Deep Sync One: Lookalike Audiences User Guide

Improve social marketing performance, and accelerate revenue activity by utilizing your valuable customer data as a seed to model new, relevant prospect audiences.

A crucial component of effective advertising is balancing quality and scale. Creating lookalike audiences that use your own customer data as a seed for modeling is a powerful tool to grow your advertising efforts while maintaining the quality of your audiences. Your first-party data, coupled with Deep Sync's robust, trusted 260-million-record consumer dataset, is a powerful combination that enables you to accurately and confidently target the right audiences, at scale, across social destinations.

 

How Lookalike Audiences Work

The Process - Three Simple Steps to Create Your Own Lookalike Audience

1. Select a source file, and enter a name for your Lookalike Audience
2. The platform identifies patterns and commonalities within the source audience and prospect universe
3. Deep Sync One then creates a new audience based on these findings that you can distribute to your social ad accounts

Deep Sync One ingests your first-party data and utilizes Deep Sync's robust identity graph to match your customers. A series of user-defined identifiers enables us to search for and identify consumers within our graph. We apply our intelligence to uncover unique demographic patterns and commonalities that exist within your base. From that derived intelligence, we create Lookalike Audiences for your future marketing initiatives.

A minimum of 10,000 records is required for Lookalike Audiences.

 

There are two ways to begin a Lookalike Audience workflow; both paths are outlined below. 

Initiate the Lookalike Audience Process with a Previously Uploaded File

• Log into Deep Sync One and select “My Audiences” from the left-hand navigation panel
• Hover over the selected file listing, and click the menu icon on the right-hand side
• Select "Create Lookalike Audience;" the "Configure Your Lookalike Audience" modal window displays
• Confirm that the source contains the correct file name and if needed, use the picklist to select a different file
• Enter the name of your Lookalike Audience in the provided "Name" field, and click "Create Lookalike Audience" to continue
• Navigate to the My Audiences “Lookalikes” page to view your audience and see its status; Lookalike Audiences are available for configuration and delivery to your social ad accounts within 24 - 48 hours
• Reference the "Configure and Deliver Your Lookalike Audience" section for the next steps
  
  

 

Initiate the Lookalike Audience Process with a New File

• Log into Deep Sync One, and select “My Audiences” from the left-hand navigation panel; alternatively, you can click the "File Uploader" option from the left-hand navigation panel
• Click the “Upload Your File” button displayed in the middle of the screen; the “Upload Your File” modal window displays
  • Alternatively, use the "Create Audience" picklist in the upper right-hand corner of the screen and select "Upload Your File"
  • This method is applicable if you have previously uploaded files to My Audiences
• Navigate to your file using the “Select File” option or drag and drop your file of choice into the modal window
  • HubSpot and Shopify users, securely import your CRM data with our simple integration feature; please reference the "Import from HubSpot" or "Import from Shopify" sections below

• Confirm whether or not your file contains a header row and the field delimiter, and click “Continue” to proceed
• Map the fields within your file to the identifiers supported by Lookalike Audiences, and click “Continue” to proceed

• Hover over the selected file listing, and click the menu icon on the right-hand side
• Select "Create Lookalike Audience;" the "Configure Your Lookalike Audience" modal window displays
• Confirm that the source contains the correct file name and if needed, use the picklist to select a different file
• Enter the name of your Lookalike Audience in the provided "Name" field, and click "Create Lookalike Audience" to continue
• Navigate to the My Audiences “Lookalikes” page to view your audience and see its status; Lookalike Audiences are available for configuration and delivery to your social ad accounts within 24 - 48 hours
• Reference the "Configure and Deliver Your Lookalike Audience" section for the next steps

 

New Feature - Import from HubSpot

HubSpot users can now easily and securely upload their customer data to Deep Sync One with our integration feature.

• Click the “Upload Your File” button displayed in the middle of the screen; the “Upload Your File” modal window displays
• Click the "Import from HubSpot" option; the "Connecting Your Deep Sync One Account to HubSpot" screen displays
• Click the "Sign In to Your HubSpot Account" option, mark the desired account which is identified based on your email address, and click "Choose Account" to continue
• Review the connection details and click "Connect App" to agree and continue; the import of your custom HubSpot audience will begin
  • Please keep the "Upload or Import Your Data" modal window open during transfers
• View your HubSpot audience in "My Audiences"

 

New Feature - Import from Shopify

Shopify users can now easily and securely upload their customer data to Deep Sync One with our integration feature.

• Visit the Shopify App Store and click "Install" to create the connection between your store and Deep Sync One; return to Deep Sync One once this brief step is complete
• Click the “Upload Your File” button displayed in the middle of the screen; the “Upload or Import Your Data” modal window displays
• Click the "Import from Shopify" option and enter the name of your store; click "Continue" to proceed
  • To find your store's name, log in to your Shopify account, navigate to the "Online Store" section, and select "Domains;" here you will find the primary domain name that forms the foundation of your store URL
  • For example, "your-store-name.myshopify.com"
• The import of your custom Shopify audience will begin
  • Please keep the "Upload or Import Your Data" modal window open during transfers
• View your Shopify audience in "My Audiences"

 

Supported File Formats 

Please note that file formats, delimiters, and field mapping are related to files manually uploaded into Deep Sync One, not those that are imported via data integration, including HubSpot and Shopify.

Supported File Extensions

• .csv

Supported Field Delimiters

• Pipe 

Excel file formats (.xlsx or .xls) and Google Sheets are not supported in the Deep Sync One platform. To export an Excel file into one of our accepted formats, take the following steps:

• Open the Excel file, go to “File” and select “Save As”

• Click “Browse” and in the Save As dialog box, choose the “CSV (Comma Delimited)” option and proceed to save your file

To export Google Sheets into one of our accepted formats, take the following steps:

• Open the Google Sheet file and click on the tab you want to save as a CSV

• Go to “File” and hover over “Download” to see the list of available options; select “Comma Separated Values (.csv)” and proceed to save your file

 

Matching to Identifiers and Field Requirements

Lookalike Audiences utilize Deep Sync’s multi-dimensional, offline-to-online identity graph to discover demographic similarities that exist between your current customer profile and the available prospect audience. Deep Sync's privacy-safe consumer dataset enables the creation of our Lookalike Audiences. This dataset is 100% compliant with U.S. privacy rules and regulations and includes more than 750 attributes that can be utilized for matching, enrichment, and targeting.

To perform our match, Lookalike Audiences requires an email address or a combination of first name, last name, and postal address. (Please note that hashed emails [HEMs] are not supported.)

Ideally, the following columns will be provided on upload:

• Email Address (raw, not hashed)
• First Name
• Last Name
• Address 1
• Address 2 (if applicable)
• City
• State
• ZIP Code
• Gender (optional)
• Middle Name (optional)

A variety of additional columns can be included in your upload file and will be utilized in support of matching accuracy if included. While not required, we do recommend including a header row on your file.

 

Accepted Columns:	Notes:
Email Address	Up to three Email Addresses can be included in separate columns; only one Email Address is permitted per cell. Hashed email addresses are not accepted.
First Name	First Names and first name initials can be formatted with or without accents, hyphens, and/or periods.
Last Name	Last Names can be formatted with or without accents and/or hyphens.
Full Name	While Full Names are accepted, parsed name columns are preferred.
Phone Number	Up to three Phone Numbers can be included in separate columns; only one Phone Number is permitted per cell. Phone Numbers must include an area code and can be formatted with or without hyphens (for example, 234-567-8910 or 2345678910).
Address Line 1	While full Addresses are accepted, parsed address (Address Line 1 and Address Line 2) columns are preferred.
Address Line 2	This is an optional field.
City	City names are accepted in their standard format.
State	Both State codes and full State names are accepted.
ZIP Code	Both 5-digit ZIP Code and 9-digit ZIP Code formatting is accepted. 9-digit ZIP codes must include a hyphen between the 5-digit ZIP code and 4-digit extension (for example, 98052-0576).
Full Address	While Full Addresses (Address Line 1, Address Line 2, City, State, and ZIP Code) are accepted, parsed address columns are preferred.
Mobile Device ID	MAID, AAID, and IDFA Device IDs are accepted.

 

Configure and Deliver Your Lookalike Audience 

Once your Lookalike Audience has been created, it can be delivered to either Meta or TikTok. From the "Lookalikes" tab within "My Audiences," hover over your Lookalike Audience, and click the blue "Deliver Audience" button. Alternatively,  you can use the menu icon on the right-hand side to select "Deliver Audience." (This same menu will allow you to rename or remove your Lookalike Audience as well.) The "Configure Lookalike Audience" modal window displays.

Deep Sync's Lookalike Audiences are ranked in deciles (ten equal groups) that indicate the strength of the match. While records across deciles are lookalikes, records in decile 1 represent the strongest matches. There are three options available when configuring your Lookalike Audience for delivery: All Matches, Strongest Matches, and the ability to select a custom audience size.

All Matches

All Matches is our recommended configuration setting and ensures that you are reaching the largest number of lookalikes available (all deciles are included).

Strongest Matches

Strongest Matches is an optional configuration setting that limits your Lookalike Audience to those with the highest scores (deciles 1, 2, and 3). This setting optimizes the strength of the match over reach.

Select a Custom Audience Size

Using the slider, you can choose the exact size of your Lookalike Audience. As you adjust the slider, you will see the audience size (and percentage) update accordingly.

 

To proceed, make your configuration setting, and click "Continue." The "Deliver Audience" modal window displays. Select the desired destination from the list of connected ad accounts, or use the “Add Destination” button to select the desired destination and enter the required account details; click “Add Destination” to continue. When adding a destination, follow the instructions provided in the “Verify Destination” modal window; click “Finish” to onboard your audience and then use the provided link to verify your account.

Your Lookalike Audience will be delivered to the social destination of your choice within 24 - 48 hours. Please note that there is no cost to create or deliver a Lookalike Audience to your social ad account. Charges are based on a percentage of media spend once usage of the audience is detected in an ad campaign.

 

Additional Deep Sync Audience Services for Your Social Media Campaigns

Prospect Audiences

Enhance the performance of your social media campaigns with a comprehensive collection of highly accurate target audiences available today in Deep Sync One. Deep Sync One, an audience-building platform and data marketplace, features tens of thousands of B2C and B2B audience segments that can be delivered directly to your social media accounts, in many cases, within hours.

Custom Audiences

When a multidimensional audience including a variety of audience segments is required, Deep Sync offers custom audiences. Our team will work with you to identify your campaign goals and create an audience segment designed exclusively for your needs. More than 700 destinations are available for distribution.

Customer Insights

Deep Sync’s Customer Insights is an automated profiling service that provides brands with an efficient method to better understand their customers and inform future data buying decisions. With Customer Insights, clients upload their first-party data to generate a detailed report made possible by matching to Deep Sync’s own identity graph of more than 260 million U.S. consumers.