Canvas-Owned Audiences

When you publish a canvas, each Output node creates or updates an audience row in your workspace. These audiences are canvas-owned — their definitions live on the canvas, not in a standalone filter tree. This page explains how canvas-owned audiences behave, how they appear throughout the product, and how to activate them.

How ownership works

Each audience produced by a canvas belongs exclusively to that canvas. This is a permanent relationship: a canvas-owned audience cannot be detached from its canvas and converted to a standalone audience, and a standalone audience cannot be transferred to a canvas.

At query time — whether for a size estimate, a sync run, or a journey evaluation — Zeotap compiles the audience definition by walking the canvas’s published version graph from the relevant Output node back to its entry nodes. Because compilation always reads from the published version, any upstream edit you make to the canvas flows to all audiences that depend on those nodes the moment you publish. You do not need to update each audience individually.

Example: You have a canvas with one Criteria node feeding a Split into three Output nodes. You tighten the Criteria filter to require a higher activity threshold and publish. All three audiences are automatically narrowed on the next evaluation — no per-audience action required.

The Type column on the Audiences list

Navigate to Activation > Audiences. The Type column distinguishes between the two audience classes:

You can filter and sort the Audiences list by Type.

Opening the canvas from an audience

From the audience detail page of a canvas-owned audience:

• The filter rule area shows a read-only view of the compiled conditions. You cannot edit the filter here.
• A banner at the top reads: “This audience is managed by canvas: <canvas name>”
• Click Open in canvas (or click the canvas name in the banner) to navigate directly to the canvas editor, where you can make changes and republish.

This deep-link ensures that anyone who finds the audience via a sync, a journey, or the Audiences list can always trace back to the authoritative source of its definition.

Using canvas-owned audiences

Canvas-owned audiences are first-class audiences. You can:

• Sync them to any destination — create a sync on Activation > Syncs and select the canvas-owned audience as the source. The sync evaluates the audience by compiling the canvas graph on each run.
• Use them in journeys — select a canvas-owned audience as the entry trigger or a branch condition in a journey.
• Estimate size — request an estimate from the audience detail page or from within the canvas editor (per-node live counts).
• Preview members — view sample entity records from the audience detail page.

The only restriction is that canvas-owned audiences cannot be referenced as a filter condition in the standard audience builder or in an Audience Reference node on another canvas. This rule prevents circular dependencies across canvas boundaries. To compose two canvas outputs together, build both branches within the same canvas before their Output nodes.

Audience pickers and the “From canvas” chip

Wherever you select an audience in the product — for example, when choosing an audience for a sync, or when writing a filter condition that references another audience — the picker distinguishes canvas-owned audiences from standalone ones:

• Audience Reference node (on a canvas): shows only standalone audiences. Canvas-owned audiences are hidden.
• Filter-condition audience picker (standard builder and Criteria nodes): shows only standalone audiences. Canvas-owned audiences are hidden.
• Sync and journey source picker: shows all audiences. Canvas-owned audiences display a “From canvas: <canvas name>” chip so you know where the definition lives.

Archiving and deleting canvas-owned audiences

Canvas-owned audiences are archived (not deleted) when you remove their Output node from the canvas and publish. Archived audiences are removed from the active list but retain their historical membership data for audit and reporting purposes.

You cannot manually archive or delete a canvas-owned audience from the audience detail page. Manage the audience’s lifecycle through the canvas.

If you delete the canvas itself, Zeotap first checks whether any canvas-owned audience is referenced by an active sync or journey. If a reference exists, the delete is blocked. Remove all downstream references before deleting the canvas.

Next Steps

• Publishing, versions & rollback — how to publish changes and roll back
• Syncs — activate a canvas-owned audience to a destination
• Journeys — orchestrate multi-step experiences from a canvas audience
• Audiences — the standard standalone audience builder