Creating a custom audience

Custom audiences allow you to import groups of users from outside SMART and use them in campaigns. Custom audiences can be based on demographics, offline behaviors, or other metrics that you define.

For example, you might group account holders born between 1946 and 1964. You can import a list of those account holders to create a custom audience called Baby Boomers. Then, when creating a campaign, you could choose to include or exclude the Baby Boomers audience to determine whether they see ads in the campaign.

You can create a custom audience by importing data through the Audiences page. On this page, you can download an audience template, populate a spreadsheet, and upload a CSV file that contains an identifier for each audience member.

The minimum file size for audience upload is 10 bytes. The maximum file size is 5 MB.

To create a custom audience

  1. On the Audiences page, select Import an audience.
  2. Select Download an audience template.
    • In the template file, enter each audience member's identifier on a separate row, and save your work.
  3. Enter a name for your audience in the Audience name field.
  4. Select Upload a CSV.
  5. Using the drop-down list, select the identifier you are using in your CSV file. The identifier can be only one of the following:
    • Social Security number (SSN)
    • Login ID
    • Email address
    • Customer Information File (CIF)
    6. Only one type of identifier is allowed per file.
  6. (Optional) Enter a brief description for your audience in the Description field.
  7. Select Upload a CSV, select the CSV file, and select OK to upload the file.
    8. The time required to upload a file depends on the size of the file. Large CSV files will continue loading in the background, and you can begin building a campaign even though the number of records uploaded remains 0 in SMART.

    After uploading the CSV file, the system displays the number of Active user records that were successfully imported, along with a fraction. The fraction numerator represents the number of inactive online banking users, or failed imports. The fraction denominator represents the total number of users attempted, or the total number of identifiers in the uploaded list.

    To download a list of records that were not uploaded the first time, select Download under Failed imports. Edit the downloaded list and select Upload again.
  8. Select Save. Alternatively, select Save and build campaign to begin creating a campaign based on your new audience.