A guide to adding users to a manual audience with a CSV

Admin and Management
  • Published on Apr 8, 2025
  • 1 minute(s) read
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Bulk-adding users to manual audiences can help you target specific groups of learners quickly, especially when those audiences are defined by performance data, compliance needs, or other external criteria. Rather than adding users one by one, Super Admins, Learning Admins, and Audience Managers can upload a CSV file containing email addresses or reference IDs to populate a manual audience in just a few steps.

If there are any issues with the upload, the uploader will receive a notification and a CSV file outlining what went wrong so they can easily fix and re-upload it.

  1. In the Thrive menu, go to Manage > Structures & Audiences and select the manual audience you want to add users to.

  2. Click Upload CSV.

  3. Drag and drop your CSV file or use the file picker to locate and upload your file.

    Note:

    Click Download a template to CSV under Please note: for a template to use.

    The CSV is processed and checked for errors.

  4. When successfully processed and checked, confirm the number of users being uploaded and click UPLOAD.

Once confirmed, you’ll return to the audience overview and see a confirmation message on the top right.

Note:

If your upload fails, the error will be displayed on-screen and you’ll receive a version of your file that includes only the rows with issues, making it easier to fix and re-upload. Users who were valid will still be added to the audience. Only the rows with errors need to be corrected and re-uploaded.

Common issues include:

  • CSV headers not matching the template

  • Incorrect file format (must be .csv)

Previously, admins could only add users one at a time. For large or dynamic audiences, this was inefficient. This feature was developed in response to frequent customer requests for faster, more flexible ways to build targeted audiences based on data from outside Thrive.

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