The Global Suppression List (GSL) is a collection of known bad email addresses and domains, including internet service provider (ISP) spam complainants. When you check your contacts against it, you can suppress any matches before you send to them. This reduces the complaints you might otherwise receive. You can check all your contacts or a single segment.
The GSL applies across all Marketing clients, not only your account. A match reflects activity anywhere on the platform, not necessarily anything to do with your own sends.
Marketing suppresses GSL matches automatically when you add new contacts to your account. Contacts who were already in your account before they matched the GSL aren't suppressed this way - checking against the GSL finds those instead.
We recommend that you run the GSL check monthly, because new spam traps are added daily.
Learn more in Fix your sender reputation.
Before you start
The GSL doesn't fix an unhealthy contact list.
Only sign up legitimate email addresses.
Suppressions made through the GSL are hard to reverse.
Recovery takes time and usually has a cost.
Learn more in the Recover email addresses suppressed through the GSL section.
Check all your contacts
Select the Account menu icon and go to Settings > Email > Suppression settings.
Select Run GSL.
Marketing compares all your contacts' email addresses to the Global Suppression List. When the check is complete, you see a report. It shows how many addresses were found and for what reason. The report shows counts only, not the individual addresses in each group.Clear the checkbox for any group you don't want to suppress.
Learn more in Global Suppression List reasons.Select Yes.
Marketing unsubscribes the email addresses in the selected groups. They're added to your suppression list with the reason Unsubscribed.
Check a segment
Go to Audience > Segments.
Select the checkbox for the segment you want to check.
Expand the More actions drop-down menu and select Check selected contacts against Global Suppression List.
Marketing compares the segment's email addresses to the Global Suppression List. When the check is complete, you see a report. It shows how many addresses were found and for what reason. The report shows counts only, not the individual addresses in each group.Clear the checkbox for any group you don't want to suppress.
Learn more in Global Suppression List reasons.Select Yes.
Marketing unsubscribes the email addresses in the selected groups. These addresses then appear on your suppressed contacts list.
Recover email addresses suppressed through the GSL
After the GSL suppresses an email address, you can't easily undo it. This protects your sending reputation, because direct complaints can seriously damage it.
We recommend that you only request a reversal when you have no other option, because the process takes time and usually has a cost.
To recover a single contact, the contact needs to send their own request to be resubscribed.
Learn more in Resubscribe a contact.
To reverse suppressions in bulk, open a request with our Support team. Our anti-abuse and compliance team first checks the email addresses to make sure that restoring them doesn't reintroduce unsafe addresses. When the addresses are cleared, our Support team adds the approved email addresses back to your account.
Global Suppression List reasons
The report provides a number of reasons for the global suppression of email addresses and domains. Here are their definitions:
Reason | Definition |
Known hard bounces | Email addresses that have resulted in a hard bounce.
These email addresses are known to our system through internal machine learning and third-party data feeds. |
Known ISP complainers | Email recipients who've exhibited an unusually high number of ISP complaints.
ISP complaints are caused by a recipient reporting an email to their inbox provider as a spam/junk message. When a recipient has decided to classify a message as spam/junk through their inbox provider's UI, they click the spam/junk button. This is considered a complaint.
Several inbox providers allow visibility of this information through the employment of feedback loops. Feedback loops allow our system to receive messages back from mailbox providers about recipients who've complained. |
Known direct complainers | Email recipients who've exhibited an unusually high number of direct abuse complaints.
Direct complaints occur when recipients complain directly to us about a received email message which they consider unsolicited (spam). Direct complainers may also use third party reporting methods such as SpamCop.net, JunkEmailFilter.com and other spam reporting organisations, including the Federal Trade Commission.
These complaints are typically received to our abuse@ or postmaster@ email addresses. |
Invalid domains | Domains that don't have a valid MX record and therefore can't receive email. Additionally, an invalid domain could be what is known as a parked domain - a domain which has been purchased, but not used for anything. Often, spam trap operators set up MX records and report all received email as spam trap hits.
These domains are known to our system through internal machine learning and third-party data feeds. |
Known purchased addresses | Email recipients who have appeared on known purchased email lists.
Although these recipients appear on purchased lists, they can often be legitimate email addresses who may have explicitly opted in to receive email.
It's not uncommon to see several recipients on a legitimate, permission-based list which has never been contaminated with purchased, rented or appended data.
These known purchased addresses are known to our system through a third-party data feed provided by a security company. |
Known complainer | Email recipients who've exhibited public anti-spam abuse complaints, typically through the use of popular social media platforms such as Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. They generally post public statements about receiving unsolicited mail from organisations on their social media profiles (public shaming).
These recipients are known to our system through an external data feed provided by a third-party security company. |
Known litigator | Email recipients who are known to have entered into litigation with email senders over the receipt of unsolicited commercial email. A known litigator is a recipient who targets senders of commercial bulk email in an attempt to profit from the winnings of legal proceedings.
These recipients are known to our system through a third-party data feed. |