Clay Ads

Clay Ads takes a filtered segment of contacts or accounts from your Clay Audiences, enriches it with up to three hashed personal emails so ad platforms can match it, and pushes it out as a targetable audience that keeps itself current. This page walks one full pass end to end and links out to the platform-specific details.

What you can do:

• Target decision-makers at your priority accounts from CRM or warehouse data
• Create exclusion lists so you stop paying to advertise to existing customers, employees, or open opportunities
• Retarget warm leads based on engagement signals, or reach executives who recently changed jobs
• Run multi-channel ABM across ad platforms from one segment
• Build high-quality seed audiences on Meta and Google for lookalike expansion
• Keep audiences current automatically as your underlying data changes

Who it's for

Clay Ads is built for performance marketers, growth marketers, and demand gen teams who run paid media in-house — particularly where targeting is US-heavy and there's pressure to show return on ad spend.

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Before you start

Gather these first — each one blocks a later step:

• Data in Audiences. Your contacts and accounts need to be in Clay already, imported from your CRM, data warehouse, or a CSV. See Audiences for setup.
• A role on the ad account that can manage audiences. Admin and editor-level roles both work — view-only roles are the ones that can't create an audience. Worth confirming yours up front, since it's much quicker to sort out now than midway through a sync.
• A clear view of which platforms you're sending to, and the rules each one applies. Google Ads and Bing Ads accept first-party data only, so contacts sourced solely from Clay's data marketplace are filtered out of any sync that includes them.

Step 1: Build the segment you want to target

Ad audiences are built from an Audiences segment, so start there rather than in the Ads surface.

1. Click People or Companies in the left sidebar, then create a segment with the filters that describe who you want to reach — CRM fields, Clay enrichment data, and signals can all be combined.
2. Decide whether you're targeting or excluding. An exclusion list is usually the fastest first win, because it cuts wasted spend without needing a new campaign.
3. Keep the first run small. Somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 records is enough to check that enrichment behaves and match rates look sane before you commit credits to a large list.

Contact segments can go to any destination. Account segments can only go to LinkedIn Ads, the one destination that accepts account audiences.

Step 2: Connect your ad accounts

1. Go to Ads in the left sidebar, under Orchestration.
2. In Connect destinations, each platform shows a card marked Not connected until you authenticate.
3. Click through to authenticate each platform you plan to use, and grant Clay permission to create and manage audiences.

Connections are shared across your workspace, so a teammate's existing connection counts — you don't each need to authenticate separately.

Step 3: Create the ad sync

1. On the Ads page, click Create ad sync and pick People or Companies to match the segment you built.
2. In the Select an audience modal, choose your segment from the People list or Company list tab.
3. The ad sync opens on a three-stage path: Setup, Match, and Sync. You can leave and come back — progress is saved as you go.

Step 4: Choose destinations and a schedule

This is the Setup stage.

1. Under Sync details, name the sync in Ad sync name. This name is used for the audiences Clay creates in each ad platform, so make it recognisable. Names are unique within your workspace — if you reuse one, Clay appends a suffix rather than rejecting it.
2. Under Sync destinations, click Add sync destinations. Pick your platforms in Select ad providers, then click through to Configure ad accounts and choose the destination for each from Select account.
   • Google Ads and Bing Ads are labelled For use with first-party data only.
   • If an account appears greyed out, a tooltip explains why — usually the role you authenticated with can't manage audiences, or the ad account's terms of service haven't been accepted yet.
   • You can add several destinations to one sync, and the same platform more than once if you manage multiple ad accounts. They all run on the same schedule.
3. Under Schedule, choose a Sync type:
   • Recurring (re-sync your segment every 3 days) — Clay keeps the audience aligned to the segment, adding and removing members as records qualify or drop out.
   • One-time — a single push, no updates afterwards.
4. Click Continue. If you see Select at least one sync destination, no destination has been added yet.

Step 5: Turn on Enhanced matching

This is the Match stage, and it does more for your results than anything else in the setup. Ad platforms match people on the email they signed up with, which is almost never the work email in your CRM. Enhanced matching closes that gap by finding up to three hashed personal emails per contact. The raw addresses are never exposed — only the hashes the ad platform needs.

It resolves those hashes from each contact's professional profile URL or work email, so those two fields set your ceiling. Check how well they're filled in on the segment before you run — improving coverage there lifts every destination at once.

Hashing rules differ from platform to platform, and Clay applies each destination's on the way out — so map the plain values you have and let Clay format them. Google Ads takes first and last name hashed with SHA-256 but country and postal code in the clear, for instance, while Meta Ads hashes its location fields too.

1. Under Enhanced matching, pick a tier:
   • Good match rates — the cost-effective choice at scale. 1–2 credits per row, depending on your plan.
   • Best match rates — adds premium providers for the highest data quality. 2–3 credits per row, depending on your plan.
   • None — skip enrichment and sync the identifiers you already have.
2. Under Email fields, choose the email or hashed email fields to send. This is required if you picked None.
3. Under Additional fields, map anything else you have — names, phone, company, location. Each field is routed only to the destinations that accept it, so you can map generously without worrying about which platform takes what. If you map a country field, Clay expects two-letter ISO country codes — it converts longer values where it can, so United States becomes US.
4. Click Enrich and sync. A confirmation shows Contacts to enrich and Estimated credits before anything is charged.

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Step 6: Sync, then attach the audience to a campaign

The Sync stage shows one card per destination, each reporting its own status:

• Building — the platform is processing your upload.
• Updating — a resync is running against an audience that already exists.
• Ready — matching succeeded and the audience can be used.
• Too small — too few members matched for the platform to serve against. Broaden the segment or improve match rate, then sync again.
• Failed — the platform rejected the sync.
• Processing — any other in-between state.
• Deactivated — syncing to this platform has been turned off.

Each card also shows Audience size, Match rate, and Records sent or Companies sent.

If a card shows Connection issue or Reconnection required, the platform connection has lapsed — reconnect from the card. A recurring sync stops updating while the connection is down, but the audience already in the ad platform stays in place, so campaigns using it keep running.

Once a destination reports Ready, go into that platform's campaign manager and attach the audience to a campaign, either as targeting or as an exclusion. You don't have to wait for Ready to start setting the campaign up — an audience that's still Building can generally be selected already, it just won't serve until it's ready. Clay creates and maintains the audience; the campaign itself is always built on the platform side.

Where you can sync

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Each destination has its own doc in Clay, covering permissions, identifier handling, and how to attach the audience to a campaign: LinkedIn Ads, Meta Ads, Google Ads, Bing Ads, Vibe.co, and Reddit Ads.

What to expect after your first sync

• Match rates depend almost entirely on enrichment. Work emails alone typically match 60–70% on LinkedIn Ads and only 10–20% on Meta Ads. Adding hashed personal emails through Enhanced matching typically takes those to 90–95% and 50–70%+ respectively. If your first sync matches fewer people than you hoped, this is nearly always why — and it's the easiest thing to improve.
• Allow up to 48 hours before an audience is usable. The audience stays in Building in Clay until the platform confirms it's ready, so give yourself a buffer before a launch depends on it.
• A recurring sync re-syncs your segment every three days. Members who stop qualifying are removed and new ones added, without you touching anything.
• A multi-destination sync is capped by its most restrictive platform. LinkedIn Ads takes up to 300,000 records; every other destination takes up to 1,000,000. Clay applies the smallest cap across the sync, so adding LinkedIn Ads to a very large audience trims what reaches all of them. Records are sent up to the cap, and which ones go isn't something you choose — so if that matters, give the larger audience its own sync.
• Enhanced matching is strongest for US-based contacts. Outside the US and Canada, expect lower coverage, and consider using your own region-specific first-party data.

Glossary

• Match rate — The share of the contacts or accounts you sent that an ad platform could match to users in its identity graph, calculated against that platform's own definition of audience size.
• Audience size — The number of matched users an ad platform can currently serve your ads to. It is a subset of the matched total, and it varies by inventory type.
• Ad audience — A list of contacts or accounts synced from Clay to an ad platform, used either for targeting or for exclusion.
• Exclusion list — An ad audience configured to prevent a group from seeing your ads. Common ones are existing customers, current employees, and open pipeline.
• Hashed email — An email address encrypted with a one-way algorithm (SHA-256) before being sent to an ad platform, so the platform can match a contact without receiving the raw address.
• Ad sync — The link between a segment and one or more ad platforms, including the schedule that keeps the audience current.

FAQs

Why did fewer contacts sync than my segment contains?

Most often because a destination filtered them out. Google Ads and Bing Ads accept first-party data only, so a contact whose only source is Clay's data marketplace is dropped before upload — one that also came from your CRM or a CSV still counts. Because the rule applies to the whole sync, adding either of those two to a mixed audience shrinks what reaches every destination in it.

The rule looks at where a contact came from, not at what you have added to it since. Enriching your own CRM, warehouse, or CSV records with Clay keeps them first-party, because matched emails and Enhanced matching hashes build on a contact you already had. Each destination card shows its eligible count before you run, so check there rather than after the fact. Beyond that, contacts with no usable identifier have nothing to match on.

Why is my match rate high but my audience size much smaller?

Because the two numbers count different things. Match rate is how many of the contacts you sent the platform could tie to a user in its identity graph. Audience size is the slice of those matched users it can serve an ad to right now — signed in, opted into personalised ads, and eligible for the inventory the campaign runs on.

On platforms that split inventory, one matched set produces a different audience size per surface, so Google Ads can report one figure for Search and a smaller one for Display. Both are subsets of the same matched users rather than competing measurements, and a gap between them is expected. If you want more reach, match rate is the lever — Enhanced matching and better identifier coverage on the segment lift every destination.

Can I change the Enhanced matching tier later?

Not on an existing sync — the tier locks once the first enrichment has run. If you need a different tier, create a new ad sync. Worth knowing before you run a large list on Good match rates and then wish you'd chosen Best match rates.

Can I run two ad syncs from the same segment?

No — one ad sync per segment. Attempting a second returns a message saying an ad sync already exists for that source. If you want the same people going to different destinations on different schedules, duplicate the segment with the same filters and create a sync from each.

Does a recurring sync charge me again every three days?

Not for work you've already paid for. Hashed emails found by Enhanced matching are saved on your audience and reused on later syncs, so enrichment credits are only spent on members who haven't been enriched yet — in practice, new contacts entering the segment. The sync itself consumes 1 action per record exported. The flip side is that a segment which keeps growing keeps costing: every new member gets enriched on the next run. If a segment is broadly defined, it's worth watching its size as it grows so the spend stays where you want it.

How many ad syncs can I have running at once?

This depends on your plan. If you've hit your limit, the option to create a new sync is unavailable rather than failing partway through. Your Growth Strategist can confirm where your workspace stands.

Can I see which contacts matched?

No — ad platforms don't provide contact-level match visibility. Clay shows aggregate match rate and audience size after each sync.

How are opt-outs handled?

Opt-outs are managed at the source: either in your CRM or warehouse list definition, or via an opt-out field you filter your segment on. Clay runs full replacement syncs, so removing someone in your source removes them from the synced ad audience on the next sync.

Legacy table ad syncs

Earlier ad syncs were built from a Clay table rather than a segment. If your workspace has any, they appear under Legacy ad syncs on the Ads page. The Table option under Create ad sync is marked Deprecated — build new syncs from a segment instead.

Any table you already have can come along: import it into Audiences, build a People list or Company list from it, and sync that. Audiences is the more stable path long term, and it works out cheaper — Enhanced matching results save onto the contact in Audiences and get reused by later syncs, rather than being stranded in one table.

A segment that already has a legacy sync can't take a new one — remove the legacy sync first, or build from a different segment.

Related

• Audiences
• Clay Ads compliance best practices
• Audiences FAQs and best practices