When a campaign is sent, each contact in the audience goes through a series of checks before a message is delivered. If any check fails, the contact is skipped for that send. This article explains each reason a contact can be excluded and how to check the current state of a contact.
The contact is marked Do Not Contact
If a contact has the Do Not Contact flag set, they are removed from the audience before any messages are created. This applies to both email and SMS campaigns. To check: open the contact's profile and look for the Do Not Contact status. If it is active, no messages will be sent to that contact regardless of campaign settings.
The email address has a suppression reason
For email campaigns, the system checks every recipient email address against the organization's suppression list before sending. An email address is suppressed when it has one of these removal reasons recorded:
Unsubscribe - the contact clicked an unsubscribe link in a previous campaign.
Bounce - a previous send to this address resulted in a hard bounce.
Spam complaint - the contact reported a previous email as spam.
Repeated soft bounce - the address has accumulated enough soft bounces to be permanently suppressed.
Suppression is checked at send time, not at the time the campaign audience was finalized. If an address is suppressed after the audience is locked in but before sending completes, the message to that address will still be skipped.
To check: open the contact's profile and view the email addresses listed. An address that is suppressed will show its removal reason. A removal reason of Manual, Unsubscribe, or Repeated Soft Bounce can be restored from the contact profile if the suppression was applied in error. Bounce and spam complaint suppressions cannot be restored from the profile.
The email address is missing or invalid
If the recipient email address is missing entirely, or if it does not pass basic format validation, the message is skipped. To check: open the contact's profile and confirm that a valid email address is present.
The phone number has been removed (SMS campaigns)
For SMS campaigns, a phone number is excluded from sending if either of these is true:
The phone number has a general removal date recorded (the number was manually removed from the contact's profile).
The phone number has an SMS-specific removal date recorded. This is set when the contact replies STOP, when a message is undeliverable, or when the number is identified as a landline.
To check: open the contact's profile and view the phone numbers listed. A removed number will show its removal date.
The contact's phone number was already unsubscribed
At the moment each SMS is about to send, the system performs a final check to confirm the destination phone number does not have an SMS removal date recorded anywhere in the organization (or in the parent organization, if applicable). If an SMS removal date is found, the send is skipped and the number is not messaged. This check happens even if the number looked eligible when the campaign audience was built.
The contact was not in the finalized audience
Email and SMS campaigns lock in their recipient list at finalization, before sending begins. Contacts added to the underlying list or matching filters after finalization are not included. The audience is recorded in the campaign at finalization time and does not update dynamically after that point.
How to check why a specific contact was excluded
Open the contact's profile.
Check the Do Not Contact status at the top of the profile.
Review the email addresses section. Look for any address showing a removal reason.
Review the phone numbers section. Look for any number showing a removal date or SMS removal date.
Confirm the contact was part of the list or saved query used when the campaign was finalized.
If none of the above apply and the contact still did not receive the message, contact support with the contact's ID and the campaign ID.