Preview Mode

Preview Mode lets you run a Signal or Audience export exactly as it would run for real, but without sending any data to your connected destinations (Google Ads, Meta Ads, Google Analytics 4, Microsoft Ads, and so on). Instead of a live push, you get a downloadable CSV of the records that would have been sent.

It is the safe way to test an export before it touches your ad platforms.

When to use it

• Testing a new Signal or Audience before its first real run.
• Validating a destination configuration — did you map the right fields, and is the value correct?
• Checking the volume — how many records would be sent, and what they look like.
• Catching pipeline errors early, without risking a bad push to a live ad account.

Preview Mode works on both Signals and Audiences.

How to run a preview

1. Open the Signal or Audience you want to test.
2. Click Run Export.
3. In the Run Export dialog, turn on the Preview mode toggle.
   • The toggle title changes to "Preview mode enabled".
   • The helper line reads "Skips the platform push".
4. Click Run Preview.

You'll see a confirmation: "Preview export job triggered successfully".

What happens during a preview

A preview is a real export job, with one difference — nothing is pushed to your destinations:

• ✅ Your data is read and processed exactly like a live run.
• ✅ The status updates normally (Running → Complete / Error), so genuine errors still surface.
• ✅ A CSV of the processed records is produced and can be downloaded.
• ❌ No data is sent to any destination — no platform call is made.
• ❌ The export window is not advanced, so the same records are still available next time. The run is repeatable.
• ⚠️ It still uses real compute (costs apply) and counts toward the manual-run cooldown — budget a preview like a real run.

Download the CSV

1. Open the Sync History (see Export Status) for the Signal or Audience.
2. Find the run marked with the Preview badge — this distinguishes it from a real (live) run.
3. Click the download icon at the end of the row (tooltip "Download CSV").
   • If the icon is greyed out, the tooltip reads "No export file available for this run" — there is no file to download for that run.
   • The download link is short-lived (a few minutes). If it has expired, click the icon again to generate a fresh one.

Things to know

• Preview does not validate your destinations. Because nothing is actually pushed, a preview will not tell you whether a destination will accept the data or whether its credentials are correct. For example, a wrong GA4 API Secret is not caught by a preview — it only surfaces at the first real export (see Google Analytics 4).
• Destination-side problems only surface in a real run. Use Preview to validate your configuration and data; then run for real to confirm the destination accepts it.
• Costs and cooldown still apply. A preview is not free and not unlimited.
• The CSV is for your review only. Files produced by a preview are tagged so they are not mistaken for live exports downstream.