---
title: Manage audiences
slug: cms-13/docs/audiences
docTags: 
createdAt: 2026-07-30T20:22:05.570Z
---

Audiences let you deliver personalized content to visitor groups based on behavior, attributes, and actions. Show different homepage banners to first-time versus returning visitors, surface campaign-specific offers, or restrict content access by visitor profile. Members of the **VisitorGroupAdmins** role manage audiences from the **Audiences** tab.

:::hint{type="info"}
**Note**
Audiences work only on **traditional (in-process) sites**, where CMS manages both content authoring and frontend rendering. Audiences do not work on **headless sites**, where the frontend is an independent application that consumes content through APIs.
:::

An audience (formerly called a *visitor group*) consists of one or more personalization criteria. Each criterion defines which visitors belong to the audience. Built-in criteria include the number of visits, referring search phrases, visited pages, and geographic location. Developers extend this list with custom criteria.

To create an audience, select one or more criteria and define their settings. The criteria determine whether a visitor belongs to the audience and which personalized content the visitor sees.

![](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/BrbvVORKJ5iIeSMZye5kI/gVMUbSdgok8feOELwFJ_O_a546a62fc809f7877022630f579542c83b84f81a06b2c5ccfb015319da293423-image.png)

## Create or edit an audience

Define a named audience by selecting criteria and configuring match rules. Edit an existing audience to update its criteria or settings.

1. Select **Audiences**.
2. Click **Create Audience**. The **Create Audience** window displays. For an existing audience, the **Edit Audience** window displays with the same fields.

![](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/BrbvVORKJ5iIeSMZye5kI/GDuelOi4c8ojbZq3TFEEz_e0ddf0fc849ad6494207f8b0886339d4707ca482239235620e0889a21f836081-image.png)

3. Enter a unique **Name** that distinguishes this audience from others. This name displays in the personalized content box when you select content on a page.

:::hint{type="info"}
**Note**
Changing the name of an audience used for access rights breaks the access-rights settings for that audience.
:::

4. Enter a description of the audience and its purpose in **Notes**. CMS displays this description as a tooltip when an editor adds the audience to a page.
5. Select **Enable statistics** to track audience performance.

:::hint{type="info"}
**Note**
When you enable audience statistics, [Google Analytics](docId\:O-IaFMM0dWT6BF8v04bwi) (GA4) analyzes the traffic data for insights into website traffic and marketing effectiveness.

![](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/BrbvVORKJ5iIeSMZye5kI/ymweagP26xYhaMsP9ctUL_723016d359e715e23e23794f1b17efd96a890a18cc048b3f8795c6d7ce9cd234-image.png)
:::

6. Select **Make this audience available when setting access rights for pages and files** to expose this audience in the admin view when you configure access rights.

:::hint{type="info"}
**Note**
Audiences grant only read access.
:::

7. Click **Add Criteria**. A drop-down list of available criteria displays. See [Create audience criteria](docId\:S_j4MPA95bd6panupVuEt) for definitions.
8. Select a criterion and adjust its settings. Add more than one criterion when needed.
9. Select one of the following in the **Match** drop-down list:

- **All** – The visitor joins the audience when every criterion matches.
- **Any** – The visitor joins the audience when at least one criterion matches.
- **Points** – Assign weights when some criteria matter more than others. The visitor must reach a points threshold to join the audience.

10. Click **Create Audience**.

## Copy an audience

Duplicate an existing audience to reuse its criteria as a starting point for a variation.

1. Select **More** (…) > **Duplicate** on the audience you want to copy.

![](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/BrbvVORKJ5iIeSMZye5kI/_jsztIml30HwBM16rcDpc_e6cb1af9c148f22b727d4e2df981f91fd99a92fa4eee48bb96aab59d09049176-image.png)

2. Confirm the duplication. The copy has the same name as the original with the suffix *Copy*.
3. Rename the copied audience and adjust its criteria.

## Delete an audience

Remove an audience that is no longer needed.

1. Select **More** (…) > **Delete** on the audience you want to delete.
2. Confirm the deletion.

## Configure values for site criteria and points

Use points to assign a weighted value to each action, such as visiting a campaign page. In the following example, a visitor who matches eight of the 12 points joins the audience.

![](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/BrbvVORKJ5iIeSMZye5kI/9CMi-3mKiqSa5jv8T-UdJ_ad9378f6a4ea87c9d7c275d63ed31c6b7339a2b65f27ec07dcd80456c38955d9-image.png)

1. Select **Points** in the **Match** drop-down list.
2. Enter a **Threshold** of **8** points.

:::hint{type="info"}
**Note**
The example assigns 12 points across the criteria. The visitor must match at least eight of the 12 points to join the audience.
:::

3. Select **Site Criteria** > **Number of Visits** from **Add Criteria**.
   - Select **More than** > **4** > **In total**. (To target visitors who have not visited the page, select **Less than** > **1** > **Since\[date]**.)
   - Enter **2** points and select whether the criterion is required.
4. Select **Site Criteria** > **Selected Language** from **Add Criteria**.
   - Select **Is** > **English**.
   - Leave the default 0 and select **Required**.
5. Select **Site Criteria** > **Visited Page** from **Add Criteria**.
   - Click **Select Page** and select a page (*Become a reseller*).
   - Enter **4** points.
6. Select **Site Criteria** > **Visited Page** from **Add Criteria**.
   - Click **Select Page** and select a page (*Find a reseller*).
   - Enter **2** points.
7. Select **Site Criteria** > **Downloaded file** from **Add Criteria**.
   - Enter the file the visitor downloads (`/reseller-application-form.pdf`).
   - Enter **4** points.

:::hint{type="info"}
**Note**
The four-point values on *Become a reseller* and the downloaded file signal higher importance than the two-point *Find a reseller* criterion.
:::

8. Click **Create Audience**.

## Target referrers

Target visitors based on the referring URL to reach visitors who arrive from a specific campaign or search engine result page.

1. Select **URL Criteria** > **Referrer** from **Add Criteria**.
2. Select **URL** > **Equals** and enter the URL of the search engine result page, for example, `https://www.google.se/#hl=sv&source=hp&biw=1338&bih=790&q=optimizely+cms`.

![](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/BrbvVORKJ5iIeSMZye5kI/MCwreoF9CdNiDxVt8HDFo_c3d4280a50a659c77cd11cf90b56d4be003a857ca74136317e1977eda1661886-image.png)

3. Click **Save**.

## Target visitors by form submission

:::hint{type="warning"}
**Important**
Install [Optimizely Forms](docId\:L0CAFfzw14MQ1z8mUiueF) and the Optimizely Forms Samples package to enable the forms audience criteria.
:::

- Base an audience on whether a visitor submitted a particular form or form value. For example, target content to a visitor who **Has submitted** a **Job Application**.
- Target content to visitors who give a low rating on a Satisfaction Survey:
  - **Selected form** – Satisfaction Survey
  - **Selected field** – Multiple or single choice
  - **Condition** – Equals
  - **Value** – 1

## View as Audience preview

The **View as Audience** feature previews a page as a specific audience sees it, based on that audience's criteria. Verify that personalized content displays correctly before publishing.

:::hint{type="info"}
**Note**
The **View as Audience** preview is available for sites where audiences are configured. It is not available for decoupled frontend deployments where personalization is evaluated client-side or at the CDN layer.
:::

Select **View as Audience**. A list of available audiences displays. Select an audience to render the page from that audience's perspective.

![](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/BrbvVORKJ5iIeSMZye5kI/C2fZ1bXOv_td90CfvlD6L_8f2969caea614dcc5aa708f9a819bd7d707770e921a5b388f3722196fad69854-image.png)

:::hint{type="info"}
**Note**
The audience preview renders the page with the same criteria evaluation logic used for live visitors. Content that requires session state (such as cart data or login status) does not reflect the full personalized experience in preview mode.
:::

Select **View as Audience** again and choose **No audience selected** to return to the standard edit view.

## Commerce Connect audience criteria

Commerce Connect adds audience criteria for customer properties, markets, and order frequency. See [Personalization for Commerce Connect](https://support.optimizely.com/hc/en-us/articles/4413200698125).

## Marketing automation audience criteria

Marketing automation adds dedicated audience criteria. See [Marketing automation](docId\:nvBqYrTxzuKr_wCDXSdhs) for details.