Uploading research is the single most effective way to improve the copy Atlas writes. By the end of this you will have at least one research document attached to your project, and every page you build in that project afterwards will be written from it. You need a document about your customer, and optionally a second showing how you write.
In this article:
The two kinds of upload
Upload | What it shapes | What to put in it |
| Who the page speaks to and what it argues | Survey responses, customer interviews, support ticket themes, reviews of your product or competitors, forum threads where your customers complain |
| How the page sounds | Your best-performing existing copy, emails you have written, a brand voice document, pages whose tone you want matched |
The tooltips in the app describe each: research is "Upload research to help us understand your customer persona, what they want, their objections, and what motivates them to buy", and style is "Upload examples so we can match your writing style."
Once processed, research shows the caption Helping shape customer segments and ad angles and the style reference shows Shaping voice and tone.
💡 Real customer language beats a polished brief. A raw export of reviews, complaints and support questions gives Atlas the words your buyers actually use, which is what makes copy land.
File types and limits
Rule | Value |
Maximum file size | 20 MB |
Accepted types when building pages and stores | TXT, PDF, CSV, DOCX |
Accepted types in the landing page wizard | TXT, MD, PDF, CSV, DOCX |
Exceeding the size shows That file is over 20 MB — upload a smaller file. An unsupported type shows That file type isn't supported — upload TXT, PDF, CSV, or DOCX.
How to upload
Open your project on the dashboard and select the
Project settingstab.Find
Customer researchorStyle reference.Select
Upload research filesand choose your file.Wait for
Analyzing your document…to finish.
Atlas reads the document and extracts the audience, objections and motivations it can find. This takes a few moments for a short file and longer for a large one.
You can also upload research inside any build wizard, at the Upload research (Optional) step. Files uploaded there are saved to the project, so they apply to future builds too.
Choosing how closely Atlas follows your research
Under the research section, How should we use these documents? offers two options. The tooltip frames the choice: "Choose how closely Atlas follows your uploaded research."
Option | What Atlas does |
| Atlas keeps the angles and personas from your research as-is and writes the page copy around them. |
| Atlas treats your research as guidance and can adjust the angles and personas it generates. |
Choose Stick closely to my angles and personas when your research is the output of real work you trust, such as tested ad angles or a validated customer profile. Choose Use as inspiration when your research is raw material, such as a pile of reviews, and you want Atlas to find the pattern.
Replacing and removing files
Replace swaps a file for a new one. Remove deletes it.
Removing one file from a set asks: {name} will be removed from your customer research. The remaining files will be re-analyzed. That re-analysis matters. The persona is derived from all your files together, so removing one changes it.
Removing all research asks Remove this research? and warns This customer research will be removed. This can't be undone.
⚠️ Atlas does not keep a copy of your uploads for you to download later. Keep your own copies of anything you may need again, particularly before deleting a project, which removes its research permanently.
If removal fails you will see Couldn't remove the research document. Please try again.
If a file will not process
Two different failures, with different fixes.
Couldn't upload your research document. Please try again. The upload itself failed. Check your connection and the file size, then try again.
Couldn't process this file, with the suggestion Try re-saving it from Word, Pages, or Google Docs and uploading again. Atlas received the file but could not read its text. This usually means a PDF made from scanned images, an unusual export, or a file that is corrupt. Open the document, use Save As or Export to produce a fresh PDF or DOCX, and upload that. A Details link shows more about what went wrong.
The same failure is worded differently depending on where you are: Couldn't process this document. Try another. inside a persona configuration modal, and Couldn't process the research file — remove it or try again. inside a build wizard. All of them mean Atlas received the file but could not read its text, and all have the same fix.
In the landing page wizard the equivalent message names the file: Couldn't read {names} — it won't be used. Try re-exporting it as PDF or DOCX. Note the consequence in that wording: the build continues without that file rather than stopping.
If a document still will not process after re-exporting, paste its text into a plain TXT file and upload that instead. If that also fails, contact support from the chat bubble in Atlas, or at support@helloatlas.io.