Personas in the Agility platform help advertisers reach audiences with precisely defined characteristics. To learn how to create a persona from start to finish, see our guide on Creating Personas.
To make personas more effective and flexible, we separate attributes into two categories: Core attributes and Variant testing attributes. This structure lets you maintain a consistent foundation while testing variations to discover which targeting combinations deliver the best performance. Both Core and Variant attributes can be selected from any of our available Audience Types.
Core Attributes
Definition
Core attributes are the essential characteristics that define the foundation of your persona. These attributes remain constant across all versions of the persona, ensuring you always target your primary audience base.
Recommendation
For best results, we recommend including:
1 – 2 demographics
1 behavior
This keeps your core persona broad enough to pair effectively with different variant attributes during testing.
Example
If you are creating a persona for a clothing retailer, your core might include Women aged 25 – 44 (demographics) and Online fashion shoppers (behavior). These traits define your core persona.
Variant Testing Attributes
Definition
Variant testing attributes are optional characteristics layered on top of your core attributes. They are designed for testing different traits without changing the foundation of your persona.
Usage
You can add as many variant attributes as you like to a persona.
When using the persona in an ad group, you will select only one variant attribute for targeting in that ad group.
This ensures you can isolate performance differences and identify which variant delivers the strongest results.
Example
Continuing the clothing retailer example, you might test variants such as Luxury brand shoppers (behavior) or Discount-focused shoppers (behavior) to see which group responds better to your ads.
How Core and Variant Work Together
Build the Core
Choose your essential traits (recommended: 1–2 demographics + 1 behavior).Add Variants
Create optional traits for testing performance differences.Target in Ad Groups
When assigning the persona to an ad group, choose one variant to test alongside your core.Evaluate Results
Compare performance to determine the most effective combinations.
Why We Offer This in Personas
Precision with Flexibility - Maintain a strong foundation while testing new strategies.
Efficient Optimization - Identify winning combinations without recreating multiple personas from scratch.
Data-Driven Insights - Understand which specific traits influence performance.
Best Practices
Keep your core broad enough to accommodate variants.
Test one variant at a time per ad group for clear performance insights.
Review results regularly and consider incorporating top-performing variants into your core attributes.