Gmail filtering in a nutshell

Gmail’s approach to filtering; as described by one of the old timers. This person was dealing with network abuse back when I was still slinging DNA around as my job and just reading headers as a hobby.

Gmail uses a 10+ year old neural network that analyzes thousands of factors, related to email, IP, and web, integrated with all Google products, and with 99.9%+ accuracy for identifying certain types of messages, combined with an email-specific domain-based reputation system that combines IP reputation, content, read rates, reputation of other senders with similar content.

This excerpt was shared with a bunch of delivery experts and every one of them agreed. The Gmail filters are incredibly complex and they measure thousands of different things about email. Yes, sometimes you can remove a link or a URL and get mail to the inbox for a while. That doesn’t mean the block was against the URL, simply that changing the URL changed the score enough for the mail to go to the inbox.
This is part of what makes Gmail delivery issues so difficult to troubleshoot. There isn’t one thing, it’s all the things that contribute to where an email ends up. We, as senders and deliverability experts, don’t have access to the Gmail data. The poster goes on to say:

Trying to fix this using only inaccurate proxy data where there is no mediation pathway in a matter of weeks is complex.  We consume data from a multitude of sources, compile and analyze the data, determine which of the hundreds of factors we can influence should be adjusted, come up with the easiest plan to address the most influential factors, and explain that to the customer using the clearest language possible to individuals who are not educated on the definition of a complaint.

We do our best, with limited data and try and tell you how to fix things.
One of the biggest challenges with Gmail delivery is I am convinced they look at your profile of recipients. They can map someone who is collecting addresses through third parties, or buying lists based on the specific Gmail accounts targeted by a mailing. Gmail has publicly stated and has on their website that they don’t think co-reg or purchased lists are opt-in. They have the technology and ability to track that. I think it’s one reason senders trying to use email for acquisition have such a challenge getting into the inbox and Gmail. I think it’s a feature, not a bug for them.
 

Related Posts

Google's Inbox Team answers questions on Reddit

The team behind Google’s new Inbox app did an “Ask us Anything” Q&A with reddit on December 3rd. The team consisted of a Product Manager, Designer, and Software Engineer and for two hours the team answered all sorts of questions.
Most of the questions were about new features or supporting additional email providers and it showed just how new this app is, it’s not quite ready to be your primary email client as Inbox only supports personal Gmail accounts. The Inbox team mentions they are working on supporting additional mail providers but does not give a timeline of when that would be available.
For email marketers, Google Inbox shares the same HTML sanitizer and media queries that Gmail does and when asked about email filtering it was mentioned that the direct marketing community would benefit by having a place for their emails within the Promos tab. They describe the Promo tab as

Read More

July 2015: The Month in Email

Once again, we reviewed some of the ways brands are trying (or might try) to improve engagement with customers. LinkedIn, who frequently top lists of unwanted-but-legitimate email, announced that they’ll be sending less mail. Josh wrote about giving subscribers options for both the type and frequency of messages, and about setting expectations for new subscribers. In each case, it’s about respecting that customers really want to engage with brands in the email channel, but don’t want the permission they’ve granted to be abused. I also wrote a brief post following up on our June discussion on purchased lists, and as you’d predict, I continue to discourage companies from mailing to these recipients.

Read More

Email marketing OF THE FUTURE!

ISPs are continually developing tools for their users. Some of the newer tools are automatic filters that help users organize the volumes of mail they’re getting. Gmail released Priority Inbox over a year ago. Hotmail announced new filters as part of Wave 5 back in October.
All of these announcements cause much consternation in the email marketing industry. Just today there was a long discussion on the Only Influencers list about the new Hotmail filtering. There was even some discussion about why the ISPs were doing this.
I think it’s pretty simple why they’re creating new tools: users are asking for them. The core of these new filters is ISPs reacting to consumer demand. They wouldn’t put the energy into development if their users didn’t want it. And many users do and will use priority inbox or the new Hotmail filtering.
Some people are concerned that marketing email will be less effective if mail is not in the inbox.

Read More