Tracked Audiences: Audiences with a Goal

Last updated: October 8, 2026

Tracked audiences show you whether a program is working, not just who is in it.

Tracked audiences answer a different question from a saved audience. Where a saved audience tells you who to contact, a tracked audience tells you whether what you are doing is working. You define a starting cohort and the outcome you want to see, and Dataro counts how many donors move from one to the other over time.

You will find them on the Audiences tab of the Audiences page at app.dataro.io/v3. Use the Type filter and choose Tracked to see only tracked audiences.

How is a tracked audience different from a saved audience?

A saved audience is a list, and it answers who you should contact. A tracked audience is a list with a goal attached, so it answers how a program is going.

You define a starting cohort and the outcome you want those donors to reach, and Dataro counts how many convert from one to the other. It also shows you a trend line, so you can see how you are pacing rather than waiting for a single end-of-period figure.

What you can track

How many lapsed donors have we reactivated this year? Starting cohort is your lapsed file, target outcome is a gift.
How many one-time donors upgraded to a mid-level gift? Starting cohort is single givers, target outcome is a gift at your mid-level threshold.
How many of last year's donors gave at a higher level this year? Starting cohort is recent donors, target outcome is a gift at or above a dollar amount you choose, e.g. $500.

These are the common ones, but the pattern generalizes: any movement from one definable state to another is trackable, as long as the outcome is a fixed bar that every donor in the cohort is measured against.

Setting one up

You build a tracked audience in two phases with the Dataro Assistant: first the starting cohort, then the conversion event. Moving from one phase to the next is a button rather than something you type.

To set up a tracked audience:

Open the Audience Builder and select Track.
Type the cohort prompt. A filter pill appears for each criterion the Dataro Assistant understands, and you can add more criteria across several messages.
Click Move to conversion event.
Type the conversion event prompt.
Type the tracking window, or choose it when the Dataro Assistant asks.
Check the filter pills, then click Create tracked audience.

Note: Include a timeframe in your cohort prompt, e.g. "in the last 12 months". The timeframe changes the size of the starting cohort more than anything else, so the same description can produce a very different conversion rate depending on whether it covers twelve months or all time.

Pro tip: Typing the outcome during step 2 does not work. If the Dataro Assistant recognizes outcome language such as "who then gave" or "who later upgraded", it offers the Move to conversion event button instead of creating a filter. Click the button, then type the conversion event.

Tracked audience prompts that work

The prompts below have been tested and produce the intended filters. We recommend starting from one of them in steps 2, 4, and 5 above, and changing the numbers to suit your program rather than rewording them.

Tracked audience	Cohort prompt	Conversion event prompt	Window	Details
Convert to recurring	`show me single gift donors`	`became a recurring donor`	`next 12 months`	How many one-off donors start a recurring gift. A good first tracked audience to set up.
Recurring reactivation	`show me lapsed recurring giving program donors`	`became a recurring donor`	`next 12 months`	How many lapsed recurring donors start giving again. Dataro treats a recurring donor as lapsed after 6 months without a gift. To use your own definition, state it in the cohort prompt, e.g. `lapsed recurring donors who haven't given in 3 months`.
Recurring retention	`show me active recurring donors`	`became a recurring donor`	`next 6 months`	How many recurring donors are still giving after a further period. A recurring donor counts as stopped after 6 months without a gift, so this figure runs about 6 months behind.
Second gift conversion	`show me new donors, only one gift ever`	`made a gift`	`next 12 months`	How many first-time donors give again. Because the cohort has exactly one gift, any gift in the window is their second. Add `and not recurring` to the cohort prompt so new recurring donors do not inflate the rate. Use `made a gift` rather than "gave for the first time", which returns no results.
Lapsed donor reactivation	`show me lapsed donors, no gift in over 24 months`	`made a gift`	`next 12 months`	How many long-lapsed donors give again. Change 24 to your own lapsed definition, e.g. 12. If you leave the duration out, Dataro uses 3 months, which produces a much larger cohort.
Mid-level conversion	`mid-value donors who have never converted`	`made a gift of $1,000 or more`	`next 12 months`	How many donors make their first mid-level gift. Replace $1,000 with the bottom of your own mid-level band.
Single gift to mid-level	`show me new donors, only one gift ever`	`made a gift of $1,000 or more`	`next 12 months`	How many one-gift donors move straight to mid-level. Use this rather than mid-level conversion when your question is about newly acquired donors.
Revenue from a defined cohort	`donors who have given the most in total, at least $10,000`	`made a gift`	`next 12 months`	How much a defined group of donors gave over a period, with total giving, gift count, and average gift. Describe the cohort by total giving as shown. "Top 500 donors" is read as a model ranking rather than your largest givers.
Email engagement	Any cohort prompt	`opened an email` or `clicked an email`	`next 6 months`	How many donors in a cohort open or click an email.

Note: A conversion event with a dollar amount is met by a single gift at or above that amount. Several smaller gifts that add up to the amount are not counted, so a donor who gives four gifts of $300 does not count toward a $1,000 outcome.

Note: Tracking windows come from a set list: the next or last 6 or 12 months, this year, year to date, last year, or specific start and end dates. For a window longer than 12 months or a financial year, enter specific start and end dates.

What tracked audiences cannot do yet

Tracked audiences track across your entire donor file rather than at an individual campaign level. If you are running several campaigns to the same cohort of lapsed donors, you can see how many reactivated overall, but not which specific campaign drove each conversion.

Campaign-level attribution is a known gap and it is on the roadmap, so plan your measurement around what is available today. If campaign-level attribution matters for a particular program, we recommend using a static saved audience for each send, which gives you fixed lists to compare afterward.

When to use a tracked audience

Lapsed donor reactivation across a year. This is the most common use, because reactivation is slow and a single end-of-year number hides the pacing information you need mid-year.
One-time to recurring conversion over time. This tells you whether a conversion program is building over time or staying flat.
Mid-level or major-donor upgrade cadence. This helps when the question is how fast donors are upgrading rather than how many have upgraded, because the trend line shows the rate.

Frequently asked questions

Can I turn an existing saved audience into a tracked audience?

A tracked audience needs a target outcome and a time window, which a saved audience does not carry, so you set it up as a tracked audience with its own definition. You can use the same starting criteria you used for the saved audience.

Does tracking tell me which campaign caused the conversion?

Not today. Tracking runs across your whole donor file rather than per campaign, so you get the overall conversion count for the cohort. If you need per-campaign attribution, use a static saved audience per send as a workaround.

Can I track donors who increased their gift compared with their last one?

Not today. An outcome has to be a fixed bar that every donor in the cohort is measured against, so a gift that is larger than each donor's own previous gift cannot be tracked. This applies to year-on-year gift increases and to recurring donors raising their monthly amount. Instead, choose a fixed amount that is meaningful for your file, e.g. made a gift of $500 or more, and track how many donors give at or above it.

How far back can I look?

Choose a past window, such as last 12 months or last 6 months, and the tracked audience reads results from your historical data straight away rather than waiting from today onward. Choose a future window, such as next 12 months, to measure from today. For any other period, including windows longer than 12 months, enter specific start and end dates.

Is a tracked audience something I mail, or just something I read?

Mostly something you read, because its job is measurement. If you want to contact the people in the cohort, build or reuse a saved audience for the send and let the tracked audience report on the result.