Inbox placement is the percentage of sent mail that lands in the primary inbox rather than spam, promotions, or being blocked. It is measured with seed lists across major providers and panel data from real mailboxes.
Why does mail land in Gmail Promotions?
Gmail classifies by content and sender behavior. Promotions is not spam and often performs well; do not over-optimize to escape it.
What is a good inbox placement rate?
Above 90% is healthy. Below 80% indicates a reputation or authentication problem.
Why does inbox placement matter for deliverability?
Delivery rate (accepted by the server) hides the real problem: mail accepted into the spam folder. Placement is the metric that predicts revenue.
What is the first step to get started with inbox placement?
Create seed accounts at Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud, and key B2B gateways.
What is the most common inbox placement mistake?
Trusting a single seed mailbox per provider; use several with different engagement histories.