Pathways has four audience options on the Action menu of Pathways > Manage Audiences: Lookalike, Propensity, Analysis, and Persona. Lookalike and Propensity each create a new audience. Analysis and Persona add to an audience you already have.
Use Lookalike to reach new people through an ad platform. Use Propensity to rank who in your data to ask next. Use Analysis to compare giving across groups in Insights. Use Persona to guide Playbooks AI copy.
An option is missing or grayed out when the audience, your plan, or your permissions do not meet its requirements. This article lists them.
Use this article when
- You need to pick an option on the Action menu of Pathways > Manage Audiences.
- You want to know what an option needs before you click it.
- An option is missing or grayed out on an audience row.
- You want the detailed article for one option.
Applies to and prerequisites
| Item | What you need |
|---|---|
| Where |
Pathways > Manage Audiences, then the menu icon in the Action column. The icon tooltip is Actions. |
| Permission | Pathways edit permission for all four options. Without it, Avid hides the options. |
| Plan | A plan that includes Pathways. Propensity models need Avid Intelligence or Avid Operating System (OS), or an active trial of either. The requirements for each option list its other plan needs. |
Compare the four options
| If you want to | Choose | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Reach new people through an ad platform | Create a Lookalike Acquisition Audience | Avid creates a new audience. The Type column shows Modeled. |
| Rank who in your data to ask next | Create a Propensity Model | Avid creates a new audience. The Type column shows Propensity. |
| Compare giving across groups in Insights | Create an Analysis Audience | No new audience. It attaches to the audience you started from. |
| Guide Playbooks AI copy for a group | Create a Persona Audience | No new audience. It saves a note on the audience you started from. |
Find all four in the Action menu on an audience row. The red outline marks them.
An owned audience is one you build directly from your data sources and filters. A constituent data blend is donor-level data that Avid builds from your connected systems. See the Constituent Data Blend Glossary.
Lookalike: find new people
A lookalike audience is a group that an ad platform builds to resemble your seed audience. A seed audience is the owned audience you start from.
Avid calls a lookalike a modeled audience. When you push it, Avid syncs the seed audience to the platform and asks the platform to build the lookalike.
Use it when you want to find new donors and build awareness.
Selecting Create a Lookalike Acquisition Audience creates the audience right away. Avid asks for no confirmation. To undo it, archive the new audience.
Requirements
- An owned seed audience. A lookalike cannot be a seed.
- At least 1,000 in the Contacts column.
- No lookalike yet for that seed. Archived lookalikes do not count.
- Pathways edit permission. Direct Mail edit permission is not enough.
- A connected ad platform to push to.
Limits
- Only Meta (Facebook), TikTok Ads, and Snapchat Ads accept it. Other destinations show
You cannot push modeled audiences to this destination, and you cannot select them. - Lookalikes target people in the United States only.
- Avid shows no size or member list. You cannot export it or pick it in Direct Mail. Playbooks skip email, text, and direct mail assets for it.
- Archiving the seed archives its lookalikes. Restoring the seed does not restore them.
Learn more: Modeled Audiences: How AI-Generated Segments Work and Owned vs. modeled audiences in Avid. Platform guides: Meta (Facebook), TikTok Ads, and Snapchat Ads.
Propensity: decide who to ask next
Avid trains a model on your seed audience, the people who took the action. It scores every other account in the same constituent data blend. It keeps the top accounts, up to the Target Audience Size you enter.
The result is a new audience named Propensity Model of {seed name}. You can export or push it like other owned audiences.
Use it when you want to decide who in your data to ask next. Examples include keeping donors, asking for larger gifts, starting recurring gifts, and re-engaging lapsed donors.
Requirements
- Avid Intelligence or Avid Operating System (OS), or an active trial of either.
- An owned seed audience on a constituent data blend, not already a propensity audience.
- A transaction field in the filter, such as gift date, amount, or recurring.
- More than 1,000 in the Contacts column. Exactly 1,000 does not qualify.
- Pathways edit permission.
Limits
- The build takes several minutes. Avid notifies the person who started it when it finishes.
- The result never includes seed members or accounts whose contacts are all marked deceased.
Learn more: Propensity modeling: predict your donors' next move.
Analysis: measure giving
An Analysis Audience is an add-on to an existing audience. It tags each member in your constituent data blend with a Start Date. An Appeal Code and Category are optional. An appeal is how you ask for support.
It does not create a new audience, change who is in the audience, or change any pathway sync. You then compare giving across Analysis Audiences in Insights > Appeal Analysis > Analysis Audience Giving Report.
Use it when you compare groups or campaigns over the same period, such as the first 30 days of each. You can also select Make this into an Analysis Audience while you build an audience.
Requirements
- An owned audience on a constituent data blend, with no Analysis Audience yet.
- Pathways edit permission.
- A Name and a Start Date. Choose one start date option:
- Static Date: a fixed date.
- Date Constituent is Added to Audience: the date each person is added to the audience.
- Minimum Gift Date of Audience: the earliest gift date in the audience. It needs a transaction field in the filter.
- A plan that includes Insights, to read the report.
Limits
- Avid processes it in the background. The page shows no progress.
- After it exists, Create an Analysis Audience leaves the menu. Select the Analysis Audience icon in the Usage column to update it.
Learn more: How to Create an Analysis Audience and Analyze giving behavior with Audience Analysis.
Persona: write to a group
A persona is a short note you save on an existing audience. The note answers What would motivate this audience to take action? Saving it does not create a new audience.
Use it when you want Playbooks AI copy written for a group. When you pick an audience for a play asset, the AI writes to that audience's persona.
Requirements
- Pathways edit permission. Any audience works, including Owned, Modeled, and Propensity audiences.
- No size or data source rule applies.
- A Playbooks plan or OS, to use the AI copy.
Limits
- The Audience drop-down on a play touchpoint lists only audiences with persona text, plus those already chosen in that play. If yours is missing, add a persona.
- Some audiences, such as propensity audiences, get a persona automatically. Their menu item already reads Edit the Persona Audience.
Learn more: Playbooks: Creating a Persona Audience.
Use the options together
One owned audience can show all four options in its menu, as the first image shows. For example, start with an owned audience of donors who started recurring gifts in the last 24 months. Then:
- Create a lookalike and push it to Meta (Facebook) to reach new people like them.
- Create a propensity model to rank current donors most likely to start recurring gifts next.
- Save a persona so Playbooks AI copy speaks to that group.
- Add an Analysis Audience to compare that group's giving in Insights.
Each option still needs its own requirements. Other audiences show fewer options.
See how each option shows up in Manage Audiences
- Type shows Owned, Modeled, or Propensity. To filter, select the filter icon next to Search, then open Audience Type.
- A lookalike shows Modeled,
--under Contacts, and its seed's name under Data Source. A propensity audience shows an account-based Contacts number and Constituent Data Blend. - The Usage column icons have the tooltips
Analysis Audience,Propensity model, andPersona Audience.
If an option is missing or grayed out
| Option | Hidden when | Grayed out when |
|---|---|---|
| Create a Lookalike Acquisition Audience | The audience is not an owned audience, for example a Modeled audience. It has under 1,000 contacts. It already has a lookalike. You lack Pathways edit permission. | Never. Avid shows no message. |
| Create a Propensity Model | Your plan does not include propensity models. Pathways, Playbooks, and Benchmarks plans do not. The audience is not an owned audience, or is already a propensity audience. You lack Pathways edit permission. |
The audience is not a constituent data blend audience: The filter has no transaction field: The audience has 1,000 contacts or fewer: |
| Create an Analysis Audience | The audience is not an owned audience, is not a constituent data blend audience, or already has an Analysis Audience. You lack Pathways edit permission. | Never. |
| Create a Persona Audience | You lack Pathways edit permission. | Never. |
If an audience fails several propensity rules, the tooltip shows only the first failed rule, in the order listed.
If the whole Action menu is missing, you may lack edit access. The menu appears for Pathways or Direct Mail editors, and for users who can pin audiences to a dashboard. The archived audiences view shows Restore audience instead.
When to contact LockStep Support
Contact LockStep Support if an option is missing and the table above does not explain why. Include:
- The audience name.
- Its Type and Contacts values.
- Your plan and Pathways permission.
- The option you expected to see.
Next steps
- Open Pathways > Manage Audiences and check which options your audiences show.
- Build a seed audience with Creating an Audience from Scratch.
- Send an audience to a platform with Syncing Audiences to Email and Ad Platforms.
For agency partners
- Avid stores a propensity audience as an owned audience that links to its model.
- A lookalike follows its seed's live filter. Turning off the seed's pathway also disables its lookalike syncs. The confirmation includes
Associated Modeled Audiences Will Also Be Disabled. - Avid sets US targeting on each platform. Meta (Facebook) uses 1% similarity, TikTok Ads a narrow size, and Snapchat Ads type SIMILARITY. If a platform says the seed is too small, Avid retries after 1 hour.
- Analysis writes per-member activity entries into your constituent data blend. Each entry carries the start date and any appeal code and category.