Keep Drip Campaigns Clean with Last Email Received Date

Re-engagement drip campaigns assume the contact is out of touch, but that is not always true. If a recruiter emailed someone yesterday and that person replied, the last thing you want is an automated "we haven't heard from you in a while" going out the next morning.

Last Email Received Date is a Bullhorn Automation list criteria field that exposes inbound reply data from Bullhorn ATS. Adding it to your re-engagement list criteria automatically keeps active conversations out of the campaign, with no manual intervention required.

Common Reasons You Might Need This Article

• A contact who replied to a recruiter received the next automated email in your sequence anyway.
• You want drip campaigns to stop sending to contacts the moment a conversation starts, without any manual steps.
• You are setting up a new drip campaign and want to build the right exclusion logic from the start.
• You are reviewing existing automations and want to add reply-detection before your next campaign runs.

Before You Begin

Last Email Received Date is only available when Bullhorn Automation is used together with Bullhorn ATS. The field appears automatically in List Builder and Advanced Search for Candidates and Sales Contacts. For Leads, the field is only available if Leads is enabled in your Bullhorn Automation instance, and becomes visible after the first ATS sync completes.

How Last Email Received Date Works

The Last Email Received Date field captures the date a contact, candidate, or lead replied to an email tracked by Bullhorn ATS. It does not track outbound emails you send. It tracks inbound replies from the record itself.

Any reply that happened before the feature was enabled on your instance will show as blank (null). This is expected behavior, not a data error.

What Counts as a Tracked Reply

A reply is captured when the contact, candidate, or lead responds to an email from a recruiter whose email account is integrated with Bullhorn. Bullhorn tracks inbound and outbound external email passively and automatically, with no action required on the recruiter's part. Replies to email accounts that are not connected to Bullhorn will not update this field.

Add Last Email Received Date to Your List Criteria

The best way to use this field is to add it directly to the list criteria for your drip campaigns. This removes recently-replied contacts from enrollment automatically.

The logic is inverted from what you might expect. Instead of excluding recent replies, you include contacts where the last reply was far enough in the past. Here is how to set it up:

1. Open the list associated with your drip campaign in Bullhorn Automation.
2. At the bottom of the criteria, add a new condition.
3. Set Last Email Received Date to More Than 2 days ago (or whatever threshold fits your workflow).
4. Save the list. The automation will pause; turn it back on after saving.

Once a contact replies and their Last Email Received Date falls within your threshold, they are removed from enrollment on the next list refresh. When enough time passes and the date falls outside the threshold again, they become eligible for re-enrollment if re-entry is enabled on the automation.

Why List Criteria Works Better Than a Suppression List

A suppression list pauses a record's progress through the automation but does not remove them from it. Once the suppression criteria is no longer met, for example their last reply date is now three days ago, the record resumes the automation from where it was paused. This can result in emails going out unintentionally to contacts who have since re-engaged. A list criteria condition removes them from enrollment entirely as long as the condition is met, which is the safer choice for re-engagement campaigns.

Optional: Combine with Click or Open Activity for Tighter Targeting

You can pair Last Email Received Date with a click or open activity condition. For example, add a condition that checks whether the contact clicked a link or opened a specific email you sent. This gives you a more targeted list of contacts who both replied and engaged with a particular touchpoint.

This is optional and works best when you want to narrow a large list further. The plain Last Email Received Date condition is a solid starting point for most re-engagement campaigns. For details on click and open activity criteria, see Has Activity or Does Not Have Activity List Criteria.

What to Expect When You Update Existing Lists

Adding this condition to an existing list requires you to save and re-activate the automation. There is no bulk option to apply this condition across multiple automations at once. Update each list individually.

FAQs

Does this feature require Bullhorn ATS?

Yes. Last Email Received Date is only available when Bullhorn Automation is used together with Bullhorn ATS.

Does this field track replies to any email, or only emails sent from Bullhorn Automation?

It tracks replies to any email tracked by Bullhorn ATS. Replies to email accounts that are not connected to Bullhorn are not tracked.

What does it mean if the Last Email Received Date field is blank?

The field only tracks replies from after the feature was released in the ATS. If a contact has not replied since before that date, the field will be blank. These contacts will remain eligible for your drip campaigns, which is the intended behavior.

When should I use a suppression list instead of a list criteria condition?

Use a suppression list when you want to temporarily pause a contact's progress through an automation without removing them from enrollment entirely. Use a list criteria condition when you want contacts removed from enrollment as long as a condition is true. For drip campaign hygiene, list criteria is the right choice.

Can I use this field for candidates and leads, or only for sales contacts?

You can use it for all three record types: sales contacts, candidates, and leads. For Leads, this is available for Enterprise customers only, and the field becomes visible in List Builder after the first ATS sync completes following Leads enablement.

Will contacts be re-enrolled in the automation after their reply date ages out?

Yes, if re-entry is enabled on the automation and the contact's Last Email Received Date falls outside your threshold, they can re-enter. The end step in the automation is what enables re-entry. Without an end step, records cannot re-enter after completing or leaving the automation.

Does updating my list pause the automation?

Yes. Any time you save changes to a list associated with an active automation, the automation pauses. Turn it back on after saving.