Import Audience Data

You can add your own first-party audience data from each of your screen locations. Your sales team will know how much of each demographic is available to clients.

You will need to create a .csv file with the appropriate data. Broadsign Direct provides an audience data template for you. To speed up the calculation process, you can update the screen rows that should be updated, not all the rows.

Note: Broadsign Direct supports up to 1,000,000 rows in the .csv file. If you have more than 1,000,000 rows, we suggest to break up the list into smaller files with less rows. Make sure that all the rows for a screen are in only one file. When uploading several files, wait 6 minutes between each upload.

To create the file requires three general steps:

  1. Export the audience data template from Broadsign Direct. This file provides you with the allowable columns and correct format. On a new domain, the columns will be empty. See Step 1: Export the Audience Data Template.

    Note: You must follow the format of the audience data template. Otherwise, Broadsign Direct will consider the file to be invalid.

  2. Enter your first-party audience data into the file, respecting the format. You can leave existing columns blank; however, you are unable to add columns to the file. See Step 2: Enter Your First-Party Audience Data.
  3. Import the file, now containing your first-party data, back into your domain. See Step 3: Import Audience Data into Your Domain.

The audience data template provides you with the allowable columns and correct format. On a new domain, the columns will be empty.

To export the audience data template:

  1. In the Domain Settings section, click Import & Export.

  2. In the Audience data section, click Export.
    • Your system will download a .csv file.
    • The file name is in this format: audience_[year]-[month]-[day]. For example: audience_2017-01-01.

Note: You must follow the format of the audience data template. Otherwise, Broadsign Direct will consider the file to be invalid.

To open the audience data file:

  1. Open the audience data .csv file you downloaded (we recommend Microsoft Excel or similar spreadsheet program).

  2. Enter your first-party data.

The .csv file can include up to 32 columns (see Column Details).

Note: You are unable to modify columns A-E. If you try to edit them in the file, Broadsign Direct will revert them to what was imported from Broadsign Control Administrator.

Supported Encoding

The .csv file must use one of the encoding formats that Broadsign Direct supports:

  • ASCII
  • UTF-8
  • UTF-8-BOM
  • ISO-8859-1
  • ISO-8859-14

Column Details

Column Letter Column Name Content

A-E: Screen identification columns

These columns contain information imported from Broadsign Control Administrator. They help to identify the screen on your domain and its location in the field.

Note: You are unable to modify columns A-E. If you try to edit them in the file, Broadsign Direct will revert them to what was imported from Broadsign Control Administrator.
A Screen ID

The ID number of the screen.
B Reference ID The Reference ID of the screen. This information is optional. You can edit this value in the digital and static inventory spreadsheets.
C Screen Name

Name of the screen.
D Address

Address of the screen.
E Lat/Long

Geographic coordinates of the screen.

F-P: Schedule columns

If you do not have schedule information for your screens, columns F-P do not need to be modified.

These columns contain scheduling information for your screens. It is possible to have more than one schedule per screen. If using a schedule per screen (you have audience tied to a schedule):

  1. Keep the default row that does not have any schedule information (the F-P columns must be empty). This row helps to fall back if your start or end date expired or if you forgot a breakdown.
  2. Create another row with all the schedule columns F-P filled. The Start Date, End Date, Start Time, and End Time fields are mandatory.

Warning: Imagine that you have a screen with four schedules. You want to update only one of the schedules. It is important to leave intact the three that will remain the same and change only the schedule you want. If you save the file with one schedule, you will lose the other three.
F Start Date

The date from which the audience data schedule begins. This information is mandatory.

Note: Date format is "yyyy-mm-dd".
G End Date

The date from which the audience data schedule ends. This information is mandatory.

Note: Date format is "yyyy-mm-dd".
H Start Time

The time from which the audience data schedule begins. This information is mandatory.

Note: Time format is "hh:mm:ss".

Tip: To define an audience value for an hour, use "10:00:00" as Start Time and "11:00:00" as End Time. However, for the last hour of the day, use "23:00:00" as Start Time and "23:59:59" as End Time.
I End Time

The time from which the audience data schedule ends. This information is mandatory.

Note: Time format is "hh:mm:ss".
J Mon Enter "1" if the schedule is active for this day of the week; enter "0" if the schedule is inactive for this day of the week. This information is optional.
K Tues Enter "1" if the schedule is active for this day of the week; enter "0" if the schedule is inactive for this day of the week. This information is optional.
L Wed Enter "1" if the schedule is active for this day of the week; enter "0" if the schedule is inactive for this day of the week. This information is optional.
M Thu Enter "1" if the schedule is active for this day of the week; enter "0" if the schedule is inactive for this day of the week. This information is optional.
N Fri Enter "1" if the schedule is active for this day of the week; enter "0" if the schedule is inactive for this day of the week. This information is optional.
O Sat Enter "1" if the schedule is active for this day of the week; enter "0" if the schedule is inactive for this day of the week. This information is optional.
P Sun Enter "1" if the schedule is active for this day of the week; enter "0" if the schedule is inactive for this day of the week. This information is optional.

Q-AG: Audience columns

These columns contain the audience impression data for your screens.

Note: Make sure that the sum of the breakdown matches the audience total and the female/male total.

The total cannot be "0", but at least "0.01".
Q Total audience/hour

Total audience/hour. This information is mandatory.

Note: You cannot enter the value "0". You cannot enter the character "-" or any other special character.
R Total # of males/hour

Total number of males/hour. This information is optional.

Note: You cannot enter the character "-" or any other special character.
S Total # of females/hour

Total number of females/hour. This information is optional.

Note: You cannot enter the character "-" or any other special character.
T 12-17 males Total number of males/hour aged between 12-17. This information is optional.
U 18-24 males Total number of males/hour aged between 18-24. This information is optional.
V 25-34 males Total number of males/hour aged between 25-34. This information is optional.
W 35-44 males Total number of males/hour aged between 35-44. This information is optional.
X 45-54 males Total number of males/hour between 45-54. This information is optional.
Y 55-64 males Total number of males/hour aged between 55-64. This information is optional.
Z 65+ males Total number of males/hour aged over 65. This information is optional.
AA 12-17 females Total number of females/hour aged between 12-17. This information is optional.
AB 18-24 females Total number of females/hour aged between 18-24. This information is optional.
AC 25-34 females Total number of females/hour aged between 25-34. This information is optional.
AD 35-44 females Total number of females/hour aged between 35-44. This information is optional.
AE 45-54 females Total number of females/hour aged between 45-54. This information is optional.
AF 55-64 females Total number of females/hour aged between 55-64. This information is optional.
AG 65+ females Total number of females/hour aged over 65. This information is optional.

Once the audience data file has been properly filled out, you can import it into Broadsign Direct.

Note: Broadsign Direct supports up to 1,000,000 rows in the .csv file. If you have more than 1,000,000 rows, we suggest to break up the list into smaller files with less rows. Make sure that all the rows for a screen are in only one file. When uploading several files, wait 6 minutes between each upload.

To import the audience file:

  1. Return to the Import & Export section of the domain settings.
  2. In the Audience data section, click Import.
  3. Navigate to your .csv file and select it.

  4. Click Open.

The following are possible error messages when importing the audience file:

Error Message Description
Broadsign Direct does not support the encoding used. The following encodings are supported. The user has imported a .csv file which is not one of the supported encodings. See Step 2B: Format the Audience File for a list of supported encodings.
Invalid value for the Total Impressions Column. Only numbers and the "." characters are valid. Minimum value is 0.01. The user has uploaded a file with incorrect values in the Total Impressions column (values like empty string or non-numeric value).
Invalid value for the Total Males column. Only numbers and the "." characters are valid. The user has uploaded a file with an invalid value for Male Audience impressions.
Invalid value for the Total Females column. Only numbers and the "." characters are valid. The user has uploaded a file with an invalid value for Female Audience impressions.

Audience data is imported into Broadsign Direct from a .csv file, as described in Step 3: Import Audience Data into Your Domain. Impressions per hour and a breakdown per day/time can be defined.

The players in Broadsign Control receive that audience data from Broadsign Direct. You must configure the players to periodically sync with Broadsign Direct to get the data.

In Broadsign Control Administrator, the audience data coming from Broadsign Direct appears in the Campaign Performance Report (see Campaign Performance Report in the Broadsign Control documentation).

Audience Data from Broadsign Control

Broadsign Direct receives the following from Broadsign Control:

  • The audience calculation method (dwell or prorated). The method is defined at the loop policy level. Both the players and Broadsign Direct use this method to perform the audience calculations. When an ad copy plays, the player uses the data received from Broadsign Direct to calculate the impressions generated by that play.
  • The impressions generated by the live campaigns. Broadsign Direct uses them to show the progress or performance of the corresponding proposal item, but only for the Impression or Budget goal types of buys (see Types of Buy). Broadsign Direct also uses that information to perform the rebalancing of those types of buys if the feature is enabled on the domain (see Use the Rebalancing Feature).

Configuration Required

You must perform the following configuration: