# Create Suppression Audiences ### About this export | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | **content_type** | lesson | | **platform** | contentstack-academy | | **source_url** | https://www.contentstack.com/academy/courses/use-cases-and-tutorials/create-suppression-audiences | | **course_slug** | use-cases-and-tutorials | | **lesson_slug** | create-suppression-audiences | | **markdown_file_url** | /academy/md/courses/use-cases-and-tutorials/create-suppression-audiences.md | | **generated_at** | 2026-04-28T06:55:49.799Z | > Part of **[Use Cases and Tutorials](https://www.contentstack.com/academy/courses/use-cases-and-tutorials)** on Contentstack Academy. **Academy MD v3** — structured for retrieval; no quiz or assessment keys. #### Video details #### At a glance - **Title:** Create Suppression Audiences - **Duration:** 4m 35s - **Media link:** https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/7UQfUead - **Publish date (unix):** 1751858376 #### Streaming renditions - application/vnd.apple.mpegurl - audio/mp4 · AAC Audio · 113595 kbps - video/mp4 · 180p · 176p · 143568 kbps - video/mp4 · 270p · 264p · 165612 kbps - video/mp4 · 360p · 352p · 183426 kbps - video/mp4 · 406p · 396p · 197910 kbps - video/mp4 · 540p · 528p · 237255 kbps - video/mp4 · 720p · 704p · 297661 kbps #### Timed text tracks (delivery) - **thumbnails:** `https://cdn.jwplayer.com/strips/7UQfUead-120.vtt` #### Transcript audiences for suppression. Audience suppression entails removing specific people or groups from an advertising campaign based on their status and activity. Preventing recurring ads or messaging from reaching that user can greatly improve your ROI. If you strategically suppress select groups from advertising, you can use that ad spend in a more effective way. Audience suppression or exclusion is a strategic way to avoid over messaging to prospects or customers, stop paying to advertise to existing customers, remove people who you know aren't interested in a product, and also be more selective to customers that are in different phases of their life cycle. For example, if you have a first-time customer who just made a purchase, it's a great opportunity to suppress them from acquisition lists and instead carefully time a future message to them for a retargeting or upsell campaign. The results of successful suppression efforts are better performing campaigns. For example, reduce cost per click or cost per acquisition. Also, a better experience for your customers. You can reduce annoying or underperforming ads by not serving ads for products that a user just purchased or is not interested in. Visit learn.lytics to learn more about suppressing users from ad campaigns. With Lytics, you can create suppression audiences which work across platforms and devices for omni-channel suppression. Lytics makes it easy to create suppression audiences using custom rules. Let's look at an example of how to suppress customers who have made a purchase in the last few months. Go to the audience builder, then create a new audience. Go to custom rule and search for purchase date. Your account may title this something different based on your business and customer data, but the idea will be the same. Select purchase date. Select after eight months in the past. You could also select a more recent purchase date like seven days in the past for those who have purchased in the last week. Keep in mind that this date range will always extend a rolling date exactly eight months in the past. Go ahead and add condition. Toggle included to excluded. This is the step that will suppress or remove everyone who purchased in the last eight months, leaving everyone else in the audience. A good way to think about creating suppression rule sets in Lytics is to add the attribute that you don't want and then exclude that attribute. First the affirmative of adding the rule set, then the negative of excluding it. Then when you use this audience for experiences or in other tools, you will not have to set up a suppression in that tool for this list. Name the audience, then check whitelist API if you want to use this audience and other tools, then create. Keep in mind that you can also combine other suppression rules like excluding customers who use a rewards program. For example, if we want to add that criteria to this audience, you can go ahead and edit, add a new rule set, search under custom rule for active rewards user. Active rewards user. This will tell you of the group of folks who, yes, do have active rewards. You can add that condition and then suppress them or exclude them from the list. You can then use this audience for a promotion to new customers to sign up for a rewards program. Thanks for listening and good luck with your suppression strategy. #### Subtitles (WebVTT) ```webvtt WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.880 audiences for suppression. Audience suppression entails removing specific 2 00:00:04.880 --> 00:00:08.940 people or groups from an advertising campaign based on their status and 3 00:00:08.940 --> 00:00:14.580 activity. Preventing recurring ads or messaging from reaching that user can 4 00:00:14.580 --> 00:00:18.980 greatly improve your ROI. If you strategically suppress select groups 5 00:00:18.980 --> 00:00:23.940 from advertising, you can use that ad spend in a more effective way. Audience 6 00:00:23.940 --> 00:00:29.980 suppression or exclusion is a strategic way to avoid over messaging to prospects 7 00:00:29.980 --> 00:00:36.840 or customers, stop paying to advertise to existing customers, remove people who 8 00:00:36.840 --> 00:00:42.800 you know aren't interested in a product, and also be more selective to customers 9 00:00:42.800 --> 00:00:47.120 that are in different phases of their life cycle. For example, if you have a 10 00:00:47.120 --> 00:00:51.700 first-time customer who just made a purchase, it's a great opportunity to 11 00:00:51.700 --> 00:00:57.560 suppress them from acquisition lists and instead carefully time a future message 12 00:00:57.560 --> 00:01:03.200 to them for a retargeting or upsell campaign. The results of successful 13 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:07.860 suppression efforts are better performing campaigns. For example, reduce 14 00:01:07.860 --> 00:01:13.560 cost per click or cost per acquisition. Also, a better experience for your 15 00:01:13.560 --> 00:01:18.440 customers. You can reduce annoying or underperforming ads by not serving ads 16 00:01:18.440 --> 00:01:24.200 for products that a user just purchased or is not interested in. Visit learn.lytics 17 00:01:24.360 --> 00:01:31.480 to learn more about suppressing users from ad campaigns. With 18 00:01:31.480 --> 00:01:35.920 Lytics, you can create suppression audiences which work across platforms 19 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:41.120 and devices for omni-channel suppression. Lytics makes it easy to create 20 00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:46.320 suppression audiences using custom rules. Let's look at an example of how to 21 00:01:46.320 --> 00:01:51.920 suppress customers who have made a purchase in the last few months. Go to 22 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:57.840 the audience builder, then create a new audience. Go to custom rule and search 23 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:04.720 for purchase date. Your account may title this something different based on your 24 00:02:04.720 --> 00:02:10.360 business and customer data, but the idea will be the same. Select purchase date. 25 00:02:10.360 --> 00:02:22.520 Select after eight months in the past. You could also select a more recent 26 00:02:22.520 --> 00:02:27.160 purchase date like seven days in the past for those who have purchased in the 27 00:02:27.160 --> 00:02:33.520 last week. Keep in mind that this date range will always extend a rolling date 28 00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:41.760 exactly eight months in the past. Go ahead and add condition. Toggle included 29 00:02:41.760 --> 00:02:48.360 to excluded. This is the step that will suppress or remove everyone who 30 00:02:48.360 --> 00:02:52.560 purchased in the last eight months, leaving everyone else in the audience. A 31 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:57.480 good way to think about creating suppression rule sets in Lytics is to 32 00:02:57.480 --> 00:03:03.840 add the attribute that you don't want and then exclude that attribute. First 33 00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:09.480 the affirmative of adding the rule set, then the negative of excluding it. Then 34 00:03:09.480 --> 00:03:14.360 when you use this audience for experiences or in other tools, you will 35 00:03:14.360 --> 00:03:19.800 not have to set up a suppression in that tool for this list. Name the 36 00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:32.000 audience, then check whitelist API if you want to use this audience and other 37 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:40.840 tools, then create. Keep in mind that you can also combine other suppression rules 38 00:03:40.840 --> 00:03:47.520 like excluding customers who use a rewards program. For 39 00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:52.520 example, if we want to add that criteria to this audience, you can go ahead and 40 00:03:52.520 --> 00:04:05.280 edit, add a new rule set, search under custom rule for active rewards user. 41 00:04:05.800 --> 00:04:13.880 Active rewards user. This will tell you of the group of folks who, yes, do have 42 00:04:13.880 --> 00:04:21.280 active rewards. You can add that condition and then suppress them or 43 00:04:21.280 --> 00:04:27.840 exclude them from the list. You can then use this audience for a promotion to new 44 00:04:27.840 --> 00:04:33.200 customers to sign up for a rewards program. Thanks for listening and good 45 00:04:33.200 --> 00:04:36.880 luck with your suppression strategy. ``` ```transcript [00:00] audiences for suppression. Audience suppression entails removing specific [00:04] people or groups from an advertising campaign based on their status and [00:08] activity. Preventing recurring ads or messaging from reaching that user can [00:14] greatly improve your ROI. If you strategically suppress select groups [00:18] from advertising, you can use that ad spend in a more effective way. Audience [00:23] suppression or exclusion is a strategic way to avoid over messaging to prospects [00:29] or customers, stop paying to advertise to existing customers, remove people who [00:36] you know aren't interested in a product, and also be more selective to customers [00:42] that are in different phases of their life cycle. For example, if you have a [00:47] first-time customer who just made a purchase, it's a great opportunity to [00:51] suppress them from acquisition lists and instead carefully time a future message [00:57] to them for a retargeting or upsell campaign. The results of successful [01:03] suppression efforts are better performing campaigns. For example, reduce [01:07] cost per click or cost per acquisition. Also, a better experience for your [01:13] customers. You can reduce annoying or underperforming ads by not serving ads [01:18] for products that a user just purchased or is not interested in. Visit learn.lytics [01:24] to learn more about suppressing users from ad campaigns. With [01:31] Lytics, you can create suppression audiences which work across platforms [01:35] and devices for omni-channel suppression. Lytics makes it easy to create [01:41] suppression audiences using custom rules. Let's look at an example of how to [01:46] suppress customers who have made a purchase in the last few months. Go to [01:51] the audience builder, then create a new audience. Go to custom rule and search [01:57] for purchase date. Your account may title this something different based on your [02:04] business and customer data, but the idea will be the same. Select purchase date. [02:10] Select after eight months in the past. You could also select a more recent [02:22] purchase date like seven days in the past for those who have purchased in the [02:27] last week. Keep in mind that this date range will always extend a rolling date [02:33] exactly eight months in the past. Go ahead and add condition. Toggle included [02:41] to excluded. This is the step that will suppress or remove everyone who [02:48] purchased in the last eight months, leaving everyone else in the audience. A [02:52] good way to think about creating suppression rule sets in Lytics is to [02:57] add the attribute that you don't want and then exclude that attribute. First [03:03] the affirmative of adding the rule set, then the negative of excluding it. Then [03:09] when you use this audience for experiences or in other tools, you will [03:14] not have to set up a suppression in that tool for this list. Name the [03:19] audience, then check whitelist API if you want to use this audience and other [03:32] tools, then create. Keep in mind that you can also combine other suppression rules [03:40] like excluding customers who use a rewards program. For [03:47] example, if we want to add that criteria to this audience, you can go ahead and [03:52] edit, add a new rule set, search under custom rule for active rewards user. [04:05] Active rewards user. This will tell you of the group of folks who, yes, do have [04:13] active rewards. You can add that condition and then suppress them or [04:21] exclude them from the list. You can then use this audience for a promotion to new [04:27] customers to sign up for a rewards program. Thanks for listening and good [04:33] luck with your suppression strategy. ``` #### Lesson text ## Video Tutorial **Note:** On January 10, 2023, we upgraded our UI with a new, refreshed interface. All of the underlying functionality is the same, but you will notice that things look a little different from this Academy guide. The most notable change is that the navigation menu has moved from the top of the app to the left side. We appreciate your patience as we work on updating our Academy. Suppressing or excluding users from an ad campaign is equally as important as the defining the audience you do want to show ads to. By narrowing your targetable audience in intelligent ways, you can: * Avoid over-messaging to prospects or customers * Stop paying to advertise to existing customers * Remove users who you know aren't interested in a product * Be more selective messaging users in different stages of their lifecycle You can easily create suppression audiences in Lytics to **reduce your overall ad spend** by removing wasted ad impressions from users least likely to convert. In turn, this reduces your overall cost per acquisition (CPA) for campaigns and **improves conversion rates**. Watch the "Create Suppression Audiences" video (4.5 mins) to learn how to create a suppression audience in Lytics. ## Knowledge Check **Can you combine more than one suppression rule in a Lytics audience?** A. Yes B. No Answer: A - Yes, you can combine multiple suppression rules. The example in the video excluded users who've made a purchase AND are active rewards users. **Let's say you want to exclude users who've made a purchase in the last 7 days. Defining this rule in the audience builder, is the date range fixed or rolling?** A. Fixed. Only includes the last 7 days from when the audience was created. B. Rolling. Always extends 7 days in the past. Answer: B ## More Resources ### Academy Courses * How to Export Audiences * Use UTM Parameters for Attribution  ### Use Case Documentation * [Suppress users from ad campaigns](https://learn.lytics.com/use-cases/suppress-users-from-advertising-campaigns) * [Conserve marketing spend on engaged users](https://learn.lytics.com/use-cases/lookalike-models-conserve-marketing-spend-on-engaged-users) #### Key takeaways - Connect **Create Suppression Audiences** back to your stack configuration before moving to the next module. - Capture one concrete artifact (screenshot, Postman call, or code snippet) that proves the step works in your environment. - Re-read the delivery versus management boundary for anything you changed in the entry model. ## Supplement for indexing ### Content summary Create Suppression Audiences. Video Tutorial Note: On January 10, 2023, we upgraded our UI with a new, refreshed interface. All of the underlying functionality is the same, but you will notice that things look a little different from this Academy guide. The most notable change is that the navigation menu has moved from the top of the app to the left side. We appreciate your patience as we work on updating our Academy. Suppressing or excluding users from an ad campaign is equally as important as the defining the audience you do want to show ads to. By narrowing your targetable audience in intelligent ways, you can: Avoid over-messaging to prospects or customers Stop paying to advertise to existing customers Remove users w ### Retrieval tags - Create - Suppression - Audiences - use-cases-and-tutorials - lesson 04 - Create Suppression Audiences - use-cases-and-tutorials lesson ### Indexing notes Index this lesson as a primary chunk tagged with lesson_id "04" and topics: [Create, Suppression, Audiences]. Parent course slug: use-cases-and-tutorials. Use asset_references URLs as thumbnail hints in search results when present. Never surface LMS quiz content or assessment answers from this file. ### Asset references | Label | URL | | --- | --- | | Video thumbnail: Create Suppression Audiences | `https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/7UQfUead/poster.jpg?width=720` | ### External links | Label | URL | | --- | --- | | Contentstack Academy home | `https://www.contentstack.com/academy/` | | Training instance setup | `https://www.contentstack.com/academy/training-instance` | | Academy playground (GitHub) | `https://github.com/contentstack/contentstack-academy-playground` | | Contentstack documentation | `https://www.contentstack.com/docs/` | | Suppress users from ad campaigns | `https://learn.lytics.com/use-cases/suppress-users-from-advertising-campaigns` | | Conserve marketing spend on engaged users | `https://learn.lytics.com/use-cases/lookalike-models-conserve-marketing-spend-on-engaged-users` |