What is Hightouch?
Hightouch is a composable customer data platform (CDP) that connects your data warehouse directly to the tools your teams use.
Data teams prepare and govern trusted datasets. Marketers self-serve those datasets to build audiences, launch campaigns, and measure performance.
Unlike traditional CDPs, Hightouch doesn’t copy or store data in a separate system. It runs on top of your existing infrastructure, giving marketers real-time access while letting data teams maintain control.
Hightouch is modular. You can adopt components as you need them, such as real-time event triggers, identity resolution, or AI-based campaign optimization.
What you can do with Hightouch
With Hightouch, you can:
- Build and sync customer audiences from live warehouse data without SQL
- Automate marketing workflows by triggering actions when audiences change
- Unify customer identities into a consistent source of truth for personalization and reporting
- Enrich audience lists with identifiers like emails or phone numbers to improve match rates
- Deliver timely campaigns by syncing data on a schedule or in response to real-time events
- Let AI optimize delivery decisions like message timing, content, and channel
- Measure performance across audiences and traits using built-in charts and dashboards
Platform overview
Core components
| Component | Used for | Example use |
|---|---|---|
| Reverse ETL | Send modeled data to destinations like ad platforms or CRMs | Sync churn-risk users from Snowflake to Braze for reactivation |
| Customer Studio | Build audiences, journeys, and analyze results | Launch a win-back journey for users inactive in the past 30 days |
Optional add-ons
| Component | Used for | Example use |
|---|---|---|
| Events | Trigger workflows from real-time user actions | Trigger a cart abandonment email when a user leaves checkout without purchase |
| Match Booster | Enrich user lists to improve match rates | Add phone numbers to an email list before syncing to Meta |
| Identity Resolution | Unify customer profiles across sources | Combine web and app activity into a single user profile |
| AI Decisioning | Optimize message, timing, and channel per user | Let AI decide between sending an email or SMS based on past engagement |
| Intelligence | Analyze campaigns and measure ROI | Compare campaign performance across audience segments |
How marketers work in Hightouch
1. Explore available data
- Browse traits, events, and relationships prepared by your data team. Use these building blocks to create segments based on behavior, profile attributes, or lifecycle stage.
2. Build and preview audiences
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Define filters using a visual, no-code interface.
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See your audience size and member list update in real time as you adjust conditions.
3. Sync audiences to tools
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Send audiences to CRMs, email platforms, ad tools, or push notification systems.
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Use built-in guardrails to manage sync behavior and control where data goes.
4. Test and optimize campaigns
- Create audience splits or holdouts to run controlled tests.
5. Analyze and improve
- Compare performance across groups to learn what works best.
- Use charts and dashboards to explore audience traits and campaign outcomes.
- Track changes over time, spot drop-off points, and uncover insights to refine your strategy.
How data teams benefit
Data teams handle a one-time setup to define the datasets marketers use in Hightouch. You can use SQL, dbt, or the visual model builder to expose traits, events, and relationships in a structured, reusable format.
Once models are in place:
- You don't need to maintain separate pipelines for each marketing tool
- Data remains in your warehouse—no duplication into a third-party CDP
- Governance and access control are enforced at the source
- Marketers can self-serve trusted data, reducing ad hoc requests and tickets
Learn the basics
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Customer Studio overview →
Explore how marketers use Hightouch to build audiences, launch journeys, and track performance—without writing code. -
Data activation overview →
Learn how source data powers models and syncs. Understand the building blocks of Reverse ETL, including sources, models, destinations, and syncs.