Managing lists

A list is a saved set of creators you can point outreach at. Use lists to gather creators from AI Search, Social Intelligence, or a spreadsheet, then act on the whole set at once.

There is only one kind of list

Cruva used to make you choose between a "handles" list and an "emails" list. That split is gone. Every list holds both: each member row can carry a TikTok handle and an email address, so the same list can drive a DM automation and an email campaign.

You'll see two counts on every list:

• Affiliates — members with a TikTok handle. This is who a DM automation can message.
• Emails — members with an email address. This is who an email campaign can reach.

The two overlap. A list of 5,000 creators where 1,200 have an email on file shows 5,000 affiliates · 1,200 emails — it's one list, sized differently depending on which channel you send through.

Creating a list

Outreach → Lists → Create List

1. Give it a title (letters, numbers, spaces, . - _, up to 50 characters).
2. Choose Upload CSV or Paste handles.
3. Optionally tick shops under Also share with… to make the new list available in your other shops (see Sharing a list across your organization below).

Upload CSV

There's no list type to pick. Drop the file in and Cruva reads it for handles and emails together.

• Plain text only — .csv, .tsv or .txt. Excel and Numbers files are rejected (even if renamed); open the file and use File → Save As → CSV.
• Columns are detected automatically. Naming them handles and emails is the surest route, but handle, username, tiktok handle, email address, contact email and similar all match.
• The @ is optional on handles.
• A cell is read for what it actually is. An address sitting in the handle column is still treated as an email, and vice versa — a mislabelled export still imports correctly.
• No header row is fine. Cruva samples the first rows to work out which column is which, and falls back to reading the first column as handles.
• Both columns at once is the best case — a file with handles and emails keeps both on the same member.
• Up to 50,000 rows per upload. Split anything larger.

A one-column file of bare handles still works exactly as it always did:

kylejones
beautybyanna
fitwithsam

Paste handles

For a short list that isn't in a file yet. One entry per line — commas, semicolons and spaces work too, the @ is optional, and email addresses are accepted in the same box.

What Cruva fills in for you

On upload, every entry is matched against the creator database for your region and enriched:

• Upload a handle → Cruva attaches that creator's email, if one is on file.
• Upload an email → Cruva resolves it back to a handle where it can.
• Upload both → both are kept, pinned to the exact creator.

This is why the email count is often higher than the number of addresses in your file, and why a list built from bare handles can still send email.

The success toast reports what landed — Added 4,812 creators · 4,812 handles, 1,190 emails — followed by any caveats:

• not matched to a creator — the handle didn't resolve to a creator in the database. These members are still added, just without follower/GMV data attached. Some of this is normal.
• duplicates skipped — the same handle or address appeared more than once in the file.
• invalid rows skipped — the row held neither a handle nor a valid email address.

If nothing usable was found you'll get a "Nothing to upload" error instead, telling you whether the rows were invalid or the file was empty.

Working inside a list

Click a list to open it. Every member is shown with their handle, email, categories, followers, 30d GMV and engagement.

• Search — by name, handle or email.
• Filter — narrow the list by creator attributes: categories, GMV, units sold, live GMV, followers, min views, engagement, promotion performance, content quality, plus demographics (gender, age, language, follower ages and so on). The filtered set is what Download exports, so this is how you carve a targeted CSV out of a big list.
• Add creator or email — type a single handle or address; Cruva works out which it is and fills in the other side.
• Upload more — append another CSV to the same list.
• Add to another list — per row, or on a multi-row selection.
• Remove — per row, or in bulk from the selection bar.
• Rename — the pencil next to the title. Titles are display text only; nothing that points at the list breaks when you rename it.
• Download — a CSV with handle, nickname, profile URL, email, categories, followers, GMV, engagement, post rate and demographics.

Sending to a list

From the list page (Create Campaign) or the ⋮ menu on the Lists table, pick:

• DM automation — messages the members that have a handle.
• Email campaign — emails the members that have an address.

The menu shows the count each channel can reach and disables the option when that count is zero ("No email addresses in this list"). Inside campaign setup, choose Saved Lists as the audience and pick up to 10 lists per campaign; the picker shows the count that matters for that channel — affiliates for a DM automation, emails for an email campaign.

Want a list where everyone is emailable? In AI Search, tick Only show creators with emails before you search, then Add All to List. Results are restricted to creators with a published address, so every member of the resulting list can be emailed.

Sharing a list across your organization

A list is owned by the shop it was created in, but it doesn't have to stay there. Sharing makes it usable in your other shops without re-uploading anything.

How to share: ⋮ → Share… on the Lists table, or tick shops under Also share with… while creating the list. Check the shops, save, done.

It stays one list — not a copy. Members, uploads, renames and removals apply everywhere it's shared, immediately. Add 500 creators in one shop and the other shops see them too.

Who you can share with. Your other shops that are:

• under the same Cruva account,
• in the same region — creator data is region-gated, so a list built in the US can't be used by a UK shop, and
• active (paid).

Anything outside that isn't offered. Managing a list's shares needs edit rights on the list, which follow the owning shop.

What it looks like. A list shared into the shop you're viewing carries a Shared badge; hover it to see which shop owns it. A list you own that's shared elsewhere shows Shared with 2 shops. Shared lists can be viewed, downloaded and targeted by campaigns like any other; editing them requires access to the owning shop.

Unsharing. The owner unticks the shop in the Share dialog. Someone in a shop that received the list can use ⋮ → Remove from this shop to drop it on their side. Either way, if a campaign or automation in that shop is still pointing at the list, the removal is refused with Still in use and the blocking campaigns are named — repoint or delete those first. Deleting a list outright is blocked the same way, including by campaigns in other shops it's shared with.

Merging lists

Outreach → Lists → Merge Lists. Pick two or more lists and name the result. Merging creates a new list and keeps the originals, de-duplicating overlapping members. Lists shared into your shop can be used as sources; the merged result is owned by the shop you merge in.

Lists vs Groups

Lists are manual. If you want a set that maintains itself — everyone who was shipped a sample but hasn't posted, everyone over $10k GMV — that's a Group. A list-driven automation works through its members and stops; a group-driven automation keeps running and messages creators as soon as they match.

Common problems

"Nothing was imported." Confirm it's a real plain-text CSV (not a renamed .xlsx) and that the file actually contains handles or email addresses. Handles that don't resolve to a creator are still added — they're not the cause.

"The email count is lower than my row count." Expected. Only members with a known address can be emailed; Cruva fills in the ones it has on file. To send email to more of the list, upload addresses alongside the handles, or build the list from an AI Search with Only show creators with emails enabled.

"I keep creating new lists instead of adding to one." Open the list and use Upload more or Add creator or email, use Add to another list from a selection, or Merge Lists to combine.

"I can't delete or unshare a list." Something is still using it — the error names the campaigns or rules, in whichever shop they live.