Target Audiences: best practices

Here are some tips and tricks on using Target Audiences to their fullest, based on what's worked well for other Dado customers.

• Target Audiences are mutually exclusive
• When to use separate Tasks/Messages/Automations, and when to customize a single Task/Message/Automation
• Building Target Audiences using Sub-task responses, to tailor later parts of the same Experience

Target Audiences are mutually exclusive

The recipient of a Task/Message or the person affected by an Automation can only ever belong to one Target Audience. Recipients belong to the first Target Audience whose criteria they fit.

For instance, an Engineer based in New York would only fall into the first of the audiences shown below. They wouldn't see any blocks which are targeted only at the New Yorkers audience.

Consequently, we don't recommend defining multiple Target Audiences based on different user properties (eg location and department), within the same Task/Message/Automation. 

When to use separate Tasks/Messages/Automations, and when to customize a single Task/Message/Automation

You have the option of setting up  different Tasks/Messages/Automations so each will be triggered for a different Target Audience; or setting up a single Task/Message/Automation which contains blocks targeted to different Target Audiences. In different circumstances, it will be better to use one or the other of these.

Use a single Task/Message/Automation with differently targeted blocks:

• when much of the Task/Message/Automation is the same but a few aspects are different based on the different Audiences
  • for instance, you want the same task to show 3 versions of a similar subtask to 3 different Audiences

Use multiple Tasks/Messages/Automations targeted to different Audiences:

• when a single participant could belong to multiple Target Audiences
  • for instance, you have one Automation for adding Participants to local office Slack channels (eg #austin-office, #nyc-office) and a separate Automation for adding Participants to department channels (eg #engineering, #design)
• when you have a large number of blocks for each Target Audience
  • for instance, a message that provides an FAQ on parental leave might have very different content for US-based and Europe-based Participants. Rather than targeting 10 blocks to US-based employees, and a different 10 to Europe-based employees, it can be simpler to manage if you just have 2 separate Messages.

Building Target Audiences using Sub-task responses, to tailor later parts of the same Experience

It's also possible to use data collected via Sub-tasks earlier in an Experience to create Target Audiences later in the same Experience. 

For instance, you could have a Sub-task as part of an Onboarding Experience that asks new employees their preference of remote, office-based or hybrid work. Based on their answer to this question, you would invite them to in-person or remote onboarding sessions.

To use data collected in Sub-tasks to create Target Audiences, you first need to create Custom Variables from this data. Then you can follow the same steps described in Using Custom Fields to create Target Audiences.

To use this feature most effectively, make sure that the Task collecting the data finishes before the start of the Task/Message/Automation whose Target Audiences use that data.

It's an even better idea to leave a couple of days gap between the two, to account for anyone who completes the task after deadline.

• For example: schedule the task asking employees if they'll be working in office or remote to finish on Day 3. Then schedule the Automation inviting them to the appropriate remote/in-person onboarding sessions on Day 5