SendGrid Source
Good to know: Object Cloud source
The SendGrid Source is an object source. This means that it sends information (traits) about a thing that exists and persists over time, such as a person or company, and which can be updated over time. Data from this source can only be exported directly to a warehouse, but it can then be used for further analysis. Learn more about cloud sources.
SendGrid is a trusted platform for transactional email and email marketing.
Take your company’s analysis to the next level by adding SendGrid as a Source to Segment. Segment automatically collects events like Click or Delivered and objects such as Recipients or Campaigns and loads them into your data warehouse.
Getting Started
Adding SendGrid as a Source in Segment requires a SendGrid API key. If you don’t yet have a SendGrid API key, first follow these steps within your SendGrid account:
- Log in to your SendGrid account.
- Navigate to Settings > API Keys, then click General API Key.
- Name the key and, optionally, adjust its settings.
- Copy the API Key, omitting all spaces.
SendGrid API Key Settings
Segment recommends providing read permissions for Email Activity and Marketing Activity.
To finish adding the SendGrid source, return to your Segment Workspace and follow these steps:
- From the Source catalog page in your Segment workspace, enter SendGrid and select the SendGrid source that appears.
- From the SendGrid information panel that appears, click Add source.
- Give the Source a name and add any labels to help you organize and filter your sources.
Segment recommends a name that reflects the source itself, as this name populates the schema name. For example, the source name
SendGridcreates the schemaSendGrid. You can add multiple instances if you have multiple SendGrid accounts. -
Paste the SendGrid API Key you copied above into the Segment interface. Click Connect.
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Copy the auto-generated Webhook URL and paste it into SendGrid’s Event Notification settings pane under Settings > Mail Settings.
- Enable Event Notification in SendGrid. Select Next and then Finish to complete setup.
Event URL
SendGrid has a single Event URL location. By using the SendGrid source, you will be using your only Event URL location. If you remove a pre-existing URL, then that location will no longer receive events.
Components
Sync
Segment makes requests to the SendGrid API every three hours. In the initial sync, Segment pulls all SendGrid objects (and their corresponding properties) according to the Collections Table below. If you don’t use SendGrid’s marketing campaigns features (Legacy or New), these collections will be empty in SendGrid and you’ll see “Zero data synced” in your runs. The webhook still processes activity data.
Segment’s sync component pulls and forwards SendGrid resources to Segment using an upsert API. As a result, dimensional data loaded into your warehouse reflects the latest state of the corresponding resource in SendGrid. For example, if lists.recipient_count goes from 100 to 200 between syncs, its status will be 200 on its next flush to your warehouse.
The source syncs and warehouse syncs are independent processes. Source runs pull your data into the Segment Hub, and warehouse runs flush that data to your warehouse. Sources sync with Segment every three hours. Depending on your Warehouses plan, Segment pushes the Source data to your warehouse on the interval associated with your billing plan.
SendGrid Syncs
Segment syncs all objects and properties. Reach out to support if you’re interested in filtering objects or properties during syncs.
Streaming
The SendGrid source’s streaming component listens in real time for inbound webhooks from SendGrid’s Event Notifications. The source batches these events for upload on your next warehouse flush. These events only append to your warehouse.
NOTE: If you don’t use SendGrid’s marketing features, this will be the only data that Segment receives from SendGrid. There isn’t a way to retrieve email event history from SendGrid, so you will only have access to data that Segment collected after you successfully enable this component of the source destination.
Collections
Collections are the groupings of resources Segment pulls from your source. In your warehouse, each collection gets its own table.
Object collections are updated with each sync. These are pulled using Segment’s sync component.
Event collections are append only, represent a user action or activity, and may be likened to fact tables in a traditional data warehouse. Unlike traditional events captured by Segment, you can’t forward these events to Destinations you’ve configured in your Segment workspace. You can only sync these events to a supported data warehouse.
| Collection | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| activity | Event | The union of all SendGrid event tables. Useful for creating funnels. |
| _open | Event | Recipient has opened the HTML message. Enable Open Tracking to get this type of event. |
| click | Event | Recipient clicked on a link within the message. Enable Click Tracking to get this type of event. |
| bounce | Event | Receiving server could not or would not accept message. |
| delivered | Event | Message has been successfully delivered to the receiving server. |
| processed | Event | Triggered when the email is processed. |
| dropped | Event | You may see the following drop reasons: Invalid SMTPAPI header, Spam Content (if spam checker app enabled), Unsubscribed Address, Bounced Address, Spam Reporting Address, Invalid, Recipient List over Package Quota |
| deferred | Event | Recipient’s email server temporarily rejected message. |
| unsubscribe | Event | Recipient clicked on message’s subscription management link. You need to enable Subscription Tracking for getting this type of event. |
| mc_contacts | Object | A sample of fifty latest contacts uploaded or linked from the list, returned from Sendgrid. Will only return data if you’re using SendGrid’s New Marketing Campaign features. |
| mc_lists | Object | Lists returned from Sendgrid Lists endpoint. Will only return data if you’re using SendGrid’s New Marketing Campaign features. |
| mc_single_sends | Object | Single Sends with condensed details about each from Sendgrid Single Sends endpoint. Will only return data if you’re using SendGrid’s New Marketing Campaign features. |
| spam_report | Event | Recipient marked message as spam. |
| lists | Object | Groups of contacts. Will only return data if you had Legacy Marketing Campaigns data |
| segments | Object | Slices of lists. Will only return data if you had Legacy Marketing Campaigns data |
| recipients | Object | All contacts who have received an email, with information about their last activities and custom activities. More Info. Will only return data if you had Legacy Marketing Campaigns data |
| campaigns | Object | All campaigns you’ve created in SendGrid. More Info. Will only return data if you had Legacy Marketing Campaigns data |
Troubleshooting
If you’re getting an “Invalid Credentials” error when setting up the SendGrid source, send a direct ping to the SendGrid Marketing Campaigns API to test if you’re using the correct credentials.
Make sure you allowlist Segment IP addresses on SendGrid. Contact Segment for the list of IP addresses to allowlist.
When you disable your SendGrid source, you’ll need to also disable the webhook portion of your configuration.
If you are only able to create one webhook, review your SendGrid account plan details. On the Sendgrid free plan, you can only have 1 webhook.
This page was last modified: 03 Jun 2024
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