If you're new to Agility or coming from another ad platform, understanding how Personas, Audiences, and Campaigns relate to each other is key to getting campaigns set up correctly. This article explains the hierarchy and how each piece connects.
The Hierarchy
Here's how the main elements are organized, from the broadest to the most specific:
Audiences — Individual targeting segments (behavioral, contextual, website, geofence, CRM, etc.)
Personas — Combine one or more audiences into a reusable targeting profile, with AND / AND NOT logic
Ad Groups — Live inside campaigns. Each ad group gets one Persona and its own creatives.
Campaigns — The top-level container with budget, flight dates, and goals
The critical connection: Audiences live inside Personas, and Personas attach to Ad Groups. You cannot target an audience directly in a campaign — it must go through a Persona first.
Audiences: Your Building Blocks
Audiences are individual targeting segments. Each one defines a group of users based on a specific data source or behavior. Agility supports several audience types:
Behavioral — Users grouped by online browsing behavior and interests
Contextual — Target based on the content of pages users are viewing
Demographic — Age, gender, income, and other demographic attributes
Website — Visitors to your site, tracked via your Universal Tag
Geofence — Users who have visited a specific physical location
CRM — Your own customer data uploaded to the platform
Search — Users who have searched for specific keywords
Social — Audiences built from social platform data
Addressable — Direct targeting of known users
Each of these is a segment on its own. To actually use them in a campaign, you combine them into a Persona.
For more details, see Audience Types. To create a new audience, navigate to the Persona tab in Agility, click on 'Audience Library', and then select '+Audience' to begin.
Personas: Where Targeting Comes Together
A Persona is a reusable targeting profile that combines one or more audience segments. Think of it as the "who" for your campaign.
When building a Persona, you can layer audiences together using logic operators:
AND — The user must match both segments (e.g., Website Visitor AND Behavioral Interest in Travel)
AND NOT — The user must match the first segment but NOT the second (e.g., Website Visitor AND NOT Thank You Page visitors)
This is how you create powerful targeting strategies like retargeting with exclusions, layered interest + behavior targeting, or geofence audiences with demographic filters.
Key things to know about Personas:
Personas are reusable — Build once, use across multiple campaigns and ad groups.
Personas are required — Every ad group must have a Persona assigned. Without one, the campaign cannot launch.
Personas can be organized into Clusters — Group related Personas together for easier management.
AI-Assisted Personas are available for faster setup.
For more details, see Creating Personas. To create a new persona, select an audience from the Audience Library, define its characteristics, and save it for use in campaigns.
Ad Groups: Where Personas Meet Creative
Ad groups sit inside campaigns. Each ad group is where you bring together:
A Persona (who you're targeting)
Creatives (what ads they'll see)
Targeting settings (additional refinements like device type or frequency caps)
Each ad group gets exactly one Persona. If you want to target different audiences within the same campaign, create multiple ad groups — each with its own Persona.
For example, a campaign might have:
Ad Group 1 → Persona: "Website Visitors — Exclude Converters" → Display creatives
Ad Group 2 → Persona: "Geofence — Competitor Locations" → Video creatives
Campaigns: The Container
Campaigns are the top-level container. They define:
Budget — How much you're spending
Flight dates — When the campaign runs
Goals — What you're optimizing for (CPA, CTR, Reach, ROAS, etc.)
Conversion tracking — Which events count as conversions
Campaigns hold one or more ad groups. The ad groups do the actual targeting and creative delivery.
Campaigns can be created individually or generated automatically through an Initiative, which lets you plan multi-channel campaigns from a single workflow.
Putting It All Together: An Example
Let's say you run an e-commerce brand and want to retarget website visitors who didn't purchase, while also running a geofence campaign near your retail stores.
Step 1: Set up your audiences
Website Audience: All site visitors (from your Universal Tag)
Thank You Page event: Users who completed a purchase (from a Universal Tag event)
Geofence Audience: Users near your retail locations
Step 2: Build your Personas
Persona A: "Website Retargeting" — Website Audience AND NOT Thank You Page
Persona B: "Store Proximity" — Geofence Audience AND NOT Thank You Page
Step 3: Create your campaign and ad groups
Campaign: "Q2 Retargeting" — $5,000 budget, April 1–30
Ad Group 1 → Persona A → Display creatives
Ad Group 2 → Persona B → Video creatives
Both ad groups exclude converters, but they target different audience sources.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Forgetting to assign a Persona — This is the #1 reason campaigns fail to launch. Every ad group needs a Persona.
Trying to target an audience directly — Audiences can't be used in campaigns without a Persona. Even if you only have one audience segment, wrap it in a Persona first.
Using the same Persona when you need different exclusions — If different ad groups need different exclusion logic, build separate Personas for each.
Duplicate Campaign Names — The platform does not allow multiple campaigns with the same name. Attempting to create a new campaign with a name already in use will result in an error.
Missing Required Campaign Elements — Each ad group within a campaign must have all required elements assigned, such as personas or other targeting criteria. If any ad group is incomplete, the campaign cannot be launched.
Unable to Create a New Audience — Ensure you are in the Audience Library within the Persona tab, as the persona creation screen only displays existing audiences.
Newly Created Audience or Persona Not Showing — Confirm the audience or persona is properly created and active, and verify campaign configurations for compatibility.
Troubleshooting Common Campaign Errors
Solutions for Campaign Name Conflicts
Reactivate an Existing Campaign
Instead of creating a new campaign, consider reactivating the existing one by adding a new flight date. This approach not only resolves the naming conflict but also leverages the benefits of longer-running campaigns, which tend to perform better over time.
Rename the New Campaign
If reactivating the existing campaign is not an option, choose a unique name for the new campaign to avoid conflicts.
Solutions for Missing Campaign Elements
Review Ad Groups
Check each ad group within the campaign to ensure all required elements, such as personas or targeting criteria, are assigned.
Assign Missing Elements
Assign the missing elements to the relevant ad groups and attempt to launch the campaign again.
Best Practices for Campaign Management
Use Unique Campaign Names
Always choose distinctive names for your campaigns to avoid conflicts and ensure easy identification.
Double-Check Campaign Setup
Before launching, verify that all ad groups have the necessary elements assigned to prevent errors.
Leverage Existing Campaigns
Reactivating and extending existing campaigns can improve performance and save time.
Re-click 'Launch' After Changes
If you make updates to audiences or personas, ensure you re-click 'Launch' to submit the campaign for review.
Need Help?
If you're unsure how to structure your Personas or campaigns, contact our team through Agility Chat. We can help you design a targeting strategy that fits your goals.
FAQs
Do I Need to Create a Separate Audience for a Campaign? No, you can create personas and use them directly for targeting in your campaigns. A separate audience creation step is not required if you define targeting through personas.
What is the Correct Process for Setting Up a New Audience and Persona?
Create a new audience in the Audience Library.
Use this audience to create a new persona.
Apply the created persona to your ad group.
Re-click 'Launch' to submit the campaign for review.