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Audience Rules
When you add audiences in Email Studio’s Send Flow to the targeted, excluded, and suppressed areas, not all combinations are valid, and you receive an error message if there’s a conflict with one or more audience types. These rules describe which combinations are permitted and which are invalid.
Targeted
- Lists and Groups
- Any number of lists and groups can be targeted.
- Lists and groups can be targeted together.
- Data Extensions
- Any number of data extensions can be targeted.
- If data extensions are targeted, they’re the only audience type that can be targeted. You can't also target a list, group, filter, or other audience type.
- Data Filters
- Only one data filter can be targeted.
- The data filter can’t be combined with another audience.
- Suppression Lists
- Suppression Lists can’t be targeted.
- Audience Builder Audiences and Shared Audience Builder Audiences
- Any number of audiences can be targeted.
- Shared and non-shared audiences can be combined.
- If Audience Builder audiences are targeted, they’re the only audience type that can be targeted. You can't also target a list, group, filter, or other audience type.
- Salesforce Data Extension
- Only one Salesforce Data Extension can be targeted.
- If one Salesforce Data Extension is targeted, it can’t be combined with any other audience.
- Salesforce Campaign
- Only one Salesforce Campaign can be targeted.
- If one Salesforce Campaign is targeted, it can’t be combined with any other audience, except for a Salesforce Report.
- Salesforce Report
- Any number of Salesforce Reports can be targeted.
- If a Salesforce Report is targeted, one Salesforce Campaign can also be targeted.
- A Salesforce Report can’t be targeted with any other audience type, except a Salesforce Campaign.
- The same rules apply for shared versions of each audience type, such as Shared Data Extensions.
Excluded
- Any number of any audience type can be excluded, except Data Filters and Suppression Lists.
- Data Filters can’t be used as an exclusion.
- Subscribers that appear in both the Target and the Excluded areas are excluded from the send.
Suppressed
- Only Suppression Lists and Shared Suppression Lists can be suppressed.
- Only one Suppression List or Shared Suppression List can be suppressed per send.
- Subscribers that appear in both the target and the suppressed are excluded from the send.
Difference Between Excluded and Suppressed
At the time of send, exclusions and suppressions are treated the same, they’re removed from the final audience receiving the email. The difference is how they’re treated in the user interface.
- Suppression Lists are their own entity in Marketing Cloud Engagement, with Suppression List and Shared Suppression List categories.
- Exclusions can be any audience type except Data Filters.
This distinction creates a sense of permanence with suppression lists. If a subscriber is on a suppression list, that list only ever excludes that subscriber from the send, whereas a subscriber can be a part of an audience for targeting or exclusion.
