| Audience | Data engineers, analytics teams |
| Prerequisites |
|
Connect your data warehouse, configure sync infrastructure, and prepare datasets so marketers can build and activate audiences directly in Hightouch.
New to Hightouch's data model? The Data activation concepts page explains sources, models, syncs, destinations, and Change Data Capture (CDC). This article focuses on the hands-on setup work for data teams.
Setup steps
1. Connect your data
Connect your warehouse as the source of truth for all activation.
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Add your primary data source (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, Redshift) from Integrations, then Sources.
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(Optional) Connect additional data sources such as databases, APIs, or SaaS tools if they’re part of your activation strategy.
Hightouch syncs modeled data from your warehouse to destinations through sources, models, and syncs.
2. Configure sync infrastructure
Set up the systems that power reliable, performant syncs between your warehouse and marketing tools.
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Lightning Sync Engine (recommended)
Use Change Data Capture (CDC) to detect and sync only changed records. Recommended for all supported sources. Required for Journeys, Sampling, Warehouse Sync Logs, Identity Resolution, and other advanced features. -
Warehouse Sync Logs
Write sync metadata—such as row counts, errors, and rejected records—back to your warehouse for monitoring and visibility. -
Destinations
Connect downstream tools (e.g., Braze, Salesforce, ad platforms) where marketers will activate audiences and campaigns.
3. Define your schema
Define the data structure that marketers will use in Customer Studio to build audiences and campaigns.
This is typically a one-time setup owned by data teams.
- Parent model: The main dataset (for example, your
userstable) - Related models: Supporting entities such as accounts, subscriptions, or products
- Events: Timestamped actions (purchases, logins, cancellations)
- Relationships: Connections between models via foreign keys
Data teams define parent, related, and event models. Marketers use these attributes in Customer Studio to build audiences.
4. Security and change management
Security and workspace-level governance are usually managed by IT or platform admins.
As a data team, coordinate with IT to ensure:
- Environments are available for staging models and syncs
- Audit logs and approval flows are enabled per compliance policies
5. Set up additional products
If your team uses other Hightouch products, each has its own setup guide.
| Product | Setup docs |
|---|---|
| Identity Resolution | Identity Resolution overview |
| Events | Events overview |
| Match Booster | Match Booster overview |
| Real-Time Personalization | Set up realtime audiences |
For an overview of how these products connect, see the Composable CDP overview.