Step 1 — Connect your Klaviyo integration (if applicable)
Klaviyo is how OuterSignal data becomes action. Connecting it now means enriched customer profiles start flowing into Klaviyo immediately as customers are processed.
Go to Settings → Integrations → Klaviyo
Click Connect and enter your Klaviyo Private API Key (full access)
Once connected, OuterSignal will prompt you to create an All Customers Klaviyo Stream — we recommend doing this immediately. This Playbook automatically pushes enriched data (age, gender, persona, and birth month) to every customer profile in Klaviyo, existing and future, so your data starts flowing right away
Click Activate to turn the stream on
If you skip the prompt, you can set this up manually at any time in Playbooks → Create Playbook → All Customers → Klaviyo Stream.
📖 Full instructions: Klaviyo Integration
Step 2 — Connect your Slack integration (if applicable)
The first thing to set up is Slack so your team gets real-time alerts when high-value customers come in.
In your OuterSignal dashboard, go to Settings → Integrations → Slack
Click Connect and authorize the connection
Choose the Slack channel where you want alerts to appear
📖 Full instructions: Slack Integration
Step 3 — Run a backsearch to pull in your historical customers
Note: On an Enterprise plan? You can’t run a backsearch directly in the system — reach out to your OuterSignal rep to get it kicked off.
By default, OuterSignal processes new orders as they come in. But your historical customers — everyone who ordered before you signed up — aren't automatically pulled in. You need to kick off a backsearch to bring them in.
The more historical customer data you bring in, the more powerful OuterSignal becomes. Brands with higher order volumes build rich customer profiles faster — giving you more to work with right away. For most brands, a 6–12 month backsearch gives you enough data to start seeing meaningful results.
To run a backsearch:
Go to Settings → Data Sources
Select your Shopify store and click Edit
Set your import start date (we recommend going back at least 6 months)
Save and authorize the charge to begin
Backsearches are charged at $0.03 per unique customer.
⏱ Processing time is typically 24 hours for up to 5,000 customers, 1–2 days for up to 20,000, and 2–3+ business days for larger pulls. You'll see profiles appear progressively — you don't need to wait for the full pull to finish before moving on.
📖 Full instructions: Can you pull historical customer data?
Step 4 — Explore your Signal Feed
While your backsearch runs, take a look at your Signal Feed. This is the live view of your customers — sortable, filterable, and searchable.
Even with a small number of customers processed so far, you can:
Sort by LTV to surface your highest-value customers immediately
Filter by location, persona, or other attributes
Click any customer to see their full enriched profile
Don't worry if your feed looks thin right now — it fills in as your backsearch completes.
📖 Signal Feed overview (coming soon)
Step 5 — Set up your first Playbook
A Playbook is how OuterSignal takes action automatically on your behalf — tagging customers in Klaviyo, adding tags in Shopify, or sending Slack alerts when someone meets your criteria.
Your first Playbook should stream all customer data into Klaviyo so enriched profiles start populating immediately:
Go to Playbooks in the left sidebar
Click Create Playbook
Select All Customers as your segment
Add a Klaviyo action → select Stream OuterSignal data → choose Age, Gender, and Persona
Turn on Run for existing members so it applies to customers already in your system
Click Create Playbook
That's it. OuterSignal will now automatically push enriched data to every customer profile in Klaviyo — existing and future.
📖 Full instructions: Klaviyo Integration
Step 6 — Wait for Personas to unlock
Brand Personas become available once OuterSignal has processed 1,000+ customers. If you ran a backsearch in Step 3, you'll likely hit this threshold during your first day.
Once unlocked, head to the Personas section to see your brand's customer breakdown — and then activate persona tagging so each customer gets tagged with their persona automatically.
📖 What is a Persona? How are personas generated? (coming soon) 📖
What's next?
Once you've completed these steps, here's where most brands go next:
Build Klaviyo segments using your OuterSignal persona and demographic data → Building Klaviyo Segments with OuterSignal Data
Find your VIPs and decide what to do with them → I found a VIP customer — now what? (coming soon)
Set up a Meta Lookalike Audience from your best customers → How can I export personas for Meta Lookalike Audiences?
Need help? Reach out at support@outersignal.com or use the chat in the bottom right corner of your dashboard.