Subscriber and Data Management26% of the exam

Troubleshooting send counts and skipped subscribers

A checklist for when fewer emails go out than the audience holds: the JobID, de-duplication, scheduled-send audience changes, Contact Delete, sendable data extension setup (one EmailAddress field), triggered send and journey checks, and the tools that explain skips: Alert Manager, NotSent extracts, send logging and RaiseError logs.

Official exam objective
Given a customer scenario, identify and troubleshoot send discrepancy based on subscriber preference management.

~7 min read · 9 practice questions ·

What the exam expects

  • Work through the documented checks when a send reaches fewer people than the audience: status, exclusions, List Detective, Contact Delete, data extension setup.
  • Explain de-duplication across several data extensions and audience changes between scheduling and sending.
  • Diagnose triggered sends that return Queued and journey email activities that skip contacts.
  • Pick the right tool: Alert Manager for job-level errors, a NotSent tracking extract for per-subscriber reasons, send logging and a RaiseError log for skips.
  • Key terms: JobID (unique identifier of one send, the anchor for tracking); NotSent tracking extract (a reason per subscriber who wasn't sent); Alert Manager (notifies an admin of send errors); RaiseError (AMPscript function that skips one subscriber); Contact Delete (deletion process that blocks all sends to a contact).

Key facts

First check
Detail
Subscriber must be Active; others are skipped silently
Data extension duplicates
Detail
De-duplicated by email address; one email each
Scheduled sends
Detail
Audience can change before the send
Contact Delete
Detail
Blocks all sends, transactional included; NotSent reason Subscriber Deleted
EmailAddress fields
Detail
Exactly one, or new subscribers aren't created
Asynchronous trigger
Detail
Shows Queued without a reason
Non-Running definition
Detail
Returns an error or queues requests
Journey email activity
Detail
Skips unsubscribed or too-often-bounced contacts on its publication list
Alert Manager
Detail
Notifies an admin of send errors
NotSent extract
Detail
Reason per skipped subscriber, by JobID
Sources for this section (2)
  • What is a JobID?
  • When does a journey email activity send regardless of subscription status?
  • When does a journey email activity check All Subscribers instead of a chosen publication list?
  • Why can a wrong Send Relationship email people who opted out?

The questions are free to read. Answers with their sources and self-grading are included with the pack.

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