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Suppression Lists

Suppression lists allow you to globally exclude specific user segments from receiving any campaign messages. They are segment-based, cross-channel, and enforced automatically across all campaigns and canvas flows.

How Suppression Lists Work

Each suppression list references an existing segment. Any users who match that segment are automatically excluded from:

  • All campaign sends (email, SMS, push, webhook, WhatsApp, in-app)
  • Canvas message nodes

Suppression is applied at the targeting query level, meaning suppressed users are never even counted in the audience.

Creating a Suppression List

  1. Navigate to Audience > Suppression Lists
  2. Click Create Suppression List
  3. Fill in:
    • Name: A descriptive name (e.g., "Unengaged Users", "Legal Hold")
    • Segment: Select the segment that defines which users to suppress
    • Exception Tags (optional): Tags that allow specific campaigns to bypass this list
  4. Click Create

The suppression list is active immediately.

Exception Tags

Exception tags provide a way for specific campaigns to bypass a suppression list. This is useful for:

  • Transactional campaigns: Tag campaigns with transactional and add it as an exception tag
  • Legal notices: Tag compliance campaigns with legal to ensure they reach all users
  • Critical alerts: Security or safety notifications that must reach everyone

How it works

  1. Add exception tags to a suppression list (e.g., transactional, legal)
  2. Tag your campaign with matching tags in the campaign's Audience tab
  3. When sending, if any of the campaign's tags match any of a suppression list's exception tags, that suppression list is bypassed for that campaign

Per-Campaign Exclude Segments

In addition to global suppression lists, you can exclude specific segments on a per-campaign basis:

  1. In the campaign creation Audience tab, find the Exclude Segments section
  2. Select a segment to exclude
  3. Users in that segment will be excluded only from this specific campaign

This is useful for one-off exclusions that don't warrant a global suppression list.

Managing Suppression Lists

Activating / Deactivating

Toggle a suppression list between Active and Inactive status. Inactive lists are not enforced.

Previewing Impact

Click the preview icon on any suppression list to see how many users are currently suppressed by it.

Deleting

Deleting a suppression list removes the suppression immediately. Previously suppressed users will be eligible for future campaigns.

Campaign Tags

Campaign tags serve two purposes:

  1. Organization: Label campaigns for filtering and reporting
  2. Suppression exceptions: Bypass specific suppression lists when a campaign's tags match the list's exception tags

Add tags in the campaign creation Audience tab under Campaign Tags.