Quarantining leads will not always be suitable or relevant to your setup but this article aims to:

- Explain the difference between Valid, Invalid and Quarantine Leads
- How to setup Quarantine and the options
- Manual release vs Automatic
- Context as to why you might use it

Valid Vs Invalid Vs Quarantine

When a lead is accepted into a Campaign, it is regarded valid.  A valid lead has passed all validation parameters, rules and filters.  An invalid lead is the opposite; it is rejected by the Campaign.  When a lead is flagged to be quarantined, it is neither a valid nor an invalid lead.  Quarantined leads are accessed under the Leads tab.



Quarantine leads are held in a "pending" state until the lead is processed by a user manually or automatically (using auto-release).  In order to process leads manually, you can either select the lead(s) or with "all results" and then Process/Reject Lead.

How to set up Lead Quarantine

There are two places where you can set up lead quarantine - under Campaign > Settings and Filters.  If you want to quarantine all leads against your campaign, you would do it under campaign settings as illustrated below.  When you enable lead quarantine here, all leads will be held in quarantine until you process them.  You have the option to auto-release quarantined leads (further reading below), which may prove useful if you have good intentions to review your leads but don’t get round to doing it quick enough.

Alternatively, you can choose to quarantine leads if the Delivery(s) within the Campaign have been skipped or Unsold (Buyer has rejected the lead). This is useful if your leads enter the Campaign outside of your Buyers Delivery schedule or if they have reached an hourly, daily etc. cap. The same logic applies here, where you can automatically release these leads and throttle them over a minute or hourly increment, or manually review and release them from within the Leads>Quarantined Leads tab.

(Campaign Settings)


With Filters, you have the option to either accept, reject or quarantine leads. If you only want to quarantine specific leads, you will need to set up a filter to do so.  You have the option to auto-release quarantined leads too (further reading below).

(Campaign Filters)

Manual release Vs automatic

Manual
Leads are held in quarantine indefinitely.  It requires a user to process or reject the leads.  We see this to be common with clients that trade leads with a high-ticket value and relatively low hourly volumes.  Equally, clients that telephone verify leads before sending to a client would typically use this method, where agents would update / enrich leads data before sending to a buyer. 

Automatic
You can automatically release leads based on a period of time after a lead hits quarantine i.e. 5 minutes or at an exact time i.e. 9am.  With the exact time option, you have the ability to throttle the release of leads p/minute or hour.  When releasing leads at an exact time, if leads have come in after the exact time, the release will roll-over to the following day.  See below how you can set this up under campaign settings.  The same feature is available when using quarantine filters.



Each business will have its own justification for releasing leads automatically but here are some of the common reasons based on our dealings with clients:

- You import leads and want to release X leads over Y time to avoid bombarding your Buyer or CRM's API.
- You generate leads 24/7 but all your Buyers only want leads to be delivered between 10am-6pm
- You do not want to send leads over the weekend.

Quarantined Leads - Context

Example 1
Let’s assume you’ve just started out, generating HIGH value leads in the insurance niche.  You’ve set up real-time validation, enabled rules such as profanity checking, whether names have vowels/consonants, but you still want to eye-ball every lead that comes in to be sure it looks legit.  You may even decide to telephone qualify the lead with a quick call to confirm intent.  Lead Quarantine would serve a purpose.

Example 2
You can maximise your ROI on Facebook if you let your ads run 24/7.  Your Buyers are happy to take leads generated out of hours, but they only want them delivered 10am-7pm when their agents start work.  You could quarantine leads and automatically release at 10am and throttle 30 leads p/hour.

Example 3
You are testing a new supplier and/or ad network and want to be sure that the quality you have been delivering continues.  Lead quarantine enables you to hold the leads and eye-ball them before sending to the client.

Example 4
You have a call centre that only takes leads Monday to Friday. You have the ability to hold leads for full days and release at a specific time e.g. 9am on a Monday.

Filter Screen

Campaign Screen

FAQ

1. Can I UPDATE leads in Quarantine via the API? 
Yes. Further reading on this here - Update and processing quarantine leads via REST API

2. My leads are not being Quarantined, what would be the reason?  
Quarantine only works if you import leads or submit via the REST API as opposed to the classic.  REST API request URL would look like this: https://{account}.leadbyte.com/restapi/v1.2/leads

3. Is duplication and field validation done before a lead is quarantined?
Yes.

4. Is live validation (like Email, HLR) done before a lead is quarantined?
No.  This is a billable service, which we do not want to charge you for if we can avoid it.

5. When a lead is quarantine and then released, are delivery rules applied?
Duplication - Yes
Caps - Yes
Schedule - Yes
Rules - Yes

6. When a lead is quarantined on delivery skipped, does it get re-quarantined if there are no available deliveries?

Yes! By default, this process will cycle 3 times. However you can increase this to 7 times by heading to the advanced settings in your campaign.

7. Does Skipped Delivery Quarantine only work if it is a Buyer Delivery?
No, the logic is applied to ANY active delivery.

8. If leads are being quarantined with auto release turned “off”, what happens when I turn it on?
Any leads held in quarantine will be scheduled to be released automatically when you turn it on.

9. Can I use Lead Quarantine on both Skipped and Unsold leads?

Yes, you will need to select the "Skipped or Unsold" option.

10. Why are my Unsold leads not being quarantined when "Skipped or Unsold" is selected?

If your campaign is set to 'Payout Supplier on: Campaign Accept', your leads marked Unsold by the buyer will not be quarantined as they technically have been sold as soon as the supplier was paid.