A Smarter Approach to Managing Klaviyo Profiles & Avoiding Unnecessary Pricing Upgrades Introduction

Klaviyo’s pricing model changed in February 2025, automatically upgrading accounts based on total active profiles. That means you’re paying for every subscribed or non-consented contact who is not suppressed or removed from Klaviyo. If your brand isn’t actively managing your Klaviyo contact count you will very likely be paying for unengaged subscribers who aren’t contributing to your sales.

In this guide, we’ll cover how to:

✅ Segment engaged vs. unengaged profiles across your web store and physical store POS.

✅ Set up winback and sunset flows to re-engage or suppress inactive customers.

✅ Retarget unengaged profiles via Meta Ads before suppression.

✅ Use webhooks to automate suppression, keeping your list lean and effective.

Segmenting Engaged vs. Unengaged Contacts (Website & POS)

Why It Matters:

Not all “active” Klaviyo profiles are equal. Customers who haven’t engaged with emails or SMS, or made a purchase in months will add to Klaviyo platform your costs without delivering value.

How to Do It:

1. Create segments for Highly Engaged Customers (opened/clicked emails in the last 90 days, active on site or purchased in the last 6 months). Remember to factor in any data that identifies valuable customers who don’t engage with emails!
2. Separate Moderately Engaged Customers (opened or clicked between 90-365 days, active on site or purchased within 12 months).
3. Identify Unengaged Users (no email or SMS opens in 365+ days, no purchase in 12+ months).
4. Check the volumes vs your total profile count that you’re paying for – what percentage of your database is unengaged? Let’s do something with them!

Please note: the engagement windows and behaviours should be customised to each business. 

Winback & Sunset Flows: Give Unengaged Contacts One Last Chance

Winback Flow:

Always try to re-engage a previous purchaser before suppressing them. Send a targeted offer or reminder based on past purchase behaviour – a higher lifetime value, or predicted value customer should receive a higher value offer. If they don’t re-engage, these customers can be suppressed.

Sunset Flow:

Non-purchasers should be addressed too. Check in via a segment triggered flow that incentives a purchase or asks them whether they’d like to keep hearing from you before you remove them from the database. 

Your segment could be similar to the Unengaged Users segment above, but adding a condition that they’ve never purchased. If you choose to ask the user if they’d like to keep hearing from you, try utilising the Manage Preferences screen to allow them to indicate what they’re interested in!

If you’d like to set these automatic database cleaning flows up in your business, talk to our Klaviyo Consultants.

Retargeting Unengaged Customers on Meta Ads: Reconnect on Social Channels

Why Use Meta Ads?

Some contacts might not engage via email but are still valuable. Retarget them with a special offer before suppression.

How to Do It:

1. Sync your Unengaged Customers Klaviyo segments with Meta Ads via the integration. 
2. Run a short-term campaign (7-14 days) targeting only these profiles with an incentive to bring them back to shopping on site.

This structure can be an evergreen asset to turn on and off as your database matures over time. Remember to try different offers and creatives to see what works with your audience. 

Automating Contact Suppression with a Webhook

The Hands-Free Solution:

You can use a webhook to auto-suppress profiles who don’t re-engage via the winback or sunset flows. That means unengaged contacts will automatically be removed from your account and no longer contribute towards your Klaviyo platform costs. 

How to Implement:

1. Set up a webhook in your Klaviyo Winback and Sunset flows.
2. Automatically update contacts’ profiles to ‘suppressed’

This ensures Klaviyo doesn’t count them as “active”, saving you money on your Klaviyo plan and improving your deliverability by only sending to contacts that are interested in what you have to say.

Need a hand making your webhook work? Talk to one of our Klaviyo Consultants to have automatic suppression for unengaged customers added to your suite of Klaviyo flows. 

The Result: Reduced Costs and Increased Platform ROI

By actively managing your Klaviyo active profile count, you will avoid unnecessary pricing upgrades and ensure your email and SMS marketing is as profitable as possible.

One account we worked on was facing a US$2,400 per year increase in their costs to operate Klaviyo if they’d done nothing before the billing tier enforcement came into place! We avoided that cost increase entirely, meaning their marketing efforts are more profitable, and those saved costs can be reinvested into growth for the business. 

If you’d like to see what you could save in Klaviyo fees, or just need some expert help finalising your database hygiene processes – reach out to our team. We’ll make sure your Klaviyo account is running at optimal efficiency.