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Target lookalikes

The logical conclusion to the modelling process is to create a FastStats virtual variable so that you can select the people you wish to market to.

More on FastStats wizards and virtual variables can be found here - Wizards and Virtual Variables.

After creating and evaluating dimensions in the Modelling Environment, you can then use them in a Profile or Decision Tree.

Creating virtual variables using wizards is a very straightforward process in FastStats. Here, you require the Profile Model.

  1. Open and build your profile (see Profile for more on this).
  2. Click the Create Profile Model wizard icon.
  3. For Banding Type, select Equal Ranges.
  4. For Bands, select Size of each Band 1.00.

Date settings

Now, on the Settings step, consider if you wish to use a fixed date or use the date at run time?

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- **Use fixed date** - allows you to select a specific date - perhaps, for example, the date you wish to run a campaign. The virtual variable examines characteristics or behaviours up to that date and scores them on that date. This is a static variable and any future refreshing of the virtual variable will not change the results returned - the fixed date is always referenced.

- **Use date at run time** – examines data up to the run date and, as such, potentially returns different results each time the virtual variable is refreshed. This is because people's characteristics or behaviours may change between refreshes.

![](../../../../assets/images/faststats/modelling/1281-ProfileModelSettings.png)

Note the text in brackets - here **(The training date used to create the coefficients was 01 Jan 2022)**. This means that the PWE that a certain category in a specific dimension would have scored on the training date (01/01/2022) is identified. When the virtual variable calculates scores, the categories that records fall into on either the fixed date, or date at run time, are identified and the PWE score for the category, as determined on the training date, is assigned.
  1. Follow the remaining wizard steps to finish creating your virtual variable.

See Profile model wizard for more information.