This page is part of the Customer.io documentation. For the complete documentation index, see llms.txt.

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Batch update

A batch update lets you apply data to a group of up to 1,000 profiles matching your criteria. For each profile your batch update matches, you can update attributes or send events (to trigger a message automation, for example).

How it works

You can perform a batch update in any automation. A batch update lets you associate this data with one or more profiles—either as attributesA key-value pair that you associate with a person or an object—like a person’s name, the date they were created in your workspace, or a company’s billing date etc. Use attributes to target people and personalize messages. or eventsSomething that a person in your workspace did. Events can trigger automations, add people to segments, etc, and you can use properties from events to personalize messages..

For example, you could create an automation that messages profiles when they’ve been assigned to teach an upcoming class. You could use a batch update to send events to profiles that have this profile listed as their favorite teacher. Then you could trigger another automation based on this event and encourage these students to sign up for the new class.

Set up a batch update

1. Drag Batch Update into your workflow.
2. Add a Name, then click Add Details.
3. Select whether you want to Update profile attributes or Send an event.
4. Set criteria for the profiles you want to update.

    Your criteria must match fewer than 1,000 profiles

   If your batch criteria ever matches more than 1,000 profiles, the batch update will not run.
5. Set your attributes or event data. You can use liquidA syntax that supports variables, letting you personalize messages for your audience. For example, if you want to reference a person’s first name, you might use the variable {{customer.first_name}}. to set attributes or event properties.
6. Click Save.

Matching profiles in your batch update

When you perform a batch update, you set criteria matching the group of profiles you want to update. It’s like setting up a segmentA segment is a group of people in your workspace. Use segments to trigger automations, track membership over time, or fine-tune your audience. There are two types of segments: data-driven and manual. Data-driven segments automatically update when people start or stop matching criteria. Manual segments are static., but you can only match on attributeA key-value pair that you associate with a person or an object—like a person’s name, the date they were created in your workspace, or a company’s billing date etc. Use attributes to target people and personalize messages. and relationshipThe connection between an object and a person in your workspace. For instance, if you have Account objects, people could have relationships to an Account if they’re admins. conditions. You can set multiple conditions for profiles you want to match, but a profile must match all of your conditions to be included in the update.

A batch update is limited to 1,000 profiles. Anytime your batch update criteria matches more than 1,000 profiles, we won’t run the update. Instead, we’ll skip it and report it as a Failed Action in profile activity. When you set up a batch update, we’ll warn you if your criteria matches more than 1,000 profiles, but you should monitor your automation to make sure that your batches don’t exceed the limit.

This example shows matching profiles based on both a profile attribute and relationship attribute for an account.

With object and relationship-triggered automations, you can match profiles based on the trigger object or any object within an object type you choose. For instance, you could match profiles related to any course that the current profile in the journey has a relationship to:

• Goal: When a teacher is assigned to a course, I want to recommend the new course to students in the teacher’s other courses.
  • Method: Set the recommended new course as an attribute on students in one automation. Then segment users based on this attribute and trigger another automation to notify them.
    • Automation for batch update:
      • Trigger: course - relationship updated where role is equal to teacher
      • Audience: the profile that was added to the course
      • Batch update: match profiles that are related to any course that the current profile is related to where the profiles in the batch update have the role of student

        

        

With relationship-triggered automations, you can also match on the profile triggering the automation, instead of the current profile in the journey. This is helpful when the trigger profile is not included in the audience of your automation, so the trigger profile could never be “the current profile.”

Update attributes

When you use the Update profile attributes option, your batch update sets or updates attributes for every profile matching your conditions. You can add profiles to segments based on these attributes which trigger messaging automations.

In an object or relationship-triggered automation, you can update attributes based on the attributes of the trigger object or relationship.

In a webhook-triggered automation, you can set attributes to data from your incoming webhook—the trigger- using liquidA syntax that supports variables, letting you personalize messages for your audience. For example, if you want to reference a person’s first name, you might use the variable {{customer.first_name}}..

Send events

When you use the Send an event option, your batch update sends an event to every profile matching your conditions.

In an object or relationship-triggered automation, you can add event attributes based on the attributes of the trigger object or relationship. But if you’re trying to trigger an automation off of these events, consider triggering the automation based on the object or relationship instead.

In a webhook-triggered automation, you can set event attributes to data from your incoming webhook—the trigger- using liquidA syntax that supports variables, letting you personalize messages for your audience. For example, if you want to reference a person’s first name, you might use the variable {{customer.first_name}}..