How do I upload a CSV file to create exclusions?

Last updated: April 30, 2026

Context

Users can exclude specific companies or people from their Unify campaigns by uploading CS files containing lists of contacts or companies they do not want to target.

Answer

To create exclusions using a CSV file, follow these steps:

  1. Prepare your CSV file:

    • Add a column named "Status" to your CSV

    • Populate the Status column with a consistent value (e.g., "COMPETITOR", "DO_NOT_CONTACT", "EXCLUDED")

    • Common status values include "COMPETITOR", "DO_NOT_CONTACT", "EXCLUDED", or "SALES_REP" for excluding internal sales representatives

    • For companies: Include company name and domain

    • For people: Include email addresses and other contact information

  2. Upload the CSV file:

    • Go to either the Companies or People tab in Unify

    • Click "Upload CSV"

    • Map your CSV columns to Unify fields, ensuring you map the "Status" column

  3. Create the exclusion:

    • Navigate to Settings > Exclusions

    • Click "New exclusion"

    • Select either "Companies" or "People" as the type

    • Add a filter condition for "Status equals [your status value]"

    • Save the exclusion

  1. Exclusions are global and automatically applied to all audiences unless specifically disabled for individual audiences

  2. For company exclusions, all people/contacts/prospects within those companies will be automatically excluded - you do not need to create separate people-level exclusions

  3. When viewing the "Excluded Count" in the UI for a category containing company-level exclusions, the total will include both the excluded companies AND all people associated with those companies. This can result in much higher counts than the number of companies you explicitly excluded. If you only want to exclude specific contacts at certain companies (rather than everyone at those companies), use a people-type exclusion for that subset instead of a company-level exclusion.

  4. When a company is added to exclusions, all existing contacts from that company are automatically unenrolled from any active sequences they were previously enrolled in.

  5. If you remove a company or person from an exclusion list, they can re-enter active email campaigns if they meet the audience criteria and the audience is actively enrolling into a sequence

  6. When toggling exclusions off within a sequence to enroll previously excluded contacts, wait 30 minutes before re-running the play for the changes to take effect. Do not toggle the exclusion back on until all contacts have completed the entirety of the sequence.

    • After waiting 30 minutes for changes to propagate, duplicate and re‑run the play with the same audience (rather than just re‑running the existing play).

    • Enable “allow re‑enrollment into the same sequence” setting if needed to ensure previously excluded contacts can enter the sequence.

  7. You can also exclude sales reps and other unwanted job titles by going to Personas > Settings tab and adding exclusion terms like "sales" in the titles section

CSV Upload Timing and Verification Best Practices

While the CSV upload process appears straightforward, there are important timing considerations that can affect exclusion accuracy:

Background Processing Issues:

  • CSV uploads may show as "complete" in the UI while still processing records in the background

  • This can result in incomplete exclusions if you proceed immediately to create the exclusion filter

  • The audience count may initially show fewer records than expected

  • Deduplication by domain can collapse multiple rows into a single company record

  • Existing companies already in Unify won't be created again, which may result lower counts than expected

Verification Steps Before Creating Exclusions:

  1. After CSV upload completion, wait 5-10 minutes before proceeding to allow for background processing and enrichment

  2. Refresh the page and verify the audience count matches your expected number of records

  3. Check that all uploaded contacts appear in the Companies or People tab

  4. If using auto-generated plays after upload, allow processing time before creating exclusions

Troubleshooting Count Discrepancies:

If your uploaded list shows fewer records than expected, common causes include:

  • Duplicates removed: If the same email or domain appears multiple times in your CSV, only one record is kept

  • Missing required fields: Contacts must include an email address (and first name for People uploads). Rows without required fields aren't imported

  • Field mapping issues: Incorrect field mapping or data-type mismatches can silently exclude rows

  • Background processing incomplete: The upload may not have fully processed - re‑check audience counts after waiting 5-10 minutes

  • Deduplication: Multiple rows with the same domain collapse into a single company record

  • Existing records: Companies already in Unify won't be created again

  • Company exclusion aggregation: When using company-level exclusions, the excluded count includes all people at those companies, which can result in totals much higher than your original CSV row count

Understanding Lists vs Audiences:

  • CSV uploads create a List first, which is a static collection of records

  • To use uploaded records in Plays or exclusions, you must create an Audience with the filter "exists in list" pointing to your uploaded List

  • This distinction is important when setting up exclusions or triggers based on CSV uploads

This timing issue is particularly important for large CSV files or when immediately creating multiple exclusions from the same upload.

Automated Audience Creation

After uploading your CSV file, you can click “Create play” directly from the uploaded List, which will automatically create an Audience for you. This eliminates the need to manually create an Audience with the “exists in list” filter.

When to Use Each Method

  • Automated (“Create play”): Best for immediate campaign setup when you want to quickly move from CSV upload to active outreach

  • Manual audience creation: Better when you need more control over audience configuration or want to use the uploaded list in multiple different contexts

This automated workflow is particularly useful when setting up exclusions from CSV uploads, as it streamlines the process from upload to exclusion creation.

CSV Upload Domain Editing Limitation

When uploading CSV files for exclusions, be aware of this important platform limitation:

Company domains cannot be edited directly in Unify after upload.

Individual Contact Exclusion Field Requirements

When creating individual contact exclusions, your CSV must include one of these specific combinations for proper matching:

  • Email address (most reliable method)

  • First name + last name + company domain

  • LinkedIn URL

Personal email addresses (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) can be included in exclusion lists for individual contact exclusions.

Creating Exceptions Within Exclusions

When you need to exclude most contacts matching certain criteria but want to allow specific individuals or companies through, you can create targeted exceptions using “AND” conditions in your exclusion filters.

How to Add Exceptions to Exclusions

  • For company exceptions: Add “AND domain is not equal to [company-domain.com]”

  • For contact exceptions: Add “AND email is not equal to [contact@example.com]”

  • You can add multiple “AND” conditions to exclude multiple specific exceptions

Important Limitation

Manual enrollment cannot bypass exclusions – all exclusions (global, sequence, and audience) apply to both automated and manual enrollments. There is no sequence‑level override for individual contacts.

CRM Integration Limitations

  • Multi-select fields from your CRM will not appear as filter options when creating exclusions in Unify

  • Only standard field types can be used for exclusion filtering

When creating exclusions in Unify, users should be aware that HubSpot lists are not supported and cannot be used as filter options when creating exclusions. This means you cannot directly reference HubSpot lists as a source for exclusion criteria – you must use CSV uploads or other supported filter methods instead.

Troubleshooting CRM-Based Exclusion Failures Due to Domain Mismatches

When exclusions based on CRM fields (like HubSpot Lifecycle Stage) aren't working as expected, the issue may be domain mismatches between your CRM and Unify systems.

Common Scenario

You've set up an exclusion filter using a CRM field (e.g., "HubSpot Lifecycle Stage equals Customer"), but contacts who should be excluded are still appearing in your audiences or getting enrolled in sequences.

Root Cause

This typically occurs when a company has different primary domains stored in your CRM versus Unify. Even though the CRM field values match your exclusion criteria perfectly, the exclusion fails because Unify can't properly link the CRM data to the contact due to the domain mismatch.

Diagnostic Steps

  1. Check domain consistency: Compare the primary domain for the company in your CRM against what's stored in Unify

  2. Verify CRM field mapping: Ensure the CRM field you're filtering on is properly synced and mapped

  3. Test with a known contact: Pick a specific contact that should be excluded and trace through both systems to identify where the mismatch occurs

Resolution Options

  • Update domains in CRM: Modify the primary domain in your CRM to match what's in Unify

  • Use alternative exclusion methods: Switch to CSV-based exclusions or direct Unify field filters instead of CRM-based filters

  • Manual domain correction: For small lists, manually update domains in either system to ensure consistency

Prevention

  • Establish domain standardization practices between your CRM and Unify

  • Regularly audit domain consistency between systems

  • Document which system serves as the "source of truth" for company domains

Best Practices

  • Double-check domain accuracy before uploading your CSV

  • Format domains as bare domains (e.g., example.com, not http:// or www.)

  • If you discover a domain typo after upload, re-upload a CSV containing the corrected domain

  • Verify your Status column values are consistent and don't contain extra spaces or special characters

  • For individual exclusions, ensure at least one of the required field combinations is present for each row to avoid matching failures

Multi-CRM Opportunity Exclusion Behavior

When using opportunity-based exclusions with multiple connected CRMs, there's an important behavior to understand:

Cross-CRM Opportunity Evaluation: If you have multiple CRMs connected (e.g., Salesforce and HubSpot), opportunity-based exclusions evaluate opportunities from ALL connected systems simultaneously.

Common Scenario

A company may appear in an “Active Opportunities” exclusion even if one CRM shows a closed opportunity, because an active opportunity exists in another connected CRM.

Troubleshooting Steps

  1. Check all connected CRM systems for the same company domain

  2. Look for active opportunities in any connected CRM that could be triggering the exclusion

  3. Remember that the exclusion will trigger if ANY connected CRM has an opportunity matching your exclusion criteria