Suppression is the term we use for any scenario where you want to prevent Retention.com from identifying and collecting contacts. The main reasons you would do this are:
To solve for both of these scenarios, we have multiple ways to suppress contacts in Retention.com, outlined below.
This option is used to avoid paying Retention.com for contacts you already have. If, for example, joe@joeshmoe.com is already on your list and visits your website, Retention.com will not collect that email address and include it in your acquired contacts or charge you for it.
When you set up an integration in Retention.com, there is a separate section specifically for Suppression. (Not all integrations offer contact suppression, so you would need to manually suppress those contacts.)
You have the option to choose a one-time suppression or daily. We recommend daily. If you choose one-time, we will only suppress your existing list as is, and will not check your email app for newly added contacts daily.
Once this specific section has been set up, saved, and the integration itself is Enabled, Retention.com will automatically run a suppression of your full list from the system you've integrated with.
The integration must be enabled for suppression to run!
As long as the integration is Enabled, the suppression feature will run once per day to check for any newly added contacts in your email app. If any are found, we will update your suppression list in Retention.com.**
Go to the Suppression Lists tab to ensure the number of unique records being suppressed matches the number in your ESP.
**Retention.com automatically suppresses any contact we collect for you so that we do not deliver duplicates.
Click here for a list of step-by-step tutorials for specific integrations like Klaviyo, Infusionsoft, Active Campaign, and more.
This option is also used to avoid paying Retention.com for contacts you already have. It lets you manually load a CSV file of email addresses in case you have additional lists/databases of email addresses that you do not want Retention.com to identify or collect. You might use this option if, for example, you go to a trade show (during non-pandemic times, of course!) and collect signups that do not end up in your email app.
Suppression lists loaded as a CSV file are converted into encoded MD5s for security reasons. We do not use, share, or resell this data for any purpose other than to prevent users from collecting and paying for contacts they already have.
To upload a Suppression List, click on Suppression Lists in the left-hand navigation.
Here are the file requirements for upload:
Once the file has uploaded, you will see a green box in the top right corner that says your file has been uploaded and is in the queue to be processed. Once that's complete, you'll see the stored file listed under the corresponding date. Make sure the number of unique records being suppressed matches the number in your ESP.
This option is used to prevent collection of contacts on your website where they are voluntarily giving you an email address. It does this in real-time.
The Suppression Script can be added to your website on any pages where you do NOT want Retention.com to collect email addresses. Generally speaking, you would put this script on landing pages where the person has already converted, and therefore you have already collected their email address.
Examples of pages you'd want to add the suppression script to are:
The Suppression Script can be found under Code Snippet > View Script. Check the box next to Suppression, and then click Copy Code to save it to your clipboard:
Please note that if you use this script, make sure you do not place it on pages you do want the Retention.com Collection Snippet to work. If both scripts are on the same page, the Suppression snippet will override the Collection snippet.
*If you are using our Revenue Tracking script, you do not need to include the Suppression script as well—our revenue tracking script will automatically include/call the suppression script.
Remember: Our verification tool will only show the suppression and/or revenue tracking scripts are found/firing if you test the specific URL they are on (ex. post-checkout page).
You can also set rules to automatically trigger a suppression event on your site, which will prevent the collection of contacts from that page(s). The base Retention.com script still needs to be loaded on any page you want to suppress.
Note: You will need to manually add the suppression script for sign-up or login forms.
1. From the Code Script tab, click the edit icon next to Suppression Rules.
URL CONTAINS EMAIL UTM:
2. We automatically prevent the collection of contacts that come to your site from email campaigns. We do this because you will have existing contacts who own more than one email address, and will not want to add them to a new email marketing flow if they are already in your system.
These contacts are identified by checking the referring URL that brought them to your site; if that URL contains UTM parameters with the word "email" in them, we will ignore/suppress those contacts. To disable that function, toggle to No.
URL TRIGGERS:
To trigger the suppression script on specific URLs where the base script is already present, add the full or portion of the URL in the first text box. Example: /blog. Any URL that contains that text will trigger the suppression event.
URLS with SPECIFIC PARAMETERS:
You can also set the suppression script to trigger on URLs with specific parameters. For example, you can use this to exclude traffic sources like Facebook, or other UTM identifiers. Any URL parameter with this text will trigger the suppression event.
3. When you've set your Suppression Rules, click Save Changes. You will then see the Suppression Rules you've set up.
If you have buttons and/or pop-ups on your site where visitors can submit their email addresses, you will need to add the suppression script to fire on the on-click event. That keeps you from collecting email addresses from Retention.com that you collected on your own.
The exact structure and script will vary depending on the platform you're using for your button/pop-up.
Here's an example of what an on-click event event looks like:
<script>
document.getElementById("SpecialButtonHere").addEventListener('submit',function (){
geq.suppress(); });
</script>
This is an example if you're using Klaviyo forms for how to add the call for suppression—'geq.suppress();'—following the on-click event ('submit' in this example).
<script>
window.addEventListener("klaviyoForms", function (e) {
if (e.detail.type == "submit") {
geq.suppress();
}
});
</script>You can also set up the on-click event to fire based on the ClassName:
<script>
var classname = document.getElementsByClassName("FormName");
for (var i = 0; i < classname.length; i++) {
classname[i].addEventListener("submit", function () {
geq.suppress();
});
}
</script>Once the suppression script is successfully added to your on-click event, it should show the suppression script is found but not firing when you verify the scripts using our verification tool (Code Script > Test Script).
In the graph in the Dashboard or Trends tab, you can look for real-time suppression script events to confirm it's firing. The red line represents your number of suppressed contacts. If you hover your cursor over a specific day, it will show the exact number of suppressed contacts.
Once you've installed your suppression script, it may take anywhere from minutes to days to see these events show up, depending on your overall website traffic.
