Proving who an email campaign really reached
A campaign looked like it had won new leads. Joining the results against the full user base showed it had mostly won back existing users instead.
Outcome at a glance
The campaign was reclassified as a win-back, which changed how it was measured and where the next campaign was aimed.
Context
An email campaign produced a wave of responses. It was reported as a success in reaching new, cold leads.
Problem
The report only looked at the campaign list. Nobody had checked whether the people who responded were already users.
My role
I ran the attribution analysis and a list quality check on the same data.
Approach
- I joined the responders against the full user base, not just the campaign list.
- I matched on cleaned email addresses, with typos and case differences handled.
- I checked the list for disposable email domains and for domains whose mail servers point to known throwaway providers. Standard blocklists miss many of these.
Outcome
Most responders were existing users. The campaign was a successful win-back, not a cold lead win. That changed how its results were reported and changed the target of the next campaign. The list checks also removed low-quality addresses that would have hurt sending reputation.
What I learned
Attribution depends on the join. Always compare results against everyone you already know, not only the list you sent to.