Delivering opportunity is what we do
Our goal is simple: help you reach the people who want what you share and help your emails keep landing in the inbox. To do that, your list needs healthy engagement. That means your readers are opening and clicking because they want your emails.
List hygiene helps your list stay healthy
Over time, it’s normal for any email list to “cool off.” People change jobs, stop checking an inbox, or just lose interest. If you keep mailing a lot of people who never interact, inbox placement can slowly get worse. Regular list hygiene (removing unengaged subscribers) helps you:
- Reach more real readers
- Keep your engagement strong
- Protect your sender reputation
- Avoid paying for subscribers who aren’t reading
Why engagement matters to mailbox providers
Mailbox providers (MBPs) like Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft watch how people respond to email. When an address gets mailed again and again but never opens or clicks, MBPs may start treating those emails as less wanted. That can lead to:
- Emails showing lower in the inbox
- Emails going to spam
- Long-term damage to your sending reputation
FeedBlitz has minimum engagement requirements
To protect your inbox placement and FeedBlitz's wider sending reputation, we monitor list quality. FeedBlitz uses minimum required open rates, and as of March 1, 2026, minimum click rates as well.
Automated List Purge
Most lists never need this. But if a list starts to lose engagement, our Automated List Purge is a built-in safety feature that helps bring the list back to a healthier place. When it’s triggered, it can:
- Reduce the risk of a list suspension for quality reasons
- Save you time by handling list hygiene automatically
- Save you money by removing subscribers who aren’t interacting with your emails
Think of it as a “guardrail” that helps protect your inbox placement when engagement drops.
When the automated purge can apply
This safety feature is designed to step in only when engagement shows signs of risk.
Step 1: Open-rate check comes first
We always look at Open Rate (OR) first. If your list has a healthy open rate (50% or higher), you’re considered in a safe zone, and we do not evaluate Click Through Rate (CTR) for your list further.
Step 2: The click-rate check is only used when opens are lower
If your list’s open rate falls below 50%, we may also evaluate CTR as an additional engagement signal.
The automated purge only runs when all of the following are true:
- The list has more than 5,000 subscribers
- The list has been mailed 4 or more times in the last 30 days
- Engagement falls below our minimum thresholds:
- OR is under 10%, (effective October 2022) or
- CTR is under 0.25% (effective March 1, 2026)
Early warnings (optional heads-up)
Even before a purge is on the table, lists with OR between 30% and 50% may receive a warning if CTR is under 0.25%. This is simply an early signal, so you have time to adjust while inbox placement is still strong.
How the Automated List Purge Works
When a list needs cleanup, FeedBlitz uses a simple, fair process to decide who to remove. The goal is to remove only the subscribers who aren’t engaging, while keeping active readers whenever possible. The purge algorithm uses two factors:
- Time (how far back we look)
- Interaction (opens/clicks during that time)
Step 1: We set the “interaction window” based on your list’s age
First, we look at how long your list has been in FeedBlitz. Older lists get a longer window, because engagement patterns tend to be slower and more varied over time. Interaction window by list age:
- 1 year or older: 180 days
- 180–365 days: 90 days
- 90–180 days: 45 days
- Less than 90 days: 30 days
High-frequency mailing note:
If your list has been mailed 20 or more times in the last 30 days, the interaction window may be reduced to 30 days or less in some cases.
Step 2: We check whether each subscriber interacted during that window
A subscriber may be removed if they did not interact with any mailings sent during the applicable window.
If you have more than one list
We also try to protect your active audience across your account: If a subscriber hasn’t interacted with the specific list being processed, but has interacted with any of your other FeedBlitz lists within the same window, we allow them to remain active on the list being processed.
What happens to removed subscribers?
Subscribers removed by this process are not “deleted.” They are moved into a special Archived status:
- They will not be emailed going forward
- They do not count toward billing
- Their history is preserved in case they return to engagement
What happens to the list?
If a list is below our minimum engagement thresholds and subscribers are removed by this process, the list may lose single opt-in status (if it had been granted). Other than that, no additional list settings are changed.
Auto-restoration: engaged readers can come back automatically
If we later detect an open or click from an email address archived by this process, that subscriber is automatically restored to active status on the list. This helps ensure that anyone who does want your emails can rejoin the active audience without extra work from you.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let us know. You can find all of our great support resources and how to get in touch with us via email, chat or phone on our Support Page.