# Importing Audiences
Freshpaint enables you to securely upload customer lists from external systems and activate them across ad platforms, including Meta, Google Ads, and others, while maintaining full industry compliance.
This guide walks through how to:
1. Set up integrations
2. Import and format your data
3. Create and review your audience
4. Sync Audience to the Ad Platform
### 1. Set Up Your Integration
Before creating or importing an audience, you’ll need to make sure your Ad Platform Audience integrations are connected.
[**Go to Audience Integration Setup →**](https://documentation.freshpaint.io/audiences/audience-integrations)
This step applies to **all** audience Integrations, including Meta, Google Ads, Viant, StackAdapt and more.
### 2. Where Your Data Comes From
You can import audiences from tools like:
* CRMs (e.g., **Salesforce**, HubSpot)
* EHR systems (e.g., **Epic, MyChart**)
* Customer engagement platforms (e.g., **Customer.io, Braze, Active Campaign**)
* Internal databases, reporting tools, or data warehouses
Segment your users in your own system, then **export the data as a CSV file** with identifiers like:
* ✅ `email` (required for now)
* 📱 `phone_number` (coming soon)
### 3. Importing & Creating an Audience
Once you’ve exported your data:
1. **Go to** `Audiences > Imported Audiences` in Freshpaint. Click **`Import Audience`**
2. **Select integrations.** This is where the audience will sync (e.g., Meta, Google)
3. **Upload your CSV file.**
Requirements for an uploaded CSV:
* File must contain a column labeled `email`
* File must be `.CSV` format
4. **Name your audience.**
Add a **Name**, **Description** and optional **Labels** for internal clarity
{% hint style="info" %}
**This data stays within Freshpaint**
Name, Descriptions, and Labels are not shared outside of Freshpaint to integrated Ad platforms.
{% endhint %}
5. **Review and set your Ad Platform Alias.**
The Alias name is the name sent to the ad platform, we provide a default random name. You are more than welcome to change it when creating a new Audience.
{% hint style="warning" %}
**Alias names should not include health context and cannot be changed.**
The Alias is a human-readable name sent to the ad platform to identify this specific audience. We provide a random alias by default. You can also provide your own custom alias when creating a new Audience
{% endhint %}
6. **Finish import** — You’ll now see your audience listed in the Imported Audiences table
### 4. Send to Ad Platform
Once your audience is ready:
1. Go to the **Imported Audiences** page
2. Click **Send to Destination** next to the integration
3. Review audience details (especially the **ad platform alias**)
4. Click **Send**
✅ That’s it! Your audience has been queued for delivery.
5. Once the audience is processed by the ad platform, you will be able to view it in the ad platform’s UI. See below for more about processing times.
### Processing Time & Monitoring
* Most audiences sync to platforms **quickly**, but external platforms (like Meta or Google Ads) may take **24–48 hours** to fully process and activate your audience.
* Plan campaign launches **after** confirming audience availability in your destination platform.
* You can **refresh** the audience's page in Freshpaint to monitor sync status.
* If the external platform reports an error when processing the audience, view the audience in the platform's dashboard to learn more.
### Best Practices & Reminders
**Avoid health context in the alias name**
The **alias** is the *only* name sent to the ad platform. Never include PHI or any health-related terms (e.g., "diabetes", "cancer", "patients") in the alias, as this could violate platform policies and HIPAA compliance. [Learn more](https://documentation.freshpaint.io/audiences/protecting-health-context).
**Exclude your original audience when creating lookalikes**
To avoid overlap and ensure your lookalike campaign reaches net-new users, always **exclude the initial audience** from the campaign targeting.
**Name, description, and labels stay in Freshpaint**
You can use health context for clarity inside Freshpaint (e.g., labels or internal names), as these never leave the platform.
💡 **Need help?**
If you're unsure how to format your CSV or how to structure your campaign safely, reach out to our team at .
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