Why do I see different numbers of contacts?

Different numbers of contacts may be displayed in the contact list and in segments. This is because of anonymous contacts, which are tracked in the background but are hidden by default in the contact list.

You may have already noticed this:
The contact list shows 10,000 contacts, but your segment shows 15,000 contacts. This seems contradictory at first, but there is a clear reason.

The background: anonymous contacts

Aivie tracks not only known contacts with email addresses and names in the background, but also anonymous contacts.

These are profiles of visitors who, for example:

• have visited your website
• have been tracked (page views, events)
• but have not yet left an email address or name

These contacts technically already exist in the system, but are considered anonymous.

Why don’t I see them in the contact list?

Anonymous contacts are hidden by default in the contact overview.
Above the contact list, you will find a small switch that you can use to show or hide these anonymous contacts.

If you activate the switch, the number of contacts displayed will increase accordingly.

Why do they appear in the segment?

Segments work differently than the list view:

• Segment filters also take anonymous contacts into account
• but the display in the contact list continues to hide them

This leads to the fact that:

• the segment contains, for example, 15,000 contacts
• but you only see 10,000 visible contacts in the list

Only when you activate the switch for anonymous contacts do the display and segment number match.

Best practice: Exclude anonymous contacts from segments

In most cases, you do not want to have anonymous contacts in a segment, for example for campaigns or evaluations.

Recommendation:
Always add the following criterion to your segment filter:

Email not empty

This ensures that:

• only identified contacts land in the segment
• Segment size and visible contacts match logically
• Campaigns function cleanly and as expected

In short

• Different numbers almost always come from anonymous contacts
• Contact lists hide them by default
• Segments count them
• With E-Mail nicht leer you retain full control