Check your domain reputation with Google Postmaster

If most contacts on your list(s) use Gmail for their email address, you can use Google Postmaster Tools to learn the overall health of your domain. In addition, you can use Google Postmaster Tools to help monitor and debug all deliverability issues.

What is Google Postmaster?

Google Postmaster is a free tool provided by Google that will tell you precisely what Gmail thinks of your domain reputation (Good, Medium, Low, or Bad). It will definitively answer the question, "Do I have a good domain reputation at Gmail?". For most senders, at least in the US, Gmail composes most of your list, giving you a very important pulse of your overall domain reputation.

In addition, Google Postmaster will also show data about SPF/DKIM/DMARC failures, spam complaints, IP reputation, encryption success rate, and more.

In short, everyone should set up Gmail postmaster tools. It is beneficial information to have when monitoring and debugging deliverability issues of all types.

How to set up Google Postmaster

To use Google Postmaster, you'll need to add and verify your authentication domains to Google Postmaster. The authentication domain is the DKIM (d=) used to authenticate your email. Google Postmaster uses your DKIM to identify your email traffic and provide access to traffic analytics.

To add and verify your domain in Google Postmaster:

1. Set up DKIM for your domain. In ActiveCampaign, you set up DKIM when you set up your sending domain. Learn how to set up your sending domain. If you are using multiple domains, you can set up DKIM for all of them.
2. Go to postmaster.google.com and click the + button on the bottom right.
3. A modal pop-up will appear. Enter your domain.
4. Google Postmaster will instruct you to create a TXT record in the DNS for your domain:
   
   
   
   Note that you must create a TXT record with your web host (eg, GoDaddy).
   
   
5. After adding the TXT record, go back to Google Postmaster and click "Verify" to complete the setup.
   
   

After completing the setup, you will see data populate in Google Postmaster. Note that retroactive data will not be available, and some data will only be reported within the tool once thresholds are met (which are not publicly available or known). If data is not reported after one week, contact Google Support for assistance. In addition, if you don't see data after sending your subsequent campaigns, use the SPF/DKIM/DMARC check tool to ensure your DKIM is set up.

What to do if your domain reputation isn't good

This can happen if your Google contacts mark your emails as spam or if they don't engage positively with your communications. Repeatedly sending emails to unengaged contacts is the primary reason for the decline in domain reputation. Even a legitimate opt-in list can result in a poor reputation if it's old and needs to be cleaned. As a best practice, we recommend implementing a method to remove unengaged contacts from your list regularly.

To remove unengaged contacts from a list, we recommend using the Expedited List Cleanup automation.

You can also implement automation to track contacts’ last engaged dates and perform ongoing list cleanup. This solution shows you how to create three automations that will track contacts' last engaged dates, unsubscribe unengaged contacts within 90 days (customizable to your needs) of being added to your account, and unsubscribe unengaged contacts within six months (customizable to your needs) of their last engaged date. Not only will this give you insight into how effective your marketing strategy is, but it will also help you keep your lists healthy and clean.

Lastly, if you have any lists that did not properly opt-in or are sending content that these lists did not opt-in to receive, we recommend that you stop sending to those lists immediately. Sending campaigns to these contacts will directly contribute to a high abuse rate. Learn more about abuse rates and how to avoid them.

How to share Google Postmaster Data

At ActiveCampaign, we use Google Postmaster Tools to help troubleshoot deliverability issues for our customers. If you experience a deliverability issue, please share your Google Postmaster data. Doing so helps us speed up the troubleshooting process.

To share your Google Postmaster Report:

1. Sign in to your Postmaster tools account as the Postmaster account owner.
2. Point your cursor to one of your verified domains.
3. To the right of the domain, click "More⋮"
4. Click "Manage Users."
5. Click "Add +" on the bottom-right
6. A modal pop-up will appear. Type the email address of the Google Account you want to access your domain's Postmaster Tools data. Our Deliverability team will provide you with the email address to use in your ticket.
7. Let the Deliverability team know that they have access to your Postmaster Data. Google does not send automatic notifications.

Google Postmaster FAQs

Do other Inbox Providers like Microsoft or Yahoo offer similar tooling?

In short, no. Microsoft has a tool called SNDS, but it is more beneficial to the infrastructure’s owner. Other ISPs have similar programs like mail.ru's Postmaster page, but none are as reliable as Google's in our experience.

How often does Google Postmaster update?

Very often, which is one of its greatest strengths. If you make changes to improve your list/sending habits, you will quickly see this reflected in Google Postmaster, usually within 1 day. Vice versa, if you make a mistake and damage your domain reputation, you will see this quickly if you monitor Google Postmaster.

Why do I see 0% SPF success?

ActiveCampaign manages SPF for you, and 100% of your messages will pass SPF. However, Google Postmaster will show 0% success for SPF because the SPF domain being checked (our mail server domain) is different from the domain being shown in the report (your domain). The SPF Domain and "From" address domains have a 0% match, although SPF is passing.

If you want to set up an SPF domain that matches your "From" address, you can set up a Mailserver Domain. In ActiveCampaign, you set up a Mailserver Domain when you set up your sending domain. Learn how to set up your sending domain. 

Does Google Postmaster have an API?

Yes, you can find more information here.

Where can I learn more about Google Postmaster Tools?

You can learn more about Google Postmaster Tools on their website.