a Fields Library to the left of the canvas. The fields library represents all of the fields present in your database. (Note: some fields aren't by default turned on for audience builder. For example, Address Line 1 isn't commonly used to created audiences with, as it's too granular. So we've turned off some fields by default. The data dictionary section allows users to toggle fields on or off). The fields are broken up into folders like Demographics, Purchase History and Customer Attributes to make fields easier to find, but there is also a search feature at the top of the library.
If you hover on a fields’ name, the definition of the field will appear. You can check your data dictionary for more information about the fields in your database.
Configuring Fields
To create an audience, choose a field from the fields library and drag & drop it into the center canvas.
Then, click the gear icon to configure the field. Use the two arrows in the middle of the configuration window to move values from possible values to selected values. Hit the Save button to save your selection.
When you save your configuration, the field configuration description displays your selection. Hit the refresh button next to Audience Count to see the individuals tied to your audience. At the bottom of the field configuration box, the raw count of individuals in the database that match your selection is also displayed.
Combining Fields
To create an audience with multiple fields, drag another field into the canvas. By default, the operand between the two fields is AND.
To switch the "AND" to an "OR", select the down arrow on the operator button, then select the operator you would like to use from the drop down. Once you have selected your operator, configure your second field by repeating the steps above.
Refreshing Audience Counts
Once you have created your audience, you can check the count of individuals in your audience by refreshing your audience count. On the audience builder menu, there is a “refresh counts” button that allows you to count the number of individuals your audience contains. Before your audience is refreshed, the count will show as "?". Once you have refreshed, your count will display the number of individuals (unless you have made a different Contactablity selection) who fit the criteria for your audience definition.
Saving Your Audience
Once you are satisfied with your audiences’ configuration, you can save your audience by selecting the Save As button on the top menu. Name your audience something descriptive, and (optionally) write a brief description. Then, click the Save button to save your audience.
Important Considerations
📋 Scheduling audiences that require yesterday's data
Some audiences — such as post-purchase campaigns and transaction-based suppressions — rely on data from the previous day. If your audience falls into this category, make sure to schedule your export after your CDP has completed its daily rebuild. Contact your CSM to confirm your daily rebuild completion time before scheduling.
Tip: Simplify your audience to improve performance
Using product hierarchy fields (such as Class or Subclass) speeds up audience calculation by reducing the number of values the CDP needs to evaluate. For example, filtering by a single Subclass Name is faster than listing multiple individual product descriptions.
...Learn more about using the Product Hierarchy Export to build pristine audiences.
Tip: When using Complex Audience Builder, output fields are driven by the first audience in your complex audience
The CDP pulls output fields from the first audience listed in your complex audience build, so order matters. Place the audience associated with the data table containing your needed output fields first.
For example, if you need the Product Date field for a list of December lodging guests who purchased lift tickets, put the Lift Tickets audience first. This directs the CDP to the product table where that field is stored. If the lodging audience is listed first instead, the CDP pulls from the lodging table and may populate the field inaccurately.
Tip: Use an Advanced Query instead of a Complex Audience when working with non-default output fields
If your export requires a non-default output field — or one that doesn't apply to all audiences in your complex audience — an Advanced Query in Audience Builder will calculate significantly faster than a Complex Audience build.
Default output fields include: address, city, email, phone, zip/postal code, state, first name, last name, and LTGID (Ascent360 ID). Any field outside of this list is considered non-default.
For example, if you need to export Product Description for Local Pass holders who haven't scanned this season, an Advanced Query lets you group criteria (e.g., Class Name = Local Pass AND Summary Scans ≠ 0) so the CDP calculates them together rather than sequentially — speeding up processing time and eliminating the need for Complex Audience Builder entirely.
Learn more about Advanced Queries.
