Configure an Email Load and Send Campaign: Auditing

To run pre-launch Audits on your Campaign:

1. Optionally, you can have the system email you the pre-launch auditing statistics. In the "Stats Options" section, place a check mark in the "Email Excel Stats Report when complete" check box.

2. For some channels, you can optionally set up custom Cross Tab Audit reports for a specified field, or fields, in the Campaign source table. To set up Cross Tab Audit reports, expand the "Cross Tabs" section (this section is collapsed by default). From the "Available Fields" list box, select the field you want to audit. Optionally, you can press Control + click or Shift + click to select multiple fields. Click the add button (right-arrow icon). The system adds the selected field (or fields) to the "Cross Tab Fields" list box. Repeat the above steps as necessary to add more fields to your auditing process. To remove a field, click the "X" icon to the right of the field name.

3. Select an audit option:

• To just run audits, in the Tool Ribbon, click Audit > Calculate Stats Only.

• If you want to automatically submit proofs following the completion of the audit process, you must first set up your proofing options, then in the Tool Ribbon, click Audit > Calculate Stats and Send Proofs (please note that this option is not available for every channel).

• If your Campaign contains Cells, you can calculate just the audience splits for each cell. In the Tool Ribbon, click Audit > Calculate Just Cells & Splits.

5. The system begins the stat calculation process. The "Pre-Launch Audits" section of the screen shows you the progress of each of the main auditing steps:

• Message Creation: This step runs all the campaign audience logic to determine the final number of recipients to be sent, and assigns them message IDs. This step consists of the following:

  • Run the Campaign Audience Filter, any deduping logic, and any Exclusion Lists or Seed Lists.

  • Check the banned lists, status fields, and invalid addresses.

  • Run any custom stored procedures that were added to the Campaign.

• Content Calculation: This step runs through all the Content Blocks to determine all the different possible permutations of that content, and assigns each recipient to a specific permutation.

• Personalization: This step runs through all of the Merge Fields, Looping Blocks, etc., and pulls personalization fields and data specific information needed to populate the content.

• Sending: This step contains all of your information from the above steps, and is ready to be pulled by the merge server.

When the stats are finished, the "Pre-Launch Audits" section will show your audit results with a status of "Done," followed by the date / time the stats were calculated. For more information on the auditing stats, please see "Review Pre-Launch Audits" below. 

To view the details for an audit run:

1. Each time you run Pre-Launch Audits on your Campaign, the system adds a new row to the grid in the "Pre-Launch Audits" section of the screen. Click on the desired row to see the results from that execution. The row is expanded to show the auditing details, as described below.

2. The menu icon within the row provides access to the following additional features:

• Preview: View the Preview window.

• Spam Score: For the Email channel, you can view the Spam Score results for your message.

• Cross Tab: If you defined custom Cross Tab Audits, you can view the results by selecting this item. The system displays the "Pre-Launch Audit Cross Tab Results" pop-up window. This window shows each field you selected for auditing. For each field, the report shows the counts for every value contained within that field.

• Download: Exports the Cross Tab results.

After you select a specific auditing run, the system displays the details for that run, as described below.

Audience Processing

After expanding an audit row, the "Audit Processing" tab is selected by default. This section provides details on the Audience record quantities. The audit starts with the number of records selected by the Campaign's Audience Filter. Next, the platform identifies how many Audience Filter records were determined to be "Non-mailable" and the reason why. Possible reasons for being non-mailable are banned addresses, blank or invalid contact information, unsubscribed consumers, or being part of an Exclusion List. The resulting number shows how many recipients will be targeted by your Campaign when it launches (Audience Filter quantity minus non-mailable quantity).

Message Processing

Click the "Message Processing" tab to see the Message Processing section. This section shows the results of each step in the audit process -- Message Creation, Content Calculation, Personalization, and Sending. This section shows the status of each step, the start and end timestamps, and the record quantity.

Message Versions

Click the "Message Versions" tab to see the Message Versions section. This section shows the number of content variations within your message, and how many recipients will receive each variation. Next to the desired version, you can view the Spam Score for this content variation, or see a Preview.

Content Breakdown

This section displays a detailed breakdown of the various assets utilized within your message, such as Content Blocks, Dynamic Blocks, and Opt-Out Messages, for example. If you click on the expand button (plus-sign icon) next to an asset, the system displays the details of that asset (optionally, you can click expand all to automatically expand every asset listed).

If your message contains Dynamic Content, this section allows you to view how many records will receive each variation of your message content. Click on the Dynamic Block to expand it. The system displays all of the Rule / Block Pairs defined within that Dynamic Block, followed by a record quantity.