Agency Client Reporting for List Revival: The Cohort Report Template, Section by Section

Updated 1 November 2026. Download the template below; no email required.

Who reads the report, and what each reader needs

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The seven sections

1. Scope and cohort

• Engagement dates; ESP; sending domains.
• Snapshot size and date; eligibility holds (count and reasons: unknown source, consent over 24 months with no relationship evidence, suppressed elsewhere); eligible count by tier (B, C, D per the playbook's tiers).
• Baseline for the cohort over the prior 90 days: delivered, clicks, click-to-delivered, orders, revenue, unsubscribes, complaints. State "zero" where it is zero.
• Control: the engaged segment's same metrics for the same period.
• Measurement windows: 45 days (primary), 90 days (attribution).

2. Suppressions and scan results

• Scan date and counts: undeliverable, dead domain, disposable, role, typo-domain, trap-pattern (inference), held catch-all.
• Invalid share and risky share of the snapshot.
• Sendable count and share.
• Suppression list delivered back to the client (format, where it lives) so nothing is re-imported.

3. The daily stream (the stop-condition log)

A table with one row per day for the 30 streaming days: cohort size, delivered, hard bounces (count and %), soft bounces, complaints (count and %), unsubscribes (%), clicks (%), decision taken (ship / shrink / pause / stop) and the rule that produced it. Thresholds printed at the top of the table: hard bounces above 2% stop; 1–2% halve; complaints at 0.10% pause 48 hours, 0.30% stop; authentication failure stop; engaged-segment click rate 20% below baseline for 5 days stop.

Include the days that paused. A log with no pauses on a dormant list is either a very clean list or an incomplete log; clients know the difference.

4. Engagement on the cohort

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5. Revenue

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Label the attribution rule in the table: "orders within 90 days by cohort members with at least one revival click." If the client's attribution uses a different window, report both and say which is which.

6. Reputation and compliance

• Postmaster Tools: spam rate by day for the engagement period, with the 0.10% and 0.30% lines; Compliance status at start and end.
• SNDS filter result and complaint rate per IP (where applicable); Yahoo CFL complaints.
• Authentication state at start and end (SPF, DKIM, DMARC alignment on every stream).
• Engaged-segment metrics over the period, to show the revival did not harm the core audience.

7. Next steps

• Disposition of non-responders (sunset flow, then suppression; dates).
• Policy changes recommended or made: sunset windows, exclusion of the unengaged tier from campaigns, reconciliation routine.
• Expansion candidates (next tier, next brand, Managed Mailing Ops, Campaign Error Shield) with the data that justifies each.
• Monthly list health report schedule for retainer clients.

Partners get the template branded and the data pre-filled from the backend. The Agency White-Label Program includes the cohort report, the stop-condition log and the scan results under your brand. See the program →

Writing rules

1. Same order every month. Readers compare reports; moving sections breaks the comparison.
2. Numbers with their denominators. "Complaints 0.08% (4 of 5,120 delivered)," not "complaints low."
3. Label every revenue figure as attributed or incremental, with the rule.
4. Keep the log raw. Summaries invite doubt; the daily table does not.
5. Say what did not work. Cohorts that paused, tiers that underperformed, copy that drew unsubscribes.
6. No opens as outcomes. They appear once, marked directional.
7. One page of narrative, the rest tables. The narrative states the three numbers the client cares about (sendable share, reactivation rate, incremental revenue) and the one decision they must make next.

Worked example (illustrative, from the playbook)

A 10,000-record snapshot; 2,000 held at eligibility; 8,000 eligible; scan suppresses 1,200 (15%); 6,800 sendable streamed at about 227 a day; 272 responders at day 45 (4%); 68 orders at day 90 at $50 average order value; $3,400 attributed gross revenue against a zero-click baseline, labeled mostly incremental; complaints 7 (0.10% of delivered, one 48-hour pause logged on day 12); hard bounces after scan 41 (0.6%). The numbers are the playbook's illustration, not a client result; they show what each section contains.

FAQ

What should a dormant-list reactivation report include? Scope and frozen cohort with baseline; scan and suppression results; the daily stop-condition log; engagement on the cohort at 45 and 90 days with a control; attributed and incremental revenue with the attribution rule; reputation and compliance before and after; next steps.

How is reactivation revenue attributed? Orders within 90 days by cohort members who clicked a revival email. Incremental revenue is attributed revenue minus the cohort's baseline expectation, which is usually zero for a dormant cohort, and the report says so explicitly.

Why not report open rates? Apple Mail's privacy proxy records opens no person made, roughly half or more of recorded opens in 2026 estimates. Opens appear once in the report, marked directional; clicks, orders and revenue are the outcomes.

What is the stop-condition log? A table with one row per streaming day: cohort size, bounces, complaints, unsubscribes, clicks, and the decision taken against the written thresholds. It demonstrates that the stream was controlled.

How often should an agency send the report? At day 45 (primary read-out) and day 90 (attribution closes) for a sprint; monthly for retainer clients as a list health report with the same sections.

Can the client verify the numbers? Yes, by design: the cohort is a static segment in their ESP, the orders are in their store or CRM, and Postmaster, SNDS and CFL are their own accounts.

Start the first engagement with the audit under your brand. Apply as a partner →

Sources

• Google, Email sender guidelines: spam-rate thresholds used in the log. https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126
• Microsoft, SNDS FAQ: filter result and complaint rate definitions. https://substrate.office.com/ip-domain-management-snds/SNDS/FAQ
• Stripo and Litmus (2026): Apple share of recorded opens. Secondary.
• EngageMKTG, Dormant Email List Reactivation Playbook (tiers, 1/30 schedule, stop conditions, worked example), Unsubscribe, Spam Complaint and Bounce Rate Benchmarks, White-Label Email Marketing in 2027, How to Qualify a Client's Email List (internal).