How to Audit Keap Contact Tags and Segments After a Data Restore

A successful Keap data restore is only half the battle. The crucial next step is a meticulous audit of your contact tags and segments. These are the lifeblood of your automation, personalization, and reporting within Keap. Without a thorough validation, you risk misfiring campaigns, inaccurate segmentation, and significant operational inefficiencies. This guide provides a step-by-step framework to systematically verify the integrity and functionality of your Keap tags and segments, ensuring your CRM continues to perform optimally post-restore.

Step 1: Establish Your “Known Good” Baseline

Before initiating any restore, or immediately after if a baseline wasn’t captured, it’s critical to document the state of your Keap tags and segments. This “known good” baseline will serve as your benchmark for comparison. Utilize Keap’s reporting features to export lists of all active tags, including their associated contacts if possible. For segments (saved searches), record their criteria and expected contact counts. Screenshot key segment views and tag reports. If you’re leveraging a third-party backup solution like CRM-Backup.com, ensure this baseline snapshot is part of your regular backup strategy. This proactive step provides an undeniable reference point, making post-restore auditing significantly more accurate and efficient, highlighting any discrepancies with confidence.

Step 2: Compare Tag Data Post-Restore

With your baseline firmly established, the next step is to directly compare the current state of your Keap tags against it. Navigate to Keap’s ‘CRM > Tags’ section. Systematically review your tag list, looking for missing tags, unexpected duplicates, or tags with incorrect names. Then, for each critical tag, click into it to view the associated contacts. Cross-reference these contact counts and specific contact records against your baseline documentation. Pay close attention to tags that trigger automations or define key customer journeys. Any significant deviation in count or composition for these tags could indicate a problem that needs immediate investigation and correction, potentially requiring manual re-tagging or further data recovery efforts.

Step 3: Validate Segment Functionality and Data

Segments (or saved searches) in Keap are dynamic lists built upon specific criteria, often including tags, custom fields, and engagement history. After a restore, these segments need rigorous validation. Go to ‘CRM > Contacts’ and access your saved searches. For each segment, review its underlying criteria to ensure they were correctly restored. Then, critically, execute the segment and compare the contact count and a sample of contacts within that segment against your baseline. If a segment’s criteria involve date ranges or specific engagement metrics, verify that the restored data accurately reflects the historical context. Discrepancies here can lead to incorrect targeting for marketing campaigns, miscalculated sales pipelines, or flawed reporting.

Step 4: Audit Automation Triggers and Sequences

Keap’s strength lies in its powerful automation capabilities, many of which are triggered by tag application or segment entry. A data restore can inadvertently disrupt these connections. Navigate to your Keap Automation Builder or Campaign Builder. For each critical automation, verify that the ‘starts when’ triggers related to tags or segments are correctly configured and pointing to the right data. Run a few test contacts through your most important automations by manually applying the trigger tag or meeting the segment criteria. Monitor if they progress through the sequence as expected, receive the correct emails, and have subsequent tags applied. This hands-on validation ensures that the restore hasn’t silently broken your automated workflows.

Step 5: Review Reporting and Dashboard Accuracy

Your Keap dashboards and reports rely heavily on accurate contact data, tags, and segments to provide meaningful insights. Following a restore, it’s essential to review these to ensure they reflect the correct operational reality. Generate key reports that track tag application over time, segment growth, or campaign performance metrics. Compare these post-restore reports against historical data or your baseline reporting. Look for sudden drops or spikes in numbers that don’t align with actual business activity. Discrepancies in reporting indicate underlying data issues within your tags or segments that need to be addressed before relying on these insights for strategic decision-making. This final step validates the integrity of your data from a high-level business perspective.

Step 6: Implement Ongoing Monitoring and Backup Practices

A data restore audit provides a snapshot of integrity, but true resilience comes from ongoing monitoring and robust backup practices. Beyond this immediate audit, consider setting up regular checks for critical tags and segments, perhaps weekly or monthly, to catch any future anomalies promptly. Most importantly, ensure you have an automated, reliable backup solution in place for your Keap data. Solutions like CRM-Backup.com specialize in capturing granular data, including tags, custom fields, and automations, providing a daily, verifiable restore point. This proactive strategy mitigates the impact of future data incidents and ensures your Keap environment remains a reliable asset for your business operations.

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: The Ultimate Guide to Keap CRM Data Protection for HR & Recruiting: Backup, Recovery, and 5 Critical Post-Restore Validation Steps