Estimated Audience V Reachable Audience V sent

Hey Sarah! The discrepancy between the estimated audience, reachable audience, and the actual number of messages sent in your Braze campaign can be attributed to several factors. Here’s a detailed breakdown of what might be causing these differences:

1. Estimated Audience (604K)
   The estimated audience is the total number of users who meet the criteria set for your campaign. This number is calculated before any further filtering or validation processes take place.
2. Reachable Audience (601K)
   The reachable audience is a subset of the estimated audience. This number is derived after filtering out users who cannot be reached due to various reasons such as:

• Invalid contact information: Users with invalid email addresses or phone numbers.
  Unsubscribed users: Users who have opted out of receiving communications.
• Suppression lists: Users who are on suppression lists due to previous bounces, spam complaints, or other reasons.
• Frequency capping: Users who have already received the maximum number of messages allowed within a certain time frame.
  
  3. Sent (346K)
  The sent metric represents the actual number of messages that were successfully sent out. The difference between the reachable audience and the sent messages can be due to:
• Rate limiting: If you have set a rate limit on your campaign, not all messages may be sent out immediately.
  Delivery failures: Messages that fail to send due to temporary issues like server downtime or full inboxes (soft bounces).
  Real-time audience evaluation: Users who were part of the reachable audience at the time of calculation but became ineligible by the time the message was sent (e.g., they unsubscribed or their contact information became invalid).

Example Scenario
Here’s a hypothetical scenario to illustrate the differences:

• Estimated Audience: 604,000 users meet the initial criteria for your campaign.
• Reachable Audience: After filtering out invalid contacts, unsubscribed users, and those on suppression lists, you have 601,000 users.
• Sent Messages: Due to rate limiting and delivery failures, only 346,000 messages are successfully sent.

Recommendations
To get a clearer understanding of the discrepancies, you can:

• Check suppression lists and subscription statuses: Ensure that your suppression lists and subscription statuses are up-to-date.
• Review rate limiting settings: Adjust rate limiting settings if necessary to ensure more messages are sent within the desired time frame.
• Monitor delivery failures: Use Braze’s reporting tools to monitor and address delivery failures.

I'd also recommend the report metrics glossary in the docs as a helpful resource!