Audiences

Audiences are segments of customers defined by conditions on traits, attributes, and entity relationships. They are the primary mechanism for targeting specific groups of customers for activation through audience syncs.

What Is an Audience?

An audience is a set of filter conditions that define which entity instances (e.g., users, accounts) belong to the segment. When evaluated, SignalSmith compiles these conditions into a SQL query, executes it against your warehouse, and produces a membership list — the set of entity keys that match.

For example, an audience called “High-Value Churning Customers” might be defined as:

• lifetime_value greater than 500 AND
• days_since_last_purchase greater than 60 AND
• order_count greater than or equal to 3

Every entity that satisfies all three conditions is a member of the audience.

How Audiences Work

Audiences are warehouse-native. The filter conditions you define in the UI are compiled into SQL WHERE clauses and executed directly against your warehouse. No data is extracted or copied — the computation happens entirely inside your warehouse.

┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐
│  Filter      │     │  SQL         │     │  Membership  │
│  Conditions  │────▶│  Generation  │────▶│  List        │
│  (UI)        │     │  & Execution │     │  (Warehouse) │
└──────────────┘     └──────────────┘     └──────────────┘

The audience membership list is stored in a table in your warehouse’s SignalSmith schema and updated on each evaluation. Audience syncs read from this membership table to determine which records to add, update, or remove from destinations.

Key Features

Visual Filter Builder

The filter builder provides a visual interface for constructing audience conditions. You can:

• Add conditions on traits and entity attributes
• Group conditions with AND/OR logic
• Nest groups for complex boolean expressions
• Use a comprehensive set of comparison operators

Size Estimation

Before activating, you can estimate how many entities match your audience definition. Estimation uses sampling queries to return a fast approximate count without running the full audience query.

Preview

Audience preview lets you see sample members of the audience — actual entity records that match the filter conditions. This helps you validate that the audience definition captures the right customers before syncing to a destination.

Templates

Audience templates provide pre-built definitions for common segments like high-value customers, churn risk, new users, and more. Start from a template and customize the conditions to fit your data.

Audience Lifecycle

1. Define

Create an audience by setting a name, selecting an entity type, and building filter conditions with the visual filter builder. You can also set a description and tags for organization.

2. Estimate and Preview

Before saving, use size estimation to check the approximate member count and preview to inspect sample members. Iterate on the filter conditions until the audience captures the right segment.

3. Save and Evaluate

When you save the audience, SignalSmith compiles the filter conditions into SQL and executes the full audience query to materialize the membership list. The audience is now live and ready for activation.

4. Activate

Create one or more audience syncs to send the audience to destinations. Each sync runs on a schedule, comparing the current membership list to the previous one to determine adds and removes.

5. Monitor

Track audience size over time, view evaluation history, and monitor sync statuses from the audience detail page. SignalSmith records the member count after each evaluation, letting you spot trends and anomalies.

Audience Properties

API Reference

Audiences are managed through the SignalSmith REST API:

# List all audiences
GET /api/v1/audiences
 
# Get a single audience
GET /api/v1/audiences/{id}
 
# Create an audience
POST /api/v1/audiences
 
# Update an audience
PUT /api/v1/audiences/{id}
 
# Delete an audience
DELETE /api/v1/audiences/{id}
 
# Evaluate an audience
POST /api/v1/audiences/{id}/evaluate
 
# Estimate audience size
POST /api/v1/audiences/{id}/estimate
 
# Preview audience members
GET /api/v1/audiences/{id}/preview

Next Steps

• Creating an Audience — Step-by-step guide
• Filter Builder — Detailed reference for the visual builder
• Operators Reference — All available comparison operators
• Size Estimation — Approximate member counts
• Audience Preview — Inspect sample members