What AudienceStream does
AudienceStream consumes the event stream, resolves events to a visitor profile using identity rules you define, enriches profiles with computed attributes (badges, counters, lifecycle states), evaluates audience membership in real time, and activates those audiences to downstream systems through connectors. In Tealium's product family it is the customer data platform tier of the Customer Data Hub, alongside iQ and EventStream.
Identity resolution is the design decision
Everything AudienceStream produces inherits the quality of its visitor stitching. The design questions have to be answered explicitly: which identifiers count (email hash, customer ID, device ID), in what precedence, with what rules for merge and conflict, and what happens across domains and devices. Estates that skip this step get the symptom every enterprise knows: duplicate customer profiles, one person counted as three, audiences that overlap incoherently. Write the identity specification first; the platform will faithfully execute whatever logic it is given - including bad logic.
Audience governance
- An audience registry - every audience has an owner, a definition in plain language, and the connectors it feeds.
- Attribute discipline - computed attributes are versioned and named to a standard; orphaned attributes get retired.
- Activation review - every connector receiving an audience is a data recipient; the list is reviewed like any disclosure surface.
- Consent awareness - audience activation respects the consent state the visitor actually gave (see consent management).
What an implementation involves
| Step | Output |
|---|---|
| Event stream readiness | Clean taxonomy feeding AudienceStream - garbage in is profile damage at scale |
| Identity specification | Documented stitching rules: identifiers, precedence, merge behavior |
| Attribute model | Lifecycle states, counters, and badges mapped to actual business questions |
| Audience build | Governed audiences with owners and definitions |
| Activation | Connector wiring, consent-gated, verified end to end |
| Validation | Profile-level spot checks and aggregate reconciliation against source systems |