Custom audiences allow you to import a list of user IDs to your Batch dashboard. These segments can be used later to improve the segmentation of your push or In-App automations.
Batch displays in Settings → Audiences an estimate of the number of tokens matching the IDs contained in each audience.
In some cases, you may notice a gap between the number of tokens and IDs contained in the audience. Take the following steps to understand why the number of tokens doesn't match the number of IDs contained in your audience.
My audience is not matching any tokens
This may happen if:
Formatting issues: The IDs included in your audience are not formatted correctly (e.g. extra space, lower/upper case issue, extra semicolon, etc).
The wrong type of IDs: The type of IDs included in your audience doesn't match the unique user IDs sent to Batch by the app as custom user IDs.
Wrong "Audience type": Make sure you have selected the correct "audience type" when you uploaded your audience (e.g. Custom User ID, installation ID).
Opt-out installs: None of your targeted IDs matches an opt-in install.
You can prevent both issues by using the preview displayed by Batch dashboard when you upload your audience to double-check what is going to be imported:
Also, please note that:
The estimate has been designed for high volumes of tokens. As a consequence, it is not precise for small amounts of tokens. Even if the estimate shows 0 tokens, your campaign may actually target less than 10 tokens.
The estimate doesn't take into account installs attached to the Dev API key (only relevant for apps using the legacy DEV Key and Live API Key). Don't be surprised if the number of reachable installs is 0 when you run your first tests.
My audience is matching fewer tokens than IDs in my audience
This may happen because:
Users may not have the app: Some of the users you targeted in the audience may not have installed or are not installed anymore on iOS or Android.
Users may not have turned on notifications: The IDs included in your audience may match users who did not turn on push notifications and, as consequence, don't have a token.
Users may be using the app on a different OS: Batch manages iOS/Android and web browsers separately. Custom Audiences need to be uploaded separately too.
ID not collected: Some of the custom user IDs you targeted in your audience may match users who logged out from the app. As a consequence, Batch cannot find any installs attached to specific user IDs. If your audience contains advertising IDs, Batch may not be able to collect the advertising ID of your users (e.g. limited ad tracking turned on or app limitation).
💡 Advertising IDs are no longer collected by Batch since the release of SDK 2.0 version.
My audience is matching more tokens than IDs in my audience
This may happen in the following cases:
Multiple installs: If your audience targets custom user IDs, Batch may have more than one opt-in install per custom user ID. This usually happens when users install the app on different devices and log into the same user account in the app.
Outdated tokens for reinstalls: Batch may keep temporarily several tokens for users who reinstall the app, though some of them may be invalid. This happens because Batch gets feedback on the validity of the tokens in an asynchronous way, every time you target all your user base with a push campaign.