Every campaign, of any type, needs an audience. The question that decides how to build that audience is always the same: where is the data about who should receive the message?
If it’s in OmniChat itself, a filter builds the audience. That’s the segmented audience with platform contacts.
If it’s in a spreadsheet someone sent you, you import it. That’s the imported file audience.
If it’s in another system that decides who receives the message before you even open OmniChat, you connect it. That’s the integrated audience.
This guide explains all three, compares them in a table, and points you to the step-by-step guide for each one.
⏱️ Reading time: 4 min · 🟢 Level: basic
Where to create: Marketing > Audience
All three types are created in the same place, in the Marketing > Audience menu, each through a different path:
Type | Where to create |
Platform contacts and imported file | Audiences, New audience button |
Integrated | Integrated audience, New audience button |
Blocked numbers is not an audience type: it’s a separate list, under Blocked numbers, that keeps certain contacts out of any audience used in a campaign. More on it at the end of this guide.
The three types, side by side
| Platform contacts audience | Imported file audience | Integrated audience |
Where contacts come from | Your OmniChat base, filtered by conditions | A CSV spreadsheet you upload | An external platform (CRM, automation), on every send |
Does it update automatically? | Yes. For each campaign, the list is rebuilt with the data at that moment | No. It’s a fixed snapshot of what was in the spreadsheet | It doesn’t store contacts: each campaign receives whatever the external platform sends |
Do contacts join the base? | They’re already in it | Yes, at the time of import. They can already be used in a platform contacts audience, with no need to wait for a campaign | Yes, as soon as the external platform sends them |
When to use it | The audience exists in OmniChat and changes over time: people who bought, who replied, who have a tag | The audience is outside the platform: event guests, a list from finance, a base that hasn’t chatted on WhatsApp yet | Another tool decides who receives the message, and OmniChat only needs to send it |
Editable after creation? | Yes, conditions and all | Only name and description, and contacts can be removed one by one | No. To change the variables, create a new one |
💡 When in doubt, start with the question “is this already in my OmniChat base?” If so, rules. If it’s in a spreadsheet, imported file. If another system decides, integrated.
💡 Imported file and integrated audiences feed the rule-based audience rather than competing with it. Anyone added through either of them counts as a platform contact right away, without needing a campaign first. A guest spreadsheet imported today, for example, can already be combined with order or tag rules on the same day.
Platform contacts audience
You build a filter on your contact base: orders, campaign response, delivery status, profile data, tags, and more. The platform stores the criteria, not a fixed list, so the same audience works for multiple sends and updates automatically every time it’s used.
Use it for things that change over time: people who bought in the last 30 days, people who haven’t opened a message in 3 months, people from a specific city.
Who counts as a platform contact
A platform contact is anyone OmniChat can identify by phone, email, CPF/CNPJ (Brazilian tax ID) or WhatsApp id. They don’t need to have chatted with the brand.
This includes:
Who | Counts from |
People who chatted with your brand on WhatsApp | The conversation onward |
Customers who came through the integration with your e-commerce (VTEX, Shopify, Magento, Linx or Wake), even if they never exchanged a message | The moment the e-commerce sends the data |
Contacts from an imported file audience | The moment of import |
Contacts received through an integrated audience | As soon as the external platform sends them |
⚠️ Being in the base doesn’t mean receiving the campaign. Anyone in Blocked numbers is still a platform contact and shows up in rules, but is left out of every send.
💡 To segment by orders, the e-commerce integration must be active. Without it, order rules won’t find anyone.
Full guide: How to create an audience with platform contacts.
Imported file audience
You upload a CSV spreadsheet with a phone column, specify what each column means, and the platform builds the audience from what was there. The contacts join your base, but the audience itself stays fixed: it doesn’t grow on its own, and to include more people you need to import again.
Use it for things outside OmniChat: event guests, a list another team sent you, physical store customers who haven’t chatted on WhatsApp yet.
Full guide: How to create an audience from a spreadsheet.
Integrated audience
It doesn’t store contacts. It’s a template: the names of the variables your external platform (Salesforce Marketing Cloud, RD Station Marketing, HubSpot, SAP Emarsys, ActiveCampaign, Insider and others) will send for each person, on every send of a campaign that uses this audience.
Use it when another tool decides who receives the message, and OmniChat only needs to handle the WhatsApp send.
Full guide: How to create an integrated audience.
Blocked numbers
Gathers in one place the numbers that shouldn’t receive any campaign, whatever audience is selected: people who asked to stop, employees, people in a dispute. It’s not an audience for sending, it’s an exclusion that applies to the whole account.
Full guide: How to block numbers.
After creating
Any of the three types becomes available in the audience field when creating a campaign. Managing existing audiences (searching, filtering, viewing details, editing, deleting) has its own guide: How to manage your audiences.
If you used the old names
The module has moved and been renamed. If you know the previous version, inside Marketing > Campaigns, this table maps the names:
Old name | Current name | What changed |
Static Audience | Imported file audience | Previously it only existed inside Campaigns. Now it has its own list, with search, filters, and name and description editing |
Dynamic Audience | Integrated audience | Only the name changed. The API and the concept are the same: a variable template fed from outside |
Segmented Audience | Platform contacts audience | Gained new categories (Campaign response, Delivery status, Tags), configurable AND and OR operators, and a preview with an estimated total in real time |
⚠️ Some filters from the old article were renamed or don’t have an equivalent yet. Accepts marketing messages is now Accepts marketing, with three states. In portfolio (salesperson’s portfolio) isn’t available in the new module yet.
FAQ
Can I change an audience’s type after it’s created? No. The type is chosen at creation. To change it, create a new audience of the right type.
Can a campaign use more than one audience type at the same time? No. Each campaign uses a single audience, of one of the three types.
Does Blocked numbers prevent me from using an entire audience? No. It only removes the blocked numbers from the send; the rest of the audience receives it normally.
Which type updates automatically? Only the platform contacts audience. The other two are a fixed snapshot of the moment they were created or of what the external platform sent.
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