Salesforce Marketing Cloud Data Views: _Subscribers

The _Subscribers data view in Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) provides essential information about email subscribers within your Enterprise account. This data view reflects the All Subscribers List and is only available at the Enterprise level, not within individual business units.

This blog explains each field in the _Subscribers data view, outlines its best use cases, and includes helpful SQL examples to improve your subscriber management, segmentation, and data hygiene processes.

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What is the _Subscribers Data View?

The _Subscribers data view stores subscriber-level metadata, including email address, domain, status, bounce count, and subscription dates. While it does not include profile attributes, it offers core data necessary for maintaining a healthy subscriber base.

Key Benefits of _Subscribers Data View

• Central Subscriber Visibility: View all email subscribers in your Marketing Cloud account.
• Status Tracking: Identify active, bounced, held, or unsubscribed users.
• Deliverability Monitoring: Track bounce count and undeliverable dates.
• Segmentation Support: Create audiences based on email status or behavior.

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Fields in _Subscribers Data View & Their Uses

Field	Type	Description & Use Case
SubscriberID	Number	Internal unique ID for each subscriber. Joinable with other data views.
SubscriberKey	Text(254)	External identifier (often the email address or customer ID). Core for targeting and joining with journeys.
DateUndeliverable	Date	Date when an email failed to deliver. Useful for identifying inactive subscribers.
DateJoined	Date	When the subscriber joined your list. Used for lifecycle segmentation.
DateUnsubscribed	Date	Date the subscriber opted out. Supports compliance and audience hygiene.
Domain	Text(254)	Domain part of the subscriber’s email address (e.g., gmail.com). Supports ISP-level reporting.
EmailAddress	Email	The actual email address of the subscriber.
BounceCount	Number	Number of times email bounces occurred for this subscriber. Useful for suppression logic.
SubscriberType	Text(100)	Subscriber classification (e.g., Subscriber, Contact).
Status	Text(12)	Subscriber’s current status: Active, Held, Unsubscribed, or Bounced.
Locale	Locale	The subscriber’s language and region code. Useful for localization strategies.

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When and Why to Use _Subscribers Data View?

When to Use?

• When analyzing email deliverability and list health.
• To segment based on subscription or unsubscribe date.
• For identifying inactive or at-risk subscribers.
• When joining with other data views (e.g., _Sent, _Open, _Click).

Why Use It?

• Maintain Clean Lists: Spot and suppress bounced or unsubscribed users.
• Comply with Legal Requirements: Track and validate opt-out status.
• Personalize by Locale: Tailor content using subscriber locale.
• Improve Campaign Accuracy: Use status to ensure valid recipients only.

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10 Example Scenarios and Queries

1. Retrieve All Active Subscribers

SELECT SubscriberKey, EmailAddress 
FROM _Subscribers 
WHERE Status = 'Active'

Use Case: Send emails only to valid recipients.

2. Identify Held or Bounced Subscribers

SELECT SubscriberKey, Status, BounceCount 
FROM _Subscribers 
WHERE Status IN ('Held', 'Bounced')

Use Case: Review deliverability issues.

3. Subscribers Who Recently Joined

SELECT SubscriberKey, DateJoined 
FROM _Subscribers 
WHERE DateJoined >= DATEADD(day, -30, GETDATE())

Use Case: Welcome new subscribers.

4. Subscribers with Bounce Count Over Threshold

SELECT SubscriberKey, BounceCount 
FROM _Subscribers 
WHERE BounceCount > 3

Use Case: Remove or suppress risky subscribers.

5. List of Recently Unsubscribed Users

SELECT SubscriberKey, DateUnsubscribed 
FROM _Subscribers 
WHERE DateUnsubscribed >= DATEADD(day, -7, GETDATE())

Use Case: Understand opt-out trends.

6. Count Subscribers by Status

SELECT Status, COUNT(*) AS SubscriberCount 
FROM _Subscribers 
GROUP BY Status

Use Case: Build a health dashboard.

7. Identify Subscribers from Gmail Domain

SELECT SubscriberKey, EmailAddress 
FROM _Subscribers 
WHERE Domain = 'gmail.com'

Use Case: Track performance by ISP.

8. Localized Campaign Segmentation

SELECT SubscriberKey, Locale 
FROM _Subscribers 
WHERE Locale = 'en-GB'

Use Case: Send region/language-specific content.

9. Join with _Sent to Analyze Engagement by Status

SELECT s.SubscriberKey, s.Status, se.EventDate 
FROM _Subscribers s 
JOIN _Sent se 
ON s.SubscriberID = se.SubscriberID

Use Case: Map engagement based on subscriber status.

10. Track Growth Over Time

SELECT CAST(DateJoined AS DATE) AS JoinDate, COUNT(*) AS NewSubscribers 
FROM _Subscribers 
GROUP BY CAST(DateJoined AS DATE)

Use Case: Trend reporting on new subscriber acquisition.

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Conclusion

The _Subscribers data view is foundational for managing email audiences in Salesforce Marketing Cloud. It enables you to monitor subscriber lifecycle, ensure compliance, track engagement readiness, and improve list quality. Though limited to core metadata, its importance in campaign management, reporting, and automation strategy is critical.

Combine it with data views like _EnterpriseAttribute, _Sent, _Click, and _Bounce for a more complete subscriber engagement profile.