Why is my contact count smaller than my company count?

This surprises almost everyone, so it is worth setting out plainly. A campaign that matched 10,000 companies does not email 10,000 people.

Where the numbers go

Not every matched company has an identifiable person in the role you asked for. Small companies often have no one with that title, and some roles are simply rare.

Not every identified person has a findable email address. More junior and more technical roles in particular often have no public business address.

Not every found address passes verification. Dead addresses are held back rather than bounced.

Some are excluded on purpose:

• Anyone who has opted out — permanently, across your whole account
• Anyone already contacted on a previous campaign
• Mail gateways known to reject cold outreach
• Domains that already failed to produce a usable contact, so refills stop re-grinding dead ends

This is healthy

A large matched universe and a much smaller contactable list means the quality gates are doing their job. The alternative — sending to every address that could be guessed — is how people destroy their sending domains in a fortnight.

When the drop-off is genuinely too steep

Usually the role is rare or rarely has a public address. Try adjacent job titles, or aim one level up where addresses are easier to find.

Updated on: 17/08/2026