Overview
When you build an audience in Fullpath CDP's Audience Builder, it returns every shopper who matches your targeting criteria. The number you can actually activate — send an email or text to — is usually smaller, because each channel has its own requirements around contact details, consent, and deliverability. This article explains what "eligible" means and breaks down every reason a shopper might not qualify.
What "Eligible" Means
A shopper is eligible for email when they have at least one email address on file, and nothing about that address — an unsubscribe, a do-not-contact flag, a bounce risk, or an inactivity pause — is blocking it. If a shopper has more than one email address, they only need one that clears every check to count as eligible.
SMS eligibility works differently. Email only requires the absence of an opt-out — silence is enough. SMS requires an active, on-file opt-in before we'll text a number. This is why your SMS-eligible count is often proportionally smaller than your email-eligible count for the same audience — it's a stricter, consent-first standard, not a data quality issue.
Understanding the Eligibility Breakdown
When your audience total and eligible count don't match, the breakdown chart shows exactly why. Every ineligible shopper falls into one of the categories below.
| Reason | What It Means |
|---|---|
| No Email Address | Shopper has no email address on file. |
| Not Emailable | No usable email address, or the CRM has marked this shopper opted out. |
| Unsubscribed | Shopper actively unsubscribed from emails. |
| National Do Not Contact | Shopper is on a national do-not-contact registry. |
| Dealership Do Not Contact | Opted out through the CRM, DMS, a phone-call platform, or manually flagged in the CDP. |
| In Exclusion List | Manually excluded from this specific audience or campaign. |
| Suppressed | Automatically disabled by the sending provider, or manually disabled by an admin. |
| Bounce Risk | Our third-party verification partner, NeverBounce, flags this address as likely to bounce. Isolating these protects your dealership's sender reputation. |
| Sunset | Shopper received 5 consecutive emails with no engagement (no opens, clicks, or leads). They're paused from email for 12 months, or until they re-engage. |
| No Audience | Shopper isn't currently part of any eligible audience. |
| Equifax Not Allowed | Applies only to Equifax-enriched audiences — this shopper isn't eligible for that specific enrichment. |
SMS
SMS eligibility follows the same shape, with one key difference called out above: a shopper needs an active opt-in on file, not just the absence of an opt-out.
| Reason | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Not Opted-In | No opt-in on file for this number — the SMS equivalent of "No Email Address." |
| SMS Unsubscribed | Shopper actively unsubscribed from texts. |
| National Do Not Contact | Number is on a national do-not-contact registry. |
| Dealership Do Not Contact | Opted out through the CRM, DMS, a phone-call platform, or manually flagged in the CDP. |
Other Important Notes
- Equifax Not Allowed only appears for audiences that use Equifax-enriched data.
- A shopper only needs one eligible email address or opted-in phone number to count as eligible overall — having some blocked contact details doesn't disqualify them if another still qualifies.
- Eligibility recalculates continuously — the breakdown reflects the most current data each time you view it.