Recipients

A campaign reaches the contacts that match its recipient filter at send time. The filter resolves dynamically. A contact added five minutes before launch is included if they match.

Filter dimensions​

A recipient filter combines:

• Labels. One or more labels. Contacts carrying any of the labels are candidates.
• Segments. Saved filter rules from the Mailtarget CDP. Used for cohort-based targeting.
• Include and exclude. Both labels and segments support exclusion. Exclude wins over include.
• Status. Mailtarget always excludes Unsubscribed and Hard Bounce contacts. You do not need to add this.
• Suppression list. Account-level suppression always wins. Contacts on the suppression list never receive the send.

Include and exclude​

Common shapes:

Multiple include labels combine with OR. Multiple exclude labels combine with OR. The exclude set is subtracted from the include set.

Recipient API shape​

{
  "recipients": {
    "labelIds":         ["lbl_newsletter", "lbl_product_update"],
    "excludeLabelIds":  ["lbl_opted_out_product_update"],
    "segmentIds":       ["seg_active_last_30_days"],
    "excludeSegmentIds":["seg_complainants"]
  }
}

The exact field names follow the OpenAPI spec at /v2/email-marketing.

Preview the count​

Before launching, run a count check.

curl https://api.mailtarget.co/v2/email-marketing/{campaignId}/count-recipient \
  -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $MAILTARGET_API_KEY"

The response counts contacts that pass the filter and are eligible (Active status, not suppressed). If the count is much lower than expected, the most common reasons are listed below.

Why my recipient count is lower than expected​

Send to all active contacts​

Possible but rarely the right choice. Sending to the entire active list with no segmentation produces low engagement and damages domain reputation. Use a label or segment.

If you must send to all, the dashboard exposes an "All Active" recipient option. The API equivalent is leaving recipients empty ({ "recipients": {} }) which the platform interprets as "all active contacts on the account."

How recipient filter interacts with Mailtarget CDP​

A campaign recipient filter is a query against the Contact Book. The query lives on the campaign object; the data lives in Mailtarget CDP.

This means:

• CDP funnel status is a valid filter dimension via segments. Build a segment with Funnel status = Customer AND Last open after 2026-04-01, reference it from the campaign.
• Custom contact fields are filter inputs. A contact field subscription_tier lets you target by tier without managing a separate label.
• Label updates fire automatically. Add a label to a contact via API, the next campaign that filters for that label includes them.

Common mistakes​

• Hard-coded recipient counts. Do not store the count from count-recipient and use it later. The count drifts as contacts move in and out. Rerun before launch.
• Forgetting to exclude. A campaign to "active customers" without exclude segment: complainants may reach people who flagged you as spam. Build exclude lists once and reuse.
• Per-recipient overrides. The recipient filter is per-campaign, not per-recipient. To send different content to different cohorts, send multiple campaigns or use a template with substitution data.

Related​

• Mailtarget CDP for the underlying contact data model.
• Segmentation for filter dimensions.
• Campaigns for the campaign object.
• Compose and Send guide.