Radius Search - Purchase a Mailing List
Mass Marketing Made Easy
thanks.io's built-in Radius Search lets you purchase a targeted mailing list directly from your dashboard - no third-party data vendor required. It is also accessible via the Zapier integration and the API.
Various demographic filters are available so you can target exactly the right recipients. Each record is typically $0.05, though some lookups cost more depending on the options selected.
How to access it
- Open Mailing Lists in the sidebar and open the list the records should go into. For a new list, click Add Mailing List, name it, and click Create list first.
- Click Add recipients and choose Radius Search.
You can also buy a Radius Search while you send: in Send Mail, the Recipients step's Add Recipients dialog includes radius search.
Buying addresses needs a payment method on file. Without one, the Radius Search option explains this and links to Settings → Payment Method.
Radius Search settings
Configure the following fields:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Center address | Start typing to select the address you want to search around - a listing, a job site, your office. |
| Number of records | How many recipients to purchase, up to 2,500 per search. Each record is $0.05. |
| Who to mail | The record type to target (see full list below). |
| Include condos and apartments | Include condo and apartment units. Shown for residential record types. |
| Mail the property owner | For the commercial record types, mail the owner of each property. |
| Include the center address | Add the center address itself to the list. |
| Append email & phone (+$0.20 per record) | Skip-traces each match to append contact info. Brings the total to $0.25/record. |
| Keep the center address as a reference field | Store the center address on each record as a reference field (the absentee address fields), so your message can mention it. |
As you change the settings, the panel shows how many records it found and what the list will cost.
A single Radius Search purchase buys at most 2,500 records. A search asking for more than 2,500 is rejected before anything is charged. To reach a larger area, run several searches from different addresses.
While API Test Mode is enabled on your account, a Radius Search bought via the API or Zapier is limited to 5 records per purchase instead. Purchases made from the dashboard keep the full 2,500.
Record types
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Nearest Neighbors | Residents closest to the search address |
| Apartment Complex | Nearest neighbors in a nearby apartment or condo complex. Use Include the center address to get a list of units at the complex itself. |
| Absentee Owner | Owners of adjacent properties who do not occupy the residence |
| Likely To Downsize | Nearest neighbors who are likely to downsize their home |
| Likely To Move | Nearest neighbors with life events suggesting they may need to move |
| Likely To Refi | Nearest neighbors with LTV < 50% plus other qualifying criteria |
| Home Equity 50%+ | Nearest neighbors who own more than half their home |
| Home Free & Clear | Nearest neighbors whose property is completely paid off |
| Possibly Underwater | Nearest neighbors who owe more on their home than it is worth |
| Kids in Household | Nearest neighbors with kids in the household |
| New Homeowner | Nearest neighbors who recently purchased their home. Covers purchases made within the past 12 months. |
| High Net Worth | Nearest neighbors with income over $200k or net worth over $1 million |
| Property Has Pool | Nearest neighbors with an in-ground pool |
| Renters | Nearest neighbors who are currently renting |
| Potential First Time Home Buyer | Nearest neighbors who are young renters |
| Retiring | Nearest neighbors between ages 55-64 |
| Retired | Nearest neighbors age 65+ |
| Only Businesses | Nearest commercial properties, either leased or owned |
| New Business | Nearest new commercial properties, either leased or owned |
Purchasing
- Click Buy this list.
- A confirmation names how many addresses you are buying and about how much your account is charged as the records arrive. Click Buy for $X to go ahead, or Not yet to change the search.
Your account is charged once the records arrive, and the list fills in as they do. You can export your mailing list from thanks.io at any time.
If a Radius Search list ends up with no recipients because the charge failed, the list page says so and links to Settings → Payment Method to update your card.
Buying while API Test Mode is on
Buying leads is not an order, so API Test Mode cannot cancel a Radius Search the way it cancels a mail order - every record is charged for as usual. To keep a test run from costing real money, a Radius Search bought via the API or the Zapier integration is limited to 5 records per purchase while test mode is enabled.
A request for more than 5 records comes back as HTTP 422 with a validation error on record_count naming test mode as the reason. Nothing is purchased and your account is not charged, and the attempt does not use up the 24-hour window described below - so you can send a smaller record_count straight away, or turn test mode off in the dashboard (Settings → API Access, API Settings card) to buy a full list.
Buying from the dashboard is unaffected: the 2,500-record maximum applies there whether test mode is on or off.
Duplicate purchase protection
Every record in a Radius Search is charged to your account, so thanks.io refuses an identical Radius Search purchase from the same account within 24 hours of the first one. This catches a double-clicked Buy button, a retried API call, and an integration that fires the same step twice, so the same leads are not bought and billed twice.
The 24-hour window runs from the moment of the first purchase attempt, not from when that purchase finished.
What counts as the same purchase
A purchase is treated as a repeat when all of the following match one made from the same account in the last 24 hours:
- Search address, postal code, city, state, and country
- Number of records
- Record type (Who to mail)
- Include condos, include the center address, and property owner options
- Append email & phone, and the reference field option
- The mailing list the records are added to, and the subaccount the purchase is made under
Change any one of them and it counts as a different purchase, which goes through normally.
When a Radius Search is bought as part of a mail order - the send endpoints of the API and the Zapier integration - the order itself is compared too. A second, different mailer to the same neighborhood is still allowed; only the identical send, repeated, is refused.
This is a separate mechanism from Duplicate Prevention, which skips mailing the same recipient address twice inside a 36-hour window. Duplicate Prevention stops you mailing the same person twice. The 24-hour window here stops you buying the same leads twice.
What a refused purchase tells you
A refusal is not a silent drop. The response says the purchase was already made and hands back the mailing list ID from the original purchase and, when the search was bought as part of an order, the order ID - so you can use what you already paid for instead of buying it again.
- API - HTTP
409withcode: duplicate_radius_search, alongsidemailing_list_idandorder_id. - Zapier - HTTP
200carrying the same fields, so the Zap treats the step as handled instead of retrying it.
Open Mailing Lists (or Reports → Orders), find the list or order with that ID, and carry on with it. A list's ID is shown on its page after #.
Retrying after a failed purchase
If a purchase fails and nothing was charged, the block is lifted straight away and the same search can be run again immediately. That covers:
- No neighbors found for the search parameters
- An order cancelled inside its review window
- A search that came back with no results
If a purchase fails after your account was already charged, the block is deliberately kept so a retry cannot buy the same records a second time. Contact support to have it cleared rather than re-running the search.
Targeting businesses and commercial property owners
Yes - the Radius Search supports commercial targeting out of the box. Use either of these record types to reach business and commercial property owners in any area:
| Who to mail | Best for |
|---|---|
| Only Businesses | Surround mail campaigns targeting all commercial properties (leased or owned) near a given address |
| New Business | Targeting newly established commercial properties near a given address |
This makes it straightforward to run surround mail or area-targeted campaigns aimed at business owners and commercial property owners - without needing a separate list vendor. Simply enter your target address, choose Only Businesses or New Business under Who to mail, and purchase the list like any other Radius Search.
