Owned vs. modeled audiences in Avid – Avid

Learn what “owned” and “modeled” audiences mean in Avid, how they depend on each other, and when to use each type.

Use this article when…

You are creating a new audience and need to pick Owned or Modeled.
You see that some destinations only accept owned audiences and you want to know why.
You plan to use lookalike-style targeting (for example, on Facebook) based on an existing audience.
You are unsure what happens to a modeled audience if you change or delete its base audience.

Applies to and prerequisites

Applies to	Avid customers with Audiences enabled.
Recommended roles	Users who create or manage audiences and pathways (for example, marketing or advancement operations).
Prerequisites	At least one connected data source (datasets or data blends) for owned audiences. At least one existing owned audience to use as a base for modeled audiences.
Time to read	3–5 minutes.

Quick definition

Owned audience – built directly from your own data (tables or data blends plus filters). It is your “base” audience and can stand on its own.
Modeled audience – derived from an owned audience. It depends on that base audience and cannot exist or be used independently.

In plain language

An owned audience is like your original contact list with rules you define. A modeled audience is a “smart” audience that starts from that list and lets tools like Facebook find similar people, not just the exact same contacts.

What owned and modeled audiences are

Owned audiences

Created directly from your own data sources in Avid (datasets or data blends plus filters and logic).
Treated as the source of truth for who belongs in that segment.
Can be used on their own across Avid, playbooks, and most integrations.
Can be edited by adjusting the underlying filters and data sources.

Modeled audiences

Always start from an existing owned audience, called the base audience.
Do not define their own filters or datasets. Instead, they “point at” the base audience.
Depend entirely on that base audience for membership and updates.
Are often used for lookalike-style targeting, where an external platform finds similar people.

Why the difference matters

Control and trust: Owned audiences track directly back to your data and rules. Modeled audiences build on that foundation.
Destination support: Many destinations only accept owned audiences. Modeled audiences may not be available for all integrations.
Dependencies: If you disable or delete a base owned audience, any modeled audiences that rely on it become invalid.
Strategy: Use owned audiences to define “who” you care about. Use modeled audiences when a destination can extend that group to “people like them.”

How owned audiences work in Avid

You start from a data source (for example, a donor table or a blended dataset).
You add filters and logic to define who belongs in the audience.
Avid computes the audience size directly from your data.
You can sync an owned audience to many destinations, because most integrations are configured to accept owned audiences.
If you change the filters, the audience updates and future syncs reflect the new membership.

How modeled audiences work in Avid

You choose Modeled as the type and select an existing owned audience as the base.
The modeled audience does not have its own filter builder or separate data source.
When you use the modeled audience in a pathway, Avid uses the base audience as the seed or starting point.
The final list of people often comes from the destination’s modeling (for example, a lookalike). It may include similar contacts, not the exact same list.
Because the size depends on the base and sometimes on the destination, you may not see a separate, independent count for the modeled audience inside Avid.

Example: Facebook lookalike audiences

One common use of modeled audiences is Facebook lookalike targeting.

You create an owned audience in Avid, such as “Recent major donors.”
You then create a modeled audience that uses “Recent major donors” as the base.
When you push the modeled audience to Facebook, Avid first syncs the base audience as a standard custom audience.
Facebook then creates or reuses a lookalike audience that targets people similar to those donors.
The modeled audience in Avid now represents that lookalike audience, not the base list itself.

LockStep insight

Use owned audiences to define clear, high-quality seed groups (for example, best-fit alumni or long-term sustainers). Then use modeled audiences with advertising platforms to expand reach to people who behave like those high-value segments.

What happens when the base audience changes

If you edit the base owned audience

Membership in the base audience updates based on the new filters.
Any modeled audiences that depend on that base automatically use the updated membership as their seed.
Future syncs of the modeled audiences reflect the updated base.

If you disable or delete the base owned audience

Modeled audiences cannot stand alone; they require a valid base audience.
If the base is disabled, related modeled audiences can no longer update or sync.
If the base is deleted, related modeled audiences are removed so they do not continue to run against a missing seed.
Before you remove a key base audience, review any modeled audiences that depend on it and adjust your workflows.

Warning

Deleting or turning off a popular base audience can break several modeled audiences at once. Review dependencies before you clean up older segments.

Which audience type should you use?

Question	Choose owned	Choose modeled
Do you want full control over filters in Avid?	Yes. Owned audiences let you define and edit all rules.	No. Modeled audiences reuse the base audience rules.
Do you need to sync to many different destinations?	Yes. Most destinations accept owned audiences.	Maybe. Some destinations do not accept modeled audiences.
Do you want “people exactly in this group”?	Yes. Owned audiences match your rules exactly.	No. Modeled audiences often include similar people, not an exact match.
Do you want “people like this group” (lookalikes)?	Use as the seed for the modeled audience.	Yes. Modeled audiences power lookalike-style targeting.

Using owned vs. modeled audiences via Pathways

Sync behavior and constraints

Each audience has a type field that can be owned or modeled.
When you create a modeled audience via API, you must reference an existing owned audience as its base.
Destinations declare which audience types they accept. Many are configured to accept owned audiences only.
Because modeled audiences depend on a base, disabling or deleting the base audience affects related modeled audiences and their syncs.

Get help

If you are unsure whether an audience should be owned or modeled, or if a modeled audience will not sync to a destination:

Share the audience name and type (owned or modeled).
Include the base audience name, if it is modeled.
Mention the destination you want to use (for example, Facebook, Salesforce Marketing Cloud).
Note any error messages or what you see in the Pathways UI.

Send this information to your LockStep Specialist so they can confirm configuration and recommend the best structure for your audiences.

Related to