Create a matchback-ready appeal in Direct Mail

Use this article when…

• You are building a direct mail list in Avid and want the drop to appear in the Matchback Report.
• You need ROI reporting by Package Code, Appeal Code, and audience segment.
• You want to run an A/B test (control vs. treatment) and compare results by variant.
• You want Avid to track response without uploading a separate activity file after the mailing drops.

Applies to and prerequisites

Steps

1. Open Direct Mail and start a new appeal

1. From the left navigation, click Direct Mail.
2. On the Direct Mail Selection page, click the Appeals tab.
3. Click Add New Appeal to start a new one, or click an existing appeal's name to continue editing.

2. Complete the Mailing Information step

1. Enter a Name for the appeal. This is how it appears in Avid and in your Matchback reporting.
2. Set the Drop Date. Matchback uses this date to anchor response windows, so enter the real planned in-home date.
3. Enter a Default Appeal Code. This code is written onto every exported record unless a package overrides it.
4. (Optional) Enter a Starting Finder Number, Total Budget, and Fixed Project Costs (copywriting, design, agency fees). These feed your budget and ROI rollups.
5. Under Selection Limitations, turn on the rules that should apply to the mailing:
   • Select only one record per household: Avid treats the contacts that share an account ID as one household and keeps one of them, the primary contact first. It does not combine separate accounts, so a couple stored as two separate accounts can still receive two pieces. [TODO before publishing: confirm this household wording with Justin.]
   • Select primary addresses only: uses only each person's primary address, instead of falling back to another address on the record.
   • Exclude deceased: leaves out contacts marked as deceased. This is on by default for new appeals.
   • De-duplicate records based upon address: when on, Avid keeps one record for each combination of last name and address (street line, city, state, and the first five digits of the ZIP code), ignoring capitalization. Matching is otherwise exact, so "Ave" and "Avenue" do not match, and different last names at the same address stay separate. Choose a De-dupe Priority to decide which record Avid keeps: Prioritize based upon Largest Giving Amount or Prioritize based upon Last Giving Date. If records are otherwise equal, Avid keeps the primary contact.

6. Under Segment Selection Axes, pick a different field for X Axis, Y Axis, and Z Axis. These power the 3D segment cube on the Selection step.

   Available axis options

   Each axis dropdown shows the same core list (plus any custom calculations your admin has set up):

   • First Gift Amount
   • Last Gift Amount
   • Highest Gift Amount
   • Average Gift Amount
   • Largest Gift in Last 24 Months Amount
   • Lifetime Gifts
   • Lifetime Revenue
   • Months Since Last Gift
   • Months Since Last Gift (Expanded)
   • Fiscal Year Lifecycle
   • Trailing 12 Mo. Lifecycle

   You cannot pick the same field on two axes. Avid hides the axis from the other dropdowns once it is selected.

7. Click Next Step to save and continue.

3. Define the Audience

On this step, drag saved audiences from Available Audiences on the left into Inclusions, Exclusions, or Seeds on the right. Each tab has its own purpose:

1. Click the Inclusions tab on the right.
2. Drag one or more audiences from Available Audiences into the dropzone. You can also click an audience card to add it to the first available tab.
3. Click the Exclusions tab and drag any suppression audiences into that dropzone.
4. Click the Seeds tab and add any seed-list audiences (for example, internal QA records).

5. If you need a new audience, click Add Audience to describe what you want and let Avid build it for you.

   You cannot advance past this step until at least one audience is in Inclusions. The Next Step button stays disabled until then.

6. Click Next Step.

4. Define the Packages

1. Click Add Package in the top-right of the Packages card.
2. In the package modal, fill in the core fields:
   • Description: required. The human-readable package name shown in Avid and reporting.
   • Pkg Code: required. This is your Package Code on exports and in Matchback.
   • Color: required. Used only to assign this package to cells in the segment cube on the next step.
   • Appeal Code: overrides the Default Appeal Code for records mailed in this package.

3. Under Optional Package Details, set production attributes Avid can pass into the export: Carrier Postage, Carrier Size, Letter Version, Reply Postage, Reply Card Version, and Est. Package Cost.

   Est. Package Cost is the cost per piece Avid uses for ROI in the Matchback Report. Enter it now so you do not have to upload a separate cost file later.

4. (Optional) Turn on Double Sided if both sides of the carrier are printed.

5. (Optional) Turn on Split for A/B Test to run a control-vs.-treatment test on this package.

   Set up an A/B test on a package

   When you toggle Split for A/B Test on, an Experiment Treatment Details (Optional) section appears. Any values you enter there replace the default values above for the treatment group only. The rest of the recipients stay on the default (control) values.

   Typical fields to change for a test:

   • Experiment Description: describe what you are testing.
   • Package Code and Appeal Code: so you can tell the variants apart in reporting.
   • Letter Version or Reply Card Version: for creative tests.
   • Est. Package Cost: if the treatment is more or less expensive.

   Avid assigns each recipient to control or treatment deterministically, so the same constituent gets the same variant if you re-export the mailing. The split is fixed at 50/50: about half of the recipients go to each group, and you cannot change the percentages. For A/B to produce valid results, keep one variable per test and keep segment sizes large enough to be meaningful.

6. Click Save Package, then repeat for each package you want to mail. Use Copy Package from the row menu to quickly add variants.
7. Click Next Step once every package is added.

5. Assign packages to segments

This is where the 3D cube from your selected X/Y/Z Axes comes in. Each cell in the cube represents a group of constituents defined by those three axes.

1. At the top of the cube, click a package's colored card to select it.
2. Click or drag across cells in the cube to assign that package to those segments. Assigned cells take on the package's color.
3. Review the constituent count shown for each cell and the totals at the edges.

4. Repeat for each package until every segment you want to mail has a package assignment.

   Segments without a package color are excluded from the mailing. Double-check the cube before moving on, especially if some cells appear empty.

5. Click Next Step.

6. Verify selections, enable Matchback, and generate the file

1. Review the Audiences summary (Included and Excluded) and the Packages table at the top of the step. Confirm the Appeal Code, Package Code, Price / Piece, Audience Size, and Total Cost for each row.

   If a package has A/B enabled, Avid shows both the control and treatment rows here with their distinct counts and appeal/package codes.

2. Under Export File Layout, select the layout that maps Avid data to the columns your mail vendor expects.

   The Generate File button stays disabled until you pick a layout.

3. Select the checkbox labeled Include the exported data in Direct Mail and Matchback reporting.

   Avid shows an info tooltip on this row: "This will utilize the accounts exported and the appeal codes associated with the packages for reporting."

   If you leave this checkbox off, the mailing file still exports, but the drop will not appear in the Matchback Report and you cannot track response rate or ROI for it in Avid.

4. Click Generate File.

   If you have exported reporting for this appeal before, Avid asks you to confirm: "Your previous reporting export will be overwritten. Do you want to continue?" Click Yes, continue to replace it.

   Generate File saves first. Before it builds the file, Avid saves the appeal as it appears on your screen: the Mailing Information settings (including Selection Limitations and axes) and the Export File Layout you chose. If a colleague changed the same appeal after you opened it, reload the page before you click Generate File. Otherwise your older settings replace their changes. If the axes on your screen differ from the saved axes, Avid also rebuilds the cube and clears the package assignments on the Selection step. Because the save needs Edit access, you need both Direct Mail Edit and Export access to generate a file.

5. Wait for the Success! banner. Avid shows a Download Your File button and also emails you a secure link. The email link expires after one hour for security.

6. If you selected the Matchback checkbox, confirm that the drop registered.

   Success! does not confirm Matchback registration. The banner confirms that your mailing file was built. If Avid cannot register the drop for Matchback (for example, because your organization has no File Upload connection), the mailing file still generates and Avid shows no error, but the drop never reaches the Matchback Report. See Confirm that your drop registered for Matchback in the sections below.

What you'll see

• A downloadable mailing file built from your selected Export File Layout, ready to send to your mail vendor.
• An email notification with a one-hour download link to the same file.
• A separate Matchback reporting file (only if you selected the checkbox). Avid saves it in your account, where you can see it under Settings > Files, and feeds it into the Matchback Report.
• Over the next days and weeks, response, revenue, ROI, and A/B results for this drop inside the Matchback Report as gifts post in your CRM.

Next steps and related workflows

• Send the mailing file to your mail vendor and confirm they print Appeal Code and Package Code exactly as exported.
• Once gifts start posting, open Run a Matchback report to review response rate, revenue, indirect revenue, and ROI for this drop.
• For A/B tests, compare variants on the Package Results tab of the Matchback Report.

Notes, limits, and common questions

• Use consistent appeal codes across mailings. Matchback lines up on the exact string in Appeal Code, so typos or casing differences will not match.
• Re-check the Drop Date before you click Generate File if your schedule has shifted. Changing the date after export requires a regenerate.
• Avoid very small segments in the cube. Small cells can make response rate and ROI look misleading.
• Always fill in Est. Package Cost if you want ROI in the Matchback Report. Without costs, ROI columns appear as N/A.
• The Download Your File link from the success banner expires after one hour. You can regenerate the same file again at any time.