> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.hightouch.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Analyze audiences with Insights

> Understand how to use Insights in Customer Studio to explore metrics, analyze trends, and power downstream targeting and enrichment workflows.

## Before you begin

* A configured [schema](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/schema.md). Open an existing audience or start a new one.

## What Insights shows

Understand and validate the size, composition, and characteristics of your audience using **Insights**. While defining or editing an audience in Customer Studio, you can view summary metrics, compare overlaps, and break down key traits inside the visual builder.

Insights analyzes a single audience while you build it: who's in it right now, how it's composed, and how it overlaps with other audiences. To watch an audience change after it's live, use its [overview](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/audience-overviews.md). For analysis that spans campaigns, use [Intelligence](https://docs.hightouch.com/campaign-intelligence/overview.md), a separate product with [charts](https://docs.hightouch.com/campaign-intelligence/insights.md), [metrics](https://docs.hightouch.com/campaign-intelligence/metrics.md), [funnels](https://docs.hightouch.com/campaign-intelligence/funnels.md), and [experiments](https://docs.hightouch.com/campaign-intelligence/experiments.md), built on the same customer data.

> [!TIP]
>
> To explore a single audience in plain language, use the
> [Agent](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/agents.md) in the builder — quick actions like
> **Generate insights** and **Summarize audience** describe composition without
> writing a query. For follow-up questions that span multiple audiences or
> campaigns, use the standalone Agents workspace.

## Access audience insights

You can access insights while creating or editing an audience in two places:

* In the **audience creation flow**, during the **Define audience** step

  ![Insights button in the audience creation flow](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/insights/cs-insights-show-button.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=4a50d041705cdf36bb0959460be451aa)
* In the **audience builder**, under the **Definition** tab

  ![Insights toggle in the audience builder](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/insights/cs-insights-definition.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=2dbf92c547593e103f6d97a0d0b9928f)

In either place, select **Insights** in the [filter builder](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/usage.md#define-who-qualifies) toolbar to open the panel.

## Calculate audience size

For the overall audience count and a spot-check of members, use [Build an audience](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/usage.md#preview-and-validate-the-audience). Insights adds size views the top-level count doesn't show.

Calculate the size of a specific **filter group** by selecting `Calculate size` within any top-level `AND` block. This shows how each filter group contributes to or reduces overall audience membership.

![Previewing filter group counts in Hightouch](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/insights/cs-insights-calc-and.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=ca976a3e697f868e90091b6441d87a3f)

When [schema labeling](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/schema.md#label-your-models) is enabled for a People ↔ Household or People ↔ Account relationship, you can view the size of both models.
For example, if your audience is based on a People model, you can also see how many Households or Accounts contain at least one person matching your filters.

![Previewing filter group counts with relationships in Hightouch](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/insights/audience-count-relationships.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=31922e18181e00cfe6a9db7a48f9291a)

> [!NOTE]
>
> If sampling is enabled on your data models, preview results in the audience
> builder may be returned using sampled data for faster performance. [Learn more
> about sampling.](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/sampling.md)

## Member preview

Click the size preview count to more closely inspect the list of members who currently meet your audience criteria and ensure you're building the correct audience. If you've chosen to [redact any columns](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/schema.md#set-privacy-levels-for-columns) in your model configuration, they are redacted here.

![Previewing an audience member list in the Hightouch UI](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/audience-charts/small_chart_member_list.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=d7d6b19e69a7e231e048d2d849dd217d)

Clicking on a particular member will open the member details panel to give you an even deeper look at your audience members.

![Previewing an audience member in the Hightouch UI](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/audience-charts/small_chart_member_details.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=65588cfdcd85129e17de921d2806df4c)

When [schema labeling](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/schema.md#label-your-models) is enabled for a People ↔ Household or People ↔ Account relationship, you can view details for both models and see the membership between them.
For example, if your audience is based on a People model, you can view the Households or Accounts that contain at least one person matching your filters.
Within each person, you can see which households or accounts they belong to, and vice versa.

![Previewing an account membership in the Hightouch UI](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/insights/account-memberships.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=e935cfde287b6f7d38056dfcfe2d8b4d)

To look up and inspect members without building an audience first, use [Profiles](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/profiles.md).

## Audience overlaps

> [!TIP]
>
> Audience Overlaps can only be set up between audiences that use the same
> [parent model](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/schema.md#create-the-parent-model).

With many audiences syncing simultaneously, it can be difficult to ensure that end users aren't being targeted by multiple campaigns.

**Audience overlaps** help you validate the composition of your audiences by letting you compare one audience against another. You can find audience overlaps within the **Insights** panel when defining your audience.

Select a previously created audience from the dropdown to compare the audiences.

![Comparing an audience against another to see member overlap](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/insights/cs-insights-overlap.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=87380daa699f9dddf60aa863c37450c3)

For more information, check out the [**Audience Overlaps** blog post](https://hightouch.com/blog/feature-release-audience-overlaps).

## Audience breakdowns

**Breakdowns** help quickly check your audience segmentation and ensure the audience meets your needs by enabling you to better understand the distribution of specific characteristics within audiences.

Breakdowns help you explore how an audience is distributed across key traits or metrics—for example, how many users fall into each region, loyalty tier, or spending bucket.

To create a breakdown:

1. Open the **Insights** panel.
2. Go to the **Breakdowns** tab.
3. Choose a metric or property, such as:
   * **Saved metrics** (custom metrics from your workspace)
   * **Events** (e.g., Bookings)
   * **Relations** (e.g., Preferred Hotel)
   * **Properties** (e.g., Region, Language)
   * **Traits** (custom trait columns)

You can also **group by** a user property (e.g., group `Total Bookings` by `Region`) and choose an **aggregation type** (e.g., count, average).

Breakdowns are shown as charts within the panel, helping you visually validate whether your audience reflects your desired segmentation.

![Choosing a metric and group-by for an audience breakdown](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/insights/cs-insights-breakdown.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=17285ec37f97b1fe847ee8d8b9ed78f0)

### Numerical metrics

When you select a numerical property or a model-based metric (e.g. events), you can optionally select a non-numerical user property to group the metric by.

| ![Choosing a group by option for audience breakdown in the Hightouch UI](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/audience-charts/small_chart_group_by_breakdown.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=601b6c3eee054bf8a81e16600371e6fc) | ![Result of a group by for audience breakdown in the Hightouch UI](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/audience-charts/small_chart_group_by_state.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=fc87aafd14023063c7c692dae6449515) |
| - | - |

Except in the case of `Saved metrics`, if no `Group by` option is selected, the chart will group by the metric itself.

| ![Leaving group by empty for audience breakdown in the Hightouch UI](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/audience-charts/small_chart_group_by_empty.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=f911a249e7b9ca27e9d7c8438efaa0fc) | ![Result of no group by for audience breakdown in the Hightouch UI](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/audience-charts/small_charts_no_group_by_chart.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=1fffe9813d2174feae433eaefdd050c3) |
| - | - |

Depending on the type of numerical metric you select, you are able to choose additional options on what to view in your breakdown.

| ![Choosing aggregations in the Hightouch UI](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/audience-charts/small_chart_options_for_metrics.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=51e98ef65b0fea9c44c61c85f1ebab5c) | ![Choosing aggregations in the Hightouch UI](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/audience-charts/small_chart_options_for_metrics_2.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=63d44e293194b0c499f8ecb2f2206a20) |
| - | - |

#### Total events vs. unique users

When a breakdown uses a related or event model, you can choose how to count it:

* **Total events**: every occurrence, including repeats by the same person. Use this to measure volume. For a related model that isn't an event model, this option is **Total rows**.
* **Unique users**: the number of distinct people with at least one occurrence. Use this to measure reach. The label uses your parent model's name for its records, for example **Unique customers**.

For example, if 50 people in your audience each made two purchases, **Total events** returns 100 and **Unique users** returns 50.

![Breakdown count options in the Hightouch UI](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/insights/breakdown-count-options.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=672de41ca65a389bc1cee6c3997f0d11)

### Further exploration

To explore a breakdown in more depth, you can open it in [Charts](https://docs.hightouch.com/campaign-intelligence/overview.md) to apply additional filters and groupings, explore different visualizations, and save the chart for future reference.

![Linking charts in the Hightouch UI](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/audience-charts/small_charts_link_charts.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=29179ef61967c18829eab8de32915706)

For more information, check out the [**Audience Breakdowns** blog post](https://hightouch.com/blog/audience-breakdowns).

## FAQ

#### Is our insight data saved by Hightouch?

**No**, Hightouch never saves your data.

#### Do Breakdowns and Overlaps reflect if an audience belongs to a priority list?

Yes-the insight tools take [audience priority](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/priority-lists.md) into account.