> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.mediarithmics.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.mediarithmics.io/audience-and-activation/readme.md).

# Getting started

Build, segment, and activate your audiences across all channels - from first-party data to contextual targeting and automated journeys.

Your **audience** is everyone who has been in contact with your ecosystem - sites, apps, physical stores. mediarithmics gathers that user data from all your sources into one view. This section is about cutting that view into audiences, sending them where they can be acted on, and measuring what came back.

## The five jobs

<table data-view="cards" data-search="false"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th data-hidden data-card-target data-type="content-ref"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Build your audiences</strong></td><td>Turn criteria, imported lists, tagged pages, a lookalike model or a predictive score into a segment - and enforce consent on it.</td><td><a href="/audience-and-activation/build-your-audiences/target-your-audience-based-on-criteria.md">Define your audience based on criteria</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Activate your audiences</strong></td><td>Set up a destination and a preset once, then send any segment to a partner platform and track it.</td><td><a href="/audience-and-activation/activate-your-audiences/set-up-a-destination.md">Set up a destination</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Target contextually</strong></td><td>Target content rather than people, from named criteria or from what a seed audience consumes.</td><td><a href="/audience-and-activation/target-contextually/contextual-reference.md">Contextual reference</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Automate</strong></td><td>React to user activity with scenarios: wait, branch, email, change segment membership.</td><td><a href="/audience-and-activation/automate/automations-reference.md">Automations reference</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Analyze your data</strong></td><td>Read a segment's figures, compare it with others, and find out how much they overlap.</td><td><a href="/audience-and-activation/analyze-your-data/check-your-audience-reach-and-stats.md">Check your audience reach and stats</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

## How the pieces fit together

```mermaid
flowchart LR
    D[("Your datamart")] --> S["Segment"]
    I["Imported list"] --> S
    P["Tagged page"] --> S
    S --> F["Feed"] --> X(["Partner platform"])
    S --> A["Automation"] --> S
    S --> C["Panel-based<br/>targeting list"] --> X
    K["Semantic criteria"] --> C2["Semantic<br/>targeting list"] --> X
    C2 -.->|"as a criterion"| S
```

A **segment** is the working object of this whole section: everything you build ends up as one, and everything you activate starts from one.

## Two facts that explain most surprises

{% hint style="warning" %}
**Counting is not persistence.** A builder can tell you how many users match a query within seconds, while the segment itself is not yet populated. Anything that reads *membership* rather than a *number* - a feed, another segment's query, analytics, an export - needs the segment persisted and computed first. See [Counting is not persistence](/audience-and-activation/build-your-audiences/segment-reference.md#counting-is-not-persistence).
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="warning" %}
**Segment size is not reach.** How many users actually arrive at a partner depends on how many of them carry an identifier that partner accepts, and that is decided on the [preset](/audience-and-activation/activate-your-audiences/set-up-a-destination/preset.md), not on the segment. See [The three numbers that matter](/audience-and-activation/activate-your-audiences/track-a-feed-stats-and-troubleshoot.md#the-three-numbers-that-matter).
{% endhint %}

## Where the reference material lives

Three page groups carry a `… reference` subtree. They hold the definitions the task pages link to, so a procedure never has to stop and explain an object:

| Reference                                                                                    | Covers                                                                                                                                       |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [Segment reference](/audience-and-activation/build-your-audiences/segment-reference.md)      | The segment object, the nine types, the three builders, and the capabilities on top - metrics, dashboards, overlap, exports, labels, alerts. |
| [Contextual reference](/audience-and-activation/target-contextually/contextual-reference.md) | The two contextual solutions, targeting lists, and the setup activation needs.                                                               |
| [Automations reference](/audience-and-activation/automate/automations-reference.md)          | The node model, triggers, actions, flow control, lifecycle, and the usage limits.                                                            |

## What lives in other sections

This section stops where the platform's plumbing begins:

* **Schema, channels, compartments, identity resolution, consent framework, Edge setup, dashboard construction, alert configuration, plugin development** - the **Setup & Monitor** section.
* **The connector catalogue** - which partners exist and what each accepts - the **Connectors** section.
* **Getting a network ID into your graph** - the **Connect ID** section.
* **Campaigns, experiments, attribution** - the **Measurement & Attribution** section.
* **Working with a partner without sharing raw data** - the **Collaboration** section.


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