Create audiences


Audience	Marketers
Prerequisites	Completed schema setup by your data team

Audiences define the group of users or entities you want to target in your marketing campaigns. Using the visual audience builder, you combine filters, events, and traits without writing SQL.

Learning objectives

After reading this article, you’ll know how to:

Create and define a new audience
Use different filters (properties, events, traits, etc.) to refine your segment
Validate and preview audience results
Limit and control audience size
View and interpret audience insights

The audience builder allows you to define audience segments without writing SQL. You use visual filters based on properties, events, relationships, and custom traits, and can preview your segments as you build.

Once created, audiences can be used in campaigns, journeys, splits, or tests, and synced to your marketing platforms like CRMs, ESPs, or ad networks.

Audiences are based on models configured by your data team, allowing you to segment users, accounts, or other business-specific entities.

Create a new audience

Step 1: Create a new audience

Go to Customer Studio → Audiences(https://app.hightouch.com/audiences).
Click Add Audience.

Select a Parent Model to segment (e.g., Users, Accounts, Devices).

Enter a clear name (e.g., "High-Value Customers") and optionally add a description.

Step 2: Add filters

Start with an audience template(link) or use filters and logic to define your own criteria.

Click + Add filter and choose from six types

Filter type	Use it to filter by...	Example filters
Properties	Attributes of the parent model	`email contains "@gmail.com"`
Relations	Associated records (purchases, accounts)	`has Purchase where amount > 100`
Events	Actions users have performed over time	`Product Viewed within last 30 days`
Audiences	Membership in another saved audience	`is in VIP Members`
Journeys	Participation in a marketing journey	`currently in Abandoned Cart Journey`
Custom traits	Calculated fields defined by you or your data team	`customer_score > 80`

Use logical conditions (AND/OR), time windows (e.g., "within the last 7 days"), and comparison operators (equals, greater than, contains) to create your ideal segment.

Example:

Users who made a purchase in the last 30 days
AND work in healthcare
AND who have an LTV greater than $500

Step 3: Preview and validate

Once your filters are applied, preview your audience size and sample members.

Select a destination to preview

Select a destination to priview audience size and membership before finalizing.

Validate audience size and results

Click Calculate size to see how many user records meet your criteria.

Once calculated, click the member count (e.g., 110 members) to view individual records.

Limit audience size

To reduce or control audience size:

Click the Limit audience size icon.
Choose Top or Bottom members and specify audience size.
Select a meaningful column to sort by, such as:
- Numeric (e.g., purchase_amount)
- Date (e.g., last_purchase_date)

Example: Target your top 500 customers by total spend.

Use Sampling to preview large datasets faster or to test logic without querying the entire warehouse.

Step 4: View insights

Insights help you understand the composition and overlap of your audience, enabling informed decisions about targeting and messaging.

Click Show Insights to open the insights panel:
- Overlap of audience: Compare shared users with another audience.
- Audience breakdown: View the distribution of the audience by a chosen metric like traits, geography, or behaviors.