Audience rules let you define specific criteria for targeting customers with outbound messages, workflows, and help content. Use them to segment customers based on attributes like email, tags, or behavior — so the right content reaches the right people, and the wrong ones are excluded.
Editing and configuring audience rules
Edit audience rules for an outbound email
You can only edit audience rules on outbound emails that haven't been set live yet.
Open the specific outbound email in Intercom.
Click Edit in the top-right corner to enter Edit mode.
Scroll to Rules > Audience and click + Add audience rule.
Configure targeting using people/company data and logical filters (AND/OR).
Target a specific People tag
In the email audience builder, add a rule using the Person Tag filter.
Set the condition to Person tag is [TAG_NAME].
Note: The tag won't appear as a standalone field — you must select the Person Tag condition first before the tag becomes available.
Create a catch-all workflow for outbound messages
Set the audience rule to "conversation starter is outbound message." This targets all outbound messages without requiring individual configuration for each chat.
Logical operators: AND vs OR
Choosing the wrong logical operator is one of the most common causes of audience rules not working as expected.
OR logic: If you use negative conditions with OR (e.g., "Email domain is not A OR Email domain is not B"), the rule will always match at least one condition, causing the message to trigger unexpectedly.
AND logic: To correctly exclude multiple values, use AND logic (e.g., "Email domain is not A AND Email domain is not B"). This ensures all exclusion conditions must be true simultaneously.
Important: When building exclusion rules, always use AND logic — not OR. OR exclusions will almost always match, defeating the purpose of the rule.
Troubleshooting common issues
Workflow fails to go live
If a workflow using a "current page URL" audience rule can't be set live, make sure you've specified a valid URL or URL pattern in the condition. Without this, the workflow can't be enabled.
Exclusion rules not working
Use workflow preview and audience simulation to verify excluded customers follow the correct path.
Check for overlapping triggers or conflicting audience rules across workflows.
Periodically review and audit audience rules to ensure accuracy as your data evolves.
Best practices for audience rule maintenance
For outbound emails, customers must meet all of the following baseline criteria:
Email has any value
Marked email as spam is not true
Has hard bounced is not true
Unsubscribed from emails is false
Beyond those baselines:
Regularly review audience rules to confirm they align with your targeting goals.
Audit branch conditions periodically to maintain accuracy.
Use audience simulation tools to test rule configurations before setting workflows live.
Advanced configurations
Managing help content visibility
To ensure external customers only see external-facing resources:
Disable Share with Fin on internal articles.
Use audience rules to segment customers — internal teammates can access internal articles via Copilot, while external customers only see external-facing resources.
Viewing and managing audience rules
To view all audience rules in your workspace, navigate to either:
Fin AI Agent > Fin Settings > Audiences, or
Settings > Data > Audiences
From here you can review existing audiences, their rules, or create new ones. Audiences can also be applied to Fin content through the Knowledge Hub.
FAQs
Why is my exclusion rule not working?
Why is my exclusion rule not working?
Exclusion rules fail most often because of OR logic. When using negative conditions, OR means the rule will almost always match — switch to AND logic so all exclusion conditions must be true at the same time.
Why can't I set my workflow live?
Why can't I set my workflow live?
A workflow with a "current page URL" audience rule can't go live until a valid URL or URL pattern is specified in the condition. Add a valid value and try again.
Can I use the same audience across multiple workflows?
Can I use the same audience across multiple workflows?
Yes — audience rules can be reused across workflows. Go to Fin AI Agent > Fin Settings > Audiences to create reusable audiences that can be applied to multiple workflows from a single place.
Where do I go to manage all my audience rules?
Where do I go to manage all my audience rules?
Audience rules are managed under Fin AI Agent > Fin Settings > Audiences or Settings > Data > Audiences. From either location you can review, edit, or create new audiences.
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