Google Postmaster Tools: an ally for your deliverability

In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of tracking certain metrics provided by Google Postmaster Tools, as well as how this tool can help you manage your emails and improve their deliverability.

When checking the statistics table available on your systeme.io account, you've probably noticed the column "Average percentage of spam reports per opened email".

This includes important information in the form of a tooltip, which states:

Spam report percentage is calculated as the ratio of spam reports to the open rate. Note: Some mail services don't provide feedback on spam reports (e.g. Gmail). When we calculate the percentage of spam reports, we don't take the open rates of these providers into consideration.

Let's focus on this part: Note: Some mail services don't provide feedback on spam reports (e.g. Gmail).

Unlike other email services, Gmail does not offer a traditional feedback loop mechanism. This means that spam reports made by its users are not directly communicated to senders or email providers. It is therefore impossible to know exactly which Gmail users have marked your messages as spam.

However, Google provides a tool that allows you to obtain valuable additional data, including spam rate reports. This tool is Google Postmaster Tools.

1. Why Google Postmaster Tools is a must-have tool

Google Postmaster Tools is an essential tool, especially for managing email marketing campaigns or professional email communications. It allows you to monitor and analyze the performance of your emails sent to Gmail inboxes, giving you access to crucial data to optimize your deliverability.

a. Why is Postmaster Tools so important?

• It provides you with detailed information on the spam complaint rate from Gmail users.
• It allows you to monitor your domain's reputation and the IP addresses used for sending.
• It helps you identify and fix technical issues that can negatively impact the delivery of your emails.

b. Setup: steps to follow

• Make sure you have an authenticated domain name, with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records correctly configured.
• Create an account on Google Postmaster Tools by logging in with a Gmail address.
• Add and verify your domain via a TXT DNS record.
• Start checking the data provided by the tool to analyze your sending performance and adjust your practices if necessary.

2. Overview of Google Postmaster Tools dashboards

The Google Postmaster Tools dashboards provide a detailed view of your email deliverability, their authentication, their format, as well as your domain reputation.

It is important to note that Google Postmaster Tools exists in two distinct interfaces: an old version and a newer, updated interface.

Here, we will focus on the new version, which is more modern and intuitive.

As soon as you arrive on the dashboard, you can select the domain name you want to analyze. This is particularly useful if you manage multiple domains, as each added domain can be tracked individually through its own metrics.

Here are the main metrics you can view:

a. Compliance status:

• SPF and DKIM authentication: The SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) protocols are two fundamental mechanisms for email authentication. They help protect your domain against spoofing and phishing attacks.
• "From" header alignment: The alignment of the "From:" field (the address visible to the recipient) with the domains used for SPF and DKIM is a crucial criterion in DMARC authentication. It ensures that the sender is consistent with the displayed domain, thereby strengthening email security and recipient trust.
• DMARC authentication: DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) relies on SPF and DKIM to allow domain owners to define policies for handling unauthenticated messages.

More and more email providers, especially Google, now require the implementation of DMARC.

• Encryption: The dashboard provides information on the encryption of email traffic, showing the Inbound and Outbound TLS percentages. This allows you to verify if messages are being transmitted securely.
• User-reported spam rate: In the "Spam rate" tab, you can track the percentage of emails reported as spam by Gmail users. This metric is essential for evaluating the perceived reception of your campaigns and detecting potential content or targeting issues.
• DNS record: This section indicates whether the essential DNS records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, etc.) are correctly configured for your domain. An incorrect configuration can impact the deliverability of your emails.
• One-click unsubscribe: Google recommends implementing a one-click unsubscribe link. This allows users to easily opt out of a mailing list without extra steps, improving the user experience and reducing spam reports.
• Honor unsubscribes: The dashboard also verifies that unsubscribe requests are processed correctly and without delay. Failing to respect this can harm your sender reputation.

b. Spam:

The dashboard displays the percentage of emails reported as spam by users, compared to the total number of emails delivered to the inboxes of active users.

With Google Postmaster Tools, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your sends by identifying the proportion of your emails that reach the inbox, as well as those that are filtered as spam.

c. Feedback loop:

This allows you to track and analyze which type of identifier generates the most spam, which can help improve your campaigns and avoid sender reputation issues.

d. Authentication:

This dashboard displays the traffic that successfully passed SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentications, compared to all received traffic that attempted authentication.

e. Encryption:

This dashboard displays the percentage of your inbound and outbound traffic that is encrypted.

f. Delivery errors: This dashboard allows you to monitor the percentage of rejected or temporarily failed emails, compared to all of your authenticated traffic.

Below the graph, a detailed list of failure reasons is available, which helps you quickly identify technical or reputation issues related to your sending.

g. Visit old Postmaster Tools: This final section allows you to switch to the old Google Postmaster Tools interface.

The categories there are generally identical, with the exception of the one dedicated to domain name reputation, which is presented differently.

3. Domain name reputation in Google Postmaster Tools

Your domain name reputation is a key indicator of your reliability as a sender. Google Postmaster Tools evaluates it based on several key criteria:

• Your email deliverability
• Compliance with authentication standards (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
• The absence of spam reports by users

A good reputation helps prevent your messages from being blocked or sent to spam. Conversely, a degraded reputation can severely impact your sending performance.

4. Why use Google Postmaster Tools?

Google Postmaster Tools is an essential tool for monitoring your email performance and maintaining your domain's credibility. It allows you to:

a. Track your domain reputation:

Quickly identify authentication or deliverability issues. Monitor your spam rate and adjust your sends to avoid spam filters.

b. Analyze delivery errors:

Check bounce and block rates to detect the causes of failures and optimize your lists and content.

c. Benefit from indirect feedback;

Even though Gmail does not offer a traditional feedback loop, Postmaster Tools provides actionable signals based on user behavior (spam rate, unsubscribes, etc.).

d. Access detailed reports:

Visualize the evolution of your metrics through clear dashboards to make informed decisions and improve your overall performance.

Using Google Postmaster Tools means ensuring:

• Better deliverability,
• A solid reputation for your domain,
• Compliance with security standards,
• More effective and professional email campaigns.