Creating & managing fields

Adding a new field — step by step

1. Go to Field Builder in the left sidebar.
2. Click Add field and pick the field type from the cards (Aggregated, Formula, Text, Conditional, Lookup). The type cannot be changed after the field is created.
3. Fill in the common settings (below) and the type-specific builder — see Row-level field types and Aggregated fields.
4. Check the Sample output and Generated SQL panels while you build (row-level types).
5. Click Save — new fields are always created as Draft.
6. Activate the field from the list with the Active toggle (or from the editor).
7. Row-level fields are usable immediately; aggregated fields appear once the first computation completes.

The New field editor: pick a type from the cards, build on the left, live preview on the right.

Common settings

Setting	What it means
Field name	The display name shown across BPP (e.g., "Interest Category"). The physical BigQuery column name is derived from it — lowercased, punctuation and spaces become _ (e.g. interest_category) — and shown live under the input. Must be unique within the source table.
Description	A short explanation of what this field measures. Required.
Source table	The table the field is computed on. Row-level builders pick their operand fields from this table; aggregated fields require an event-type table.
Visible in platform	Exposes the field in audiences, signals and persona. Turn it off to hide the field from the pickers without suspending it.

AI suggestions: the wand buttons next to Field name and Description generate a suggested name and description from the source table and the field definition — useful as a starting point.

The source table picker — browse by category (Event table, User table, AI Models) or search by name.

Sample output preview

For Formula, Conditional and inline Lookup fields, the builder shows a Sample output card with the computed value on up to 5 real rows of the source table, refreshed as you edit the definition.

• Available on event and user tables only (rows are keyed by record / user id).
• The preview runs a live, tightly-bounded query; on very large tables or under heavy use it may show "Sample preview unavailable for this field." — this does not affect saving or activation.
• Aggregated and CSV lookup fields don't show a sample (their value depends on a full computation / uploaded table).

Next to the sample, the Generated SQL panel shows the inferred Result type and an illustrative SQL expression of the definition, with a copy button and a plain-language "Reads as" sentence.

Activating, suspending and fixing errors

• Activate (Draft → Active): for row-level fields, BPP validates the definition, dry-runs the SQL on BigQuery and rebuilds the table's calculated-fields view — the field is available in the platform right away. For aggregated fields, the field becomes Ready and is computed on the next daily run (or on demand via Trigger recomputation).
• Suspend (Active → Suspended): the column is removed from the view (row-level) or excluded from computation (Aggregated). The definition is kept and the field can be re-activated at any time.
• Error: if activation or computation fails, the field goes to Error with the message attached. Editing the field resets it to Draft so you can fix the definition and activate again.
• Delete: removes the field and its column from the view. Aggregated and row-level fields are deleted independently per type.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	What to check
Activation fails with a validation message	See the validation table — most messages point directly at the fix (reserved name, name collision, incompatible types, calc-on-calc).
Field stuck in Error	Read the error message on the field, fix the definition (this resets it to Draft) and re-activate. Verify the source table and field names are correct and that the table has data.
Field shows NULL for most users	The filter conditions may be too restrictive, or most users have no matching events. For lookups, check that the mapping keys actually match the source values.
Lookup values never match	Check the key column of your CSV: numeric-looking codes with leading zeros (e.g. 01022) must be uploaded as-is — BPP preserves them as text. Re-upload the CSV if it was prepared with a tool that stripped the zeros (e.g. a spreadsheet auto-converting codes to numbers).
Field not appearing in the audience builder	Make sure it is Active and the Visible in platform toggle is on. Remember that row-level fields on event tables are not filterable in user-level audiences — use an Aggregated field for that.
Aggregation type not available for my field	Some aggregation types are only available for specific field types. SUM and AVG require a numeric field; EVENTTIMEDIFF requires a date or timestamp field. Select a compatible field or change your aggregation type.
Sample preview unavailable	The preview query hit its cost/time guard, or the table type doesn't support previews. It's informational only — you can still save and activate.