When sending mail merge campaigns in Gmail with GMass, you can already suppress a list of addresses that belong to a prior campaign. Here is a detailed guide on using Suppression Lists in GMass. Additionally, if you’re using the GMass unsubscribe link, then GMass is already suppressing anyone on your Unsubscribe List.
You may, however, want to use a Google Sheets spreadsheet as the source of a suppression list, such that you can add new email addresses to just the spreadsheet, and have all of your future mail merge campaigns automatically suppress any email address that is on the spreadsheet.
To accomplish this, you have to set up a spreadsheet to hold the email addresses, and then create a container email campaign that will continuously update itself with the email addresses in the spreadsheet. You can do this with a combination of our mail merge and Google Sheets integration, the recurring campaigns feature, and the option to “Just create Drafts”.
Step-by-step guide:
- Create your suppression spreadsheet in Google Sheets. You really only need one column. In this example, the column is simply “email”.
- Use GMass to connect to the spreadsheet.
- After the Compose window appears, set the Subject to something like “Dynamic Suppression List”. In the GMass Settings in the Compose window, set the campaign schedule to Repeat hourly and set it to Create Drafts. That will ensure that no emails are actually sent. Click the GMass button to start the creation of your dynamic suppression campaign.
Now, every hour, the campaign that you just created called “Dynamic Suppression List” will be updated with any new addresses from your Google Sheets spreadsheet. No emails will actually be sent, but Drafts will be created, which you can delete if you want to keep your Gmail account clean.
You can then use this campaign as the Suppression List for your future email campaigns, by selecting it in the Suppress option under Advanced area of the GMass Settings.
Important note about timing:
The suppression campaign will only be updated once hour, since that’s how often the campaign will run and pick up new addresses added to the spreadsheet. Therefore it is possible that if you send a campaign and use that campaign as a Suppression List, it may not suppress addresses that were added to the spreadsheet in the last 60 minutes. The odds are low, but it could happen. So if you do update your dynamic suppression Google Sheet, go for a quick walk before you use it as a suppression list in a campaign.
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Thanks for creating such a great tool!
I created and set up a suppression list according to this guide and when I tried to associate this list with a new campaign, I am not seeing the option to utilize the new list. I’m only seeing subject lines of previously sent emails. Is this an error on my end and is this step necessary to prevent campaign emails from being sent to people on the suppression list?
Hi John,
When you create your new campaign, just select your suppression list you created under the suppression field and GMass will suppress emails from being sent to those in that list.
Is there a way to bulk export bounced emails to a google spreadsheet or set an auto job to populate to a google spreadsheet similar to this?
Hi,
You already have the batch export of bounces which is a downloadable CSV which you can download from your Campaign Reports. Please see https://www.gmass.co/blog/gmail-mail-merge-reports-and-analytics/. In the image at the very top of that article, you’ll see a line item for bounces with 2 links – to download all bounces in your account or just the bounces for that specific campaign.
Hello, has this functionality been removed from Gmass? I’d like to add a suppression list to a current campaign that I have running to more tightly focus my target audience.
Hi Kevin,
No, suppression using a Google Sheet is still an included feature of GMass.
Hi Marvin,
I use a formula colums as Gatlin Gun, because I do not know the exact email for company.
The Gatlin Gun I have to add 5 possible emails. but GMass doesn´t work for that featured list, is that right.
The 5 possible emails are separated with a comma.
Tks
Hi Beatriz,
Unfortunately, no, not in that way. However, what you can do is add each possible email in its own row so that GMass will attempt to send to each of the 5 possibilities.
Yes I figured that way, Thank you!
Yes, I figured out that way, Tks!
Hello, How can I blacklist whole domains?
For example, If I want to blacklist all emails on domain “google.com”, how do I do it?
Thank you!
Hi Tomas,
Please see https://www.gmass.co/blog/unsubscribe-a-domain/
In My Drive list are my files. Those which I have been able to send emails from end with “emails.csv”. A file I am unable to send emails from does not have this ending. Does this indicate that it cannot find any emails in that file?
Hi Wayne,
Please make sure you open the CSV file in Google Sheets and save it as a Google Sheet. CSV files cannot be “seen” by GMass due to the limited permissions it has to view certain filetypes from your Google Drive.
When connecting the spreadsheet, it won’t show all of the contacts, for example there is 47 emails on the spreadsheet, in the “To” it says’ [email protected] but won’t expand on who those 47 emails are. How do I expand in the “To” in gmail to see these emails?
This creates a lot of drafts in my drafts label, can I delete them?
Won’t connect to my gsheets just tells me to log in to my already logged in gmail account and then does nothing when I click the sign in button just goes round in circles but gmass is working I just have no access to my gsheets
Does this method work for follow ups in a way where the list can be updated after the initial send but prior to the follow up?
Great question – I am looking for an answer to this question as well. Anyone have an answer?
Can we connect to a sheet that is located in a shared drive? We have all of the correct permissions set up for that shared drive yet I am still unable to connect to a sheet that is located in a shared drive. The shared drive is where we store client folders, and where we would like to create sheets for all of our staff to connect to. I would be rather upset if you can only connect to “My Drive.” Please advise
It is it possible to update the spreadsheet used for the mail merge as well as the criteria for the mail merge?
Hi Victor,
You can update a sheet for new rows for recurring campaigns but not add new columns. For the criteria, no, you would need to create a new campaign although you can still use the same Google Sheet.
Hi,
Is it possible to send emails to a list from sheets that has the same email address in it twice (with different information in other fields)? Seems to only send the first instance of each email address.
Thanks!
Does suppression allow us to update the email list for follow up messages?
For example, I email 5 people from the same company and I receive a response from 1 person telling me the correct contact. I want to eliminate the other 4 people from my campaign. Can I use this feature to accomplish it?
Is there a way to create a suppression list based on domains and not specific addresses?
I need to know how to collect emails form a web site and have it automatically update the Google spreadsheet. I’ve been searching for these instructions. Sure I can figure it out on my own, but that will waste time if you already have a guide, that would be appreciated, thanks.
Hi Rebecca,
There are plenty of webform to email apps/options you can use that have the capability of updating a Google Sheet. One, in particular, is Google Forms where you can embed it to your website and have the submissions automatically log into a Google Sheet within your Drive.
Can I just put the domain name on the black list?
Hi Leo,
if by blacklist, you mean unsubscribing the domain so that no campaign emails are sent to any email address in that domain, then yes, you can do this with GMass. Please see https://www.gmass.co/blog/unsubscribe-a-domain/
Is there a way to uninstall the GMass and start all over.
My 1st campaign won’t send and when I press the button it says,
“You already clicked the GMass button. Please wait while that first request is processed.”
Well, it’s been two days now.
Nevermind, I just created another Campaign, and it sent.