Key takeaways:
- Google has retired its Domain and IP Reputation ratings, so you’ll need compliance checks and deliverability signals instead.
- Technical compliance alone doesn’t guarantee Gmail inbox placement, since complaints and recipient signals can also affect deliverability.
- Some verdicts that look like warnings, such as “User feedback low,” may just mean Google doesn’t have enough data on your traffic.
- Investigate a “Spam rate high” verdict quickly, since Google recommends staying below 0.1% and avoiding 0.3% or higher.
Have you logged into Google Postmaster Tools lately? If so, you may have noticed that the reputation ratings you used to check have disappeared. That change may leave you wondering what to check instead, and the answer impacts both your email strategy and how reliably you reach Gmail users.
Postmaster Tools v2 brings Gmail’s signals into a high-level view, so you can diagnose potential deliverability concerns and decide exactly what to investigate next. We’ve broken down what you need to know and how to use that information to support healthy deliverability.
What Changed with Google Postmaster Tools v2?
For marketers, the biggest change in Google Postmaster Tools v2 is how Google communicates sender health and deliverability. Google has retired the Domain Reputation and IP Reputation dashboards. These dashboards previously showed reputation ratings such as High, Medium, Low, or Bad.
Google believed these ratings were hard to act on and slow to reflect changes in sender behavior. As a result, the ratings could be misleading because reputation is just one of the many factors that impact deliverability.
With those ratings going away, now is the perfect time to get familiar with the new dashboard, including its Compliance Status and Deliverability Analysis. Instead of relying on an explicit domain or IP reputation score, you can access compliance checks, deliverability signals, and recommended actions to help you identify where you may need to focus.
Where Should You Start?
We recommend starting with Compliance Status. This dashboard gives you a consolidated view of how your domain and subdomains are performing against Gmail’s email sender requirements. It also tells you where Google recommends taking action.
Think of the dashboard in three parts:
1. Email sender requirements compliance
This is your technical checklist for figuring out, “Does my email program meet Gmail’s sender requirements?” The dashboard evaluates requirements such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication. It also evaluates DNS records, TLS encryption, message formatting, spam rates, and, where applicable, one-click unsubscribe. This information is important to understand because if you see that an item shows “needs work,” that’s where you’ll want to start. Compliance issues like these can directly affect your ability to reliably reach Gmail recipients.
2. Deliverability analysis
Meeting those technical requirements is one piece of the full picture. The Deliverability Analysis looks at signals associated with your Gmail traffic and provides a verdict that can point you toward potential deliverability issues.
This is a very important change from the v1 tools. Google no longer provides the explicit Domain and IP Reputation ratings you might be used to seeing. Instead, Deliverability Analysis offers a recommendation about your domain’s status with Gmail based on signals such as recipient feedback, spam, delivery failures, sending volume, and sender compliance.
These verdicts are useful because not every result means something is wrong. Some indicate healthy traffic, and others simply mean that Google doesn’t have enough data. And of course, others mean you need to investigate more to get to the root of an issue.
The verdict you want to see is “User feedback positive,” which means Gmail is seeing positive recipient signals associated with your traffic. Think of this feedback as the gold standard for Deliverability Analysis. If you’re seeing positive user feedback, it’s an encouraging indication that Gmail is receiving healthy signals from your audience. And that also means you’re less likely to experience issues reaching Gmail inboxes.
Verdicts that may require more data or investigation:
- User feedback low. Google has limited user-feedback signals available for your traffic. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have a deliverability problem. Basically, there may not be enough feedback for Google to provide a stronger positive or negative assessment.
- Message volume low. Google doesn’t have enough eligible Gmail traffic to provide a meaningful analysis. Again, this isn’t necessarily bad. It may just mean your Gmail sending volume is too low for a reliable assessment.
- User feedback negative. Gmail is seeing negative recipient signals associated with your traffic. This is worth investigating alongside your spam rate, sending practices, audience targeting, and other Postmaster Tools data.
- SMTP errors high. Gmail is seeing elevated temporary or permanent delivery errors. Review the Delivery Errors dashboard to better understand what Gmail is rejecting or temporarily deferring and why.
- Sender not compliant. Google has identified traffic associated with your domain that doesn’t meet one or more Gmail sender requirements. However, don’t panic if you see this. Organizations may send email from multiple platforms or infrastructure providers, and Postmaster Tools may not make it obvious which source is responsible for the noncompliant traffic. For example, the verdict can read “Sender not compliant” even when your Act-On mail is fully compliant. Before assuming outbound traffic from your Act-On account is the cause, check your individual compliance requirements and investigate other sending sources that use your domain.
- Spam rate high. Gmail is seeing an elevated user-reported spam rate. This is a signal to investigate quickly. Google recommends keeping spam rates below 0.1% and avoiding 0.3% or higher. Review your Spam Rate dashboard along with audience acquisition, targeting, frequency, and unsubscribe practices to identify potential causes.
3. Recommended actions
Finally, look at the Recommended action section. This connects the diagnosis to what you should investigate next. The key takeaway for marketers is that being technically compliant doesn’t automatically guarantee inbox placement. Complaints, recipient signals, sending practices, and delivery errors can also affect deliverability.
Dig Deeper Into Your Gmail Performance
Postmaster Tools v2 has several other tabs that can help you investigate specific areas of your email performance. For example, Spam Rate shows the percentage of messages that recipients report as spam. This makes it an important indicator of how your audience responds to your emails.
Authentication graphs the percentage of your traffic that is successfully passing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC requirements. Encryption shows how much of your email traffic is protected with TLS, while Delivery Errors surfaces rejected or temporarily failed messages and the reasons behind those failures.
Finally, Feedback Loop can help identify campaigns generating higher levels of spam complaints, giving you another helpful signal about where your messaging, targeting, or sending practices may need attention.
Need a bit of extra support making sense of your Postmaster Tools v2 verdicts? Act-On’s deliverability experts can validate your email authentication and recommend strategies to strengthen your sender reputation. Current customers can request a free deliverability audit through their Act-On account manager. New to Act-On? Learn more about our Email Deliverability Services.
