Activate Permutive cohorts to X (formerly Twitter) for custom audience targeting in real-time. Send rich cohort information to X for promoted posts and ad campaigns.
Using the X pixel integration (labeled as “Twitter” in the Permutive dashboard), you can send rich cohort information to X (formerly Twitter) for targeting. These audiences are passed to X in real-time, enabling you to run custom audiences and target promoted posts or ads at Permutive cohorts.
In the Permutive dashboard, this integration is still labeled as “Twitter” even though the platform is now called X. When following setup instructions, look for “Twitter” in your Permutive dashboard UI.
This integration is a Destination:
Destination: Permutive sends cohort membership data to X via a pixel-based integration, which can then be used for targeting in X advertising campaigns.
Use cases include:
Target promoted posts and ads at Permutive cohort audiences on X’s timeline and ad network
Build custom audiences for X campaigns using real-time cohort data
Retarget users who visited your website on X
Create tailored audiences based on website visitor behavior for X advertising
X Ads Account: You must have an active X (formerly Twitter) Ads account with a Business X account.
Access to X Ads Manager: You need access to the Ads section of your X account to create tailored audiences and manage campaigns.
Audience Tag ID: For each cohort activation, you’ll need to obtain unique audience tag IDs from X. These IDs are generated when you create tailored audiences in X’s Audience Manager (see Setup steps for details).
Navigate to the Permutive Dashboard and go to Settings > Integrations.Click Add Integration and select Twitter (note that the integration is still labeled as “Twitter” in the Permutive dashboard, even though the platform is now called X).Click Add Integration to add the Twitter Pixel.
The integration will be available for use in approximately 20 minutes.
2
Create Tailored Audiences in X Ads
For each Permutive cohort you want to activate to X, you’ll need to create a corresponding tailored audience in X Ads:
Log in to your Business X account
Select your Account Icon (Profile and Settings) in the top right corner and click on the Ads section
Choose the correct Account, then navigate to Tools > Audience Manager
Click Create New Audience > Make a tag to collect website visitors
Create a new tailored audience with a relevant name
When saved, you’ll receive a Website tag. From this JavaScript tag, save the audience tag ID (this ID typically begins with the letter ‘o’, such as o1234 in the trackPid call or txn_id value)
Keep this audience tag ID - you’ll need it for creating activations in Permutive
You need to create a separate tailored audience in X for each Permutive cohort you want to activate.
3
Create Activations in Permutive
After creating tailored audiences in X, create corresponding activations in Permutive:
In the Permutive Dashboard, go to the Activations section
Click Add Activation
Under Action, select Twitter
Give the activation a descriptive name
Add tags for easier discovery (optional)
Add a description (optional)
Enter the audience tag ID (the ID beginning with ‘o’ that you obtained from X’s Audience Manager)
Select the Permutive cohort you want to target
Set the trigger to On Entry
Click Create
Currently, only one Twitter activation per cohort is supported. You cannot create multiple activations to different X audiences for the same Permutive cohort.
4
Use Audiences in X Ads Campaigns
Once activations are created and users start entering your cohorts, you can use these audiences in X Ads:
The Website events tag will appear in the Conversion tracking list in the X Ads dashboard
As soon as a user triggers the activation (by entering the cohort), the audience status changes from “unverified” to “verified”
Check audience size by navigating to Tools > Audience Manager in X Ads
When creating a campaign in X Ads, find your custom audiences under Tailored Audiences (web) in the Targeting section
Select the relevant Permutive-powered audiences to target your promoted posts or ads
It may take a few hours for audiences to populate after the first users are added, and audience sizes will update as more users enter the cohort.
The X pixel integration is configured entirely through the Permutive Dashboard and X Ads Manager. There is no additional web implementation required beyond the standard Permutive SDK integration.Once the integration is enabled in Permutive and activations are created, the Permutive SDK automatically fires pixel calls to X when users enter activated cohorts, adding them to the corresponding tailored audiences in real-time.The pixel integration works by making HTTP requests to X’s tracking endpoints with the audience tag ID and user information when cohort entry triggers occur.
X targeting via Permutive cohorts is currently only supported on Web through the pixel integration.
X targeting via Permutive cohorts is currently only supported on Web through the pixel integration.
If your tailored audience remains “unverified” after creating the activation in Permutive:
Ensure that the activation has been enabled for at least 20 minutes (the time it takes for Permutive integrations to become active)
Verify that users are actually entering the cohort by checking the cohort’s Live Audience Size in the Permutive Dashboard. Note that Live Audience Size starts at zero when a cohort is first deployed and grows over time as users are evaluated — if the cohort was recently created, allow time for users to be evaluated. See Understanding Audience Size for details.
Confirm that the audience tag ID entered in Permutive exactly matches the ID from X’s Website tag (typically starts with ‘o’)
Check that the Permutive SDK is properly installed and firing on your website
Wait for at least one user to enter the cohort and trigger the activation - the audience will only become verified after the first successful pixel call
If issues persist after verifying the above, contact Permutive support.
Audience size is smaller than expected
If the audience size in X Ads is significantly smaller than the cohort size in Permutive:
Remember that only users who enter the cohort after the activation is created will be added to the X audience (historical cohort members are not backfilled)
Ensure the activation trigger is set to “On Entry” to capture users as they join the cohort
Check that the Permutive SDK is deployed across all pages where cohort entry events might occur
Be aware that some users may not have X accounts or may have ad tracking disabled, which can reduce the match rate
Allow 24-48 hours for audience sizes to stabilize as X processes the incoming pixel data
Audience sizes typically range from 60-80% of the Permutive cohort size due to match rates and user privacy settings.
Cannot create multiple activations for the same cohort
The X pixel integration currently only supports one activation per Permutive cohort. If you need to send the same cohort to multiple X audiences:
Create duplicate cohorts in Permutive with the same logic
Create separate activations for each duplicate cohort, targeting different X audience tag IDs
Alternatively, use the same X audience tag ID across multiple campaigns in X Ads Manager
This is a known limitation of the current integration implementation. Contact Permutive support if this limitation significantly impacts your use case.
Audience not appearing in X Ads targeting options
If you cannot find your Permutive-powered audience when setting up targeting in X Ads:
Verify that the tailored audience has been created in X’s Audience Manager
Ensure the audience status shows as “verified” (see “Audience not showing as verified” above)
Check that the audience has a minimum size (X typically requires at least 500 users before an audience can be targeted)
Confirm you’re looking in the correct section: Tailored Audiences (web) under Targeting in the campaign setup
Verify that you’re logged into the correct X Ads account that owns the tailored audience
If the audience still doesn’t appear, it may not have reached the minimum size threshold for targeting.
Integration still labeled as Twitter in Permutive dashboard
The Permutive dashboard still refers to this integration as “Twitter” even though the platform has been rebranded to X. This is expected behavior:
When adding the integration, look for “Twitter” in the integration list
When creating activations, select “Twitter” as the action
This naming convention exists to maintain compatibility with existing customer configurations
The integration functions identically regardless of the label - it sends data to X (formerly Twitter) as expected.
