Linked Audiences

Linked Audiences allows you to build a warehouse first solution that powers individualized customer experiences using the relational data you’ve defined in your Data Graph. You can:

• Preserve rich relationships between all the data in your warehouse by creating connections with any entity data back to your audience profile.
• Build advanced audience segments that include the rich context needed for personalization downstream.
• Use a low code builder, enabling marketers to activate warehouse data without having to wait for data pull requests before launching campaigns to targeted audiences.

To learn more about specific use cases you can set up with Linked Audiences, see the Linked Audiences Use Cases topic.

Prerequisites

Before you begin setting up your Linked Audience, ensure you have:

• Set up Profiles Sync.
• Set up your warehouse permissions using Snowflake.
• Ensure someone has set up your data graph.
• Workspace Owner or Unify Read-Admin, Entities Admin, and Source Admin roles in Segment.

Setting up Linked Audiences

To set up your Linked Audience, complete the following steps:

• Step 1: Build a Linked Audience
• Step 2: Activate your Linked Audiences
• Step 3: Enable your Linked Audience
• Step 4: Confirm the payload in your destination

Step 1: Build a Linked Audience

Linked Audiences allows you to filter based on properties like profile traits, relational data mapped to the Data Graph, events, and existing audiences.

To build a Linked Audience:

1. Navigate to Engage > Audiences.
2. Select + New audience > Audience.
3. On the Select Audience Type screen, select Linked audience, then click Next. Note: If you cannot select Linked audience, ensure you’ve set up your Data Graph in Unify.
4. Select the profiles conditions on which to build your audience.
5. Click Preview to view your audience selection and see a count of audience members who meet the criteria.
6. When your audience is complete and accurate, click Next.
7. Enter an audience name and description to identify this configuration. Optionally, select a folder to add this audience.
8. Click Create Audience.

Linked Audience profiles conditions

As you’re building your Linked Audience, you can choose from the following profiles conditions:

Note: you can only create nested entity conditions up to four levels in depth. For example, an entity condition that queries for relationships between Profiles, Accounts, Credit Cards, and Transactions has four levels of depth.

Step 2: Activate your Linked Audience

After you build your Linked Audience, you can send events to your chosen destinations and use them for personalizing your customer communications.

To activate your Linked Audience:

• Step 2a: Connecting to a Destination
• Step 2b: Selecting your Destination Actions
• Step 2c: Defining how and when to trigger an event to your Destination
• Step 2d: Configuring the event payload

Step 2a: Connecting to a destination

Destinations are the business tools or apps that Segment forwards your data to. Adding a destination allows you to act on your data and learn more about your customers in real time. To fully take advantage of Linked Audiences, you must connect and configure at least one destination.

Note: Ensure your destination has been enabled in Segment before you begin the steps below.

1. Navigate to Engage > Audiences.
2. Select the Linked Audience you set up in the previous step.
3. Select Add destination.
4. Select a destination from the catalog.
5. Click Configure data to send to destination.

Step 2b: Select your Destination Actions

The Destination Actions framework allows you to see and control how Segment sends the event data it receives from your sources to actions-based destinations. Each Action in a destination lists the event data it requires, and the event data that is optional.

Segment displays available actions based on the destination you’ve connected to your Linked Audience.

Select the Destination Action to call when the event happens, then click Next.

Step 2c: Define how and when to trigger an event to your destination

Configure how and when events are produced with each audience run. Select the entities referenced in the audience builder to act as a trigger for your events.

Step 2d: Configure the event

After you select an action, Segment attempts to automatically configure the data fields that will be sent to the destination. You can review and adjust these settings before enabling this event.

Step 3: Enable your Linked Audience

After building your Linked Audience, you’ll be redirected to the Audience Overview page. Segment automatically disables your audience so that it does not start computing until you’re ready. To enable your audience:

Select the Enabled toggle, then select Enable audience.

You can trigger a compute for your audience if you want to send events to your destination without waiting for the next scheduled compute run. To do so, select Compute Now. This triggers a compute for the audience (where the audience conditions run on your data warehouse) and sends events downstream.

Step 4: Confirm the payload in your destination

Linked Audiences sends events to your destination after Segment computes the audience.

To confirm your destination is receiving events, Segment recommends that you log in to your destination and perform one of the following:

• Monitor the event activity
• Search for the UserID or Event Name (for example, Entity Added)