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.
 

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bullhornIt’s been one of those weeks where blogging is a challenge. Not because I don’t have much to say, but because I don’t have much constructive to say. Rants can be entertaining, even to write. But they’re not very helpful in terms of what do we need to change and how do we move forward.
A few different things I read or saw brought out the rants this week. Some of these are issues I don’t have answers to, and some of them are issues where I just disagree with folks, but have nothing more useful to say than, “You’re wrong.” I don’t even always have an answer to why they’re wrong, they’re just wrong.
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Thoughts on Gmail and the inbox

Over the last few months more and more marketers are finding their primary delivery challenge is the Gmail inbox. I’ve been thinking about why Gmail might be such a challenge for marketers. Certainly I have gotten a lot of calls from people struggling to figure out how to get into the Gmail inbox. I’ve also seen aggressive domain based filtering from Gmail, where any mention of a particular domain results in mail going to the bulk folder.
It’s one of those things that’s a challenge, because in most of these cases there isn’t one cause for bulk foldering. Instead there’s a whole host of things that are individually very small but taken together convince Gmail that the mail doesn’t need to be in the inbox.
A pattern that I’m starting to see is that Gmail is taking a more holistic look at all the mail from a sender. If the mail is connected to an organization, all that mail is measured as part of their delivery decision making. This is hurting some ESPs and bulk senders. I’ve had multiple ESPs contact me in the last 6 months looking for help because all their customer emails are going to bulk folder.
Gmail’s filtering is extremely aggressive. From my perspective it always has been. I did get an invite for a Gmail account way back in the day. I moved a couple mailing lists over to that account to test it with some volume and discussion lists. I gave up not long after because no matter what I did I couldn’t get gmail to put all the mail from that list into the tag I had set up for it. Inevitably some mail from some certain people would end up in my spam folder.
Gmail has gotten better, now they will let you override their filters but give you a big warning that the message would have been delivered to spam otherwise.
Gmail_NotSpam
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I suspect this means that ESPs seeing problems across their customer base are going to have to work harder to police their customers and remove problematic mail streams completely. Hopefully, ESPs that can get on the Gmail FBL can identify the problem customers faster before those customers tank mail for all their senders.

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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.

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