Is using a service to get emails out of the Gmail promotions tab a scam?
Matthew Whittaker
Co-founder & CTO, Suped
Published 3 May 2025
Updated 17 Aug 2025
6 min read
The promise of automatically moving your emails from the Gmail promotions tab to the primary inbox is appealing for many email marketers. It taps into a common concern: the fear that emails in the promotions tab are ignored or, worse, treated like spam. This concern often leads businesses to seek out services that claim to offer a guaranteed bypass, suggesting they can "trick" Gmail's sophisticated filtering system.
However, the reality of email deliverability, particularly with large providers like Gmail, is far more nuanced. Services offering a magic bullet to evade the promotions tab often operate on misleading premises, or worse, employ tactics that could harm your sender reputation in the long run. Many experienced professionals in the industry view such claims with significant skepticism, often labeling them as scams due to their unrealistic promises and potential negative consequences.
It is crucial to understand how Gmail's filtering mechanisms actually work, the true purpose of the promotions tab, and what genuine strategies improve your email deliverability, helping you get your messages to the right place reliably.
The promotions tab is not a spam folder
One of the biggest misconceptions in email marketing is equating the Gmail promotions tab with the spam folder. These are fundamentally different categories within a user's inbox. The spam folder is for unwanted, unsolicited, and potentially malicious emails, which are blocked or quarantined by the email service provider (ESP).
The promotions tab, on the other hand, is an organizational tool. It's designed to help users manage their inboxes by categorizing marketing emails, newsletters, and deals into a separate, dedicated space. This allows users to easily find emails they might be interested in, without cluttering their primary inbox. Many users actually prefer having their promotional content neatly organized in this way.
The promotions tab is not a punitive measure by Gmail. In fact, some research suggests that emails in the promotions tab can have comparable or even better open and click-through rates than those in the primary tab, especially for engaged subscribers who know where to look for deals and updates. Therefore, simply landing in the promotions tab isn't inherently a problem for your email campaigns.
How Gmail classifies emails
Gmail's filtering algorithm is incredibly complex and constantly evolving. It uses hundreds of signals to determine where an email should land, including sender reputation, engagement metrics, content, formatting, and even user behavior. It's not a simple checklist that can be manipulated with a single piece of code or a quick fix.
Factors like whether your domain is on a blocklist (or blacklist), your past sending history, complaint rates, open rates, click-through rates, and whether users move your emails to different folders all play a significant role. Gmail aims to provide the best possible experience for its users, which means delivering relevant emails to the most appropriate tab. An in-depth article on Gmail's tab functionality provides further insights into how this system operates.
Key factors influencing Gmail classification
Sender reputation: Your domain and IP address's trustworthiness. Higher reputation means better placement.
Engagement: Opens, clicks, replies, and forwarding. Positive engagement signals to Gmail that your emails are valued.
Content: Presence of promotional keywords, images, links, and HTML structure. This is what often triggers the promotions tab.
User interaction: If users consistently move your emails from promotions to primary, Gmail may adjust delivery for that specific user.
Given this complexity, any service claiming a simple, guaranteed method to bypass the promotions tab should be viewed with extreme caution. There's no secret code or trick that can consistently override Gmail's sophisticated algorithms without either being a temporary exploit or engaging in risky tactics.
The reality of 'bypass' services
The short answer to the question, "Is using a service to get emails out of the Gmail promotions tab a scam?" is often yes. Many such services make grand promises that simply aren't sustainable or ethical. They might use deceptive tactics, like stripping legitimate marketing emails of their usual formatting, images, or links, making them look like plain text transactional emails. While this might temporarily move some emails to the primary tab, it often degrades the user experience and can backfire.
Such methods are usually short-lived. Gmail quickly adapts to these workarounds, and senders who try to game the system often find their deliverability severely impacted, sometimes even leading to their domain being added to a blocklist (or blacklist). This means your emails might end up in the spam folder, or not delivered at all. Understanding whether bypassing the promotions tab is ethical is a critical consideration.
Scam claims
Guaranteed primary inbox placement: Promises a 100% success rate for landing in the primary tab, regardless of content.
Secret code or hack: Claims to have a proprietary script or tag that circumvents Gmail's filtering logic.
No content changes needed: Implies you can continue sending highly promotional emails without adjusting strategy.
Deliverability reality
No guarantees: Deliverability is dynamic and influenced by many factors beyond a sender's direct control. Tools promising a primary inbox move are often misleading.
Content relevance is key: Your email content and sender reputation are primary drivers. Genuine improvements require aligning with Gmail's expectations, not tricking them.
It's important to remember that any attempt to aggressively bypass Gmail's categorization can be perceived as deceptive by ISPs and negatively impact your deliverability. If a service promises results that sound too good to be true, they probably are.
What genuinely improves inbox placement
Instead of seeking shortcuts, focus on building a strong, legitimate email program. This involves several key areas that consistently lead to better inbox placement, regardless of whether your email lands in the primary or promotions tab.
Actionable strategies for deliverability
Maintain high sender reputation: Consistently send valuable content, avoid spam traps, and keep complaint rates low. Understanding your email domain reputation is foundational.
Implement email authentication: Ensure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are correctly configured. These protocols verify your sending identity.
Focus on engagement: Encourage opens and clicks by providing highly relevant and anticipated content. Segment your audience and personalize messages. User engagement is a primary signal for Gmail's algorithms to move emails to the primary tab.
Clean your list: Regularly remove inactive or unengaged subscribers. This reduces bounces and spam complaints, improving overall list health and deliverability.
Offer clear unsubscribe options: Make it easy for subscribers to opt out. This prevents them from marking your emails as spam, which significantly harms your sender reputation.
These foundational practices, while not promising instant primary inbox placement for every email, build a sustainable path to strong deliverability and, ultimately, better campaign performance. Your goal should be to reach engaged subscribers, not to trick Gmail's filtering.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Actively encourage subscribers to drag your emails from the promotions tab to the primary tab. This specific user action provides strong signals to Gmail's algorithm that your emails are valued.
Segment your audience precisely to send highly relevant content. Personalized and targeted emails are more likely to be opened and engaged with, which is key for positive inbox placement signals.
Regularly clean your email lists of unengaged subscribers to improve overall sender reputation and reduce the risk of hitting spam traps.
Prioritize email authentication protocols, including SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, to prove your legitimacy and enhance your domain's trustworthiness with ISPs.
Create compelling email content that genuinely engages your audience, encouraging high open and click-through rates. Focus on providing value, not just sales.
Common pitfalls
Falling for 'quick fix' services that promise guaranteed primary inbox placement, as these often use unsustainable or harmful tactics that damage sender reputation.
Stripping emails of their natural promotional elements, such as images or rich HTML, to trick the system. This usually backfires and degrades the user experience.
Ignoring the promotions tab as a legitimate inbox destination. It's designed for marketing content and can still drive conversions when utilized effectively.
Sending emails to unengaged or old lists, leading to high bounce rates, spam complaints, and negative signals to Gmail's algorithms.
Focusing solely on content over technical setup. Proper email authentication and domain health are as crucial as the message itself for deliverability.
Expert tips
Consider that for many users, the promotions tab is an organized space they check specifically for deals and updates, making it a perfectly acceptable landing spot for marketing emails.
Instead of fighting the tab system, optimize your content and calls to action for users who browse the promotions tab, perhaps with stronger subject lines or annotated emails.
Educate your internal stakeholders that the promotions tab is not the spam folder and that attempts to bypass it often lead to worse deliverability outcomes.
Use Google Postmaster Tools to monitor your domain reputation and deliverability performance directly with Gmail, providing real data to inform your strategy.
Remember that email deliverability is a long-term game based on trust and consistent positive sending behavior, not short-term hacks.
Marketer view
A marketer from Email Geeks says they have not heard of these types of services, and since the promotions tab is still considered the inbox, they are unsure how much value such services could provide.
2023-10-28 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
A marketer from Email Geeks says you can move emails out of promotions, but the primary question should be why you want to, and whether your emails are truly promotional or non-promotional. The promotions tab is an inbox, not a spam folder.
2023-10-28 - Email Geeks
Prioritizing genuine deliverability
Ultimately, services that claim to magically move your emails out of the Gmail promotions tab are largely misleading, if not outright scams. They prey on the misunderstanding that the promotions tab is a negative outcome for marketing emails. In reality, it is a functional categorization that helps users manage their inboxes.
Attempting to bypass Gmail's sophisticated filtering system with "secret codes" or by stripping down your email content is an unsustainable and risky strategy. It can lead to worse deliverability outcomes, including your emails being routed to the spam folder or your domain being added to a blocklist (or blacklist).
True email deliverability success comes from adherence to best practices: building and maintaining a strong sender reputation, ensuring proper email authentication, providing valuable content that fosters engagement, and diligently managing your email list. Focus your efforts on these genuine strategies to ensure your emails consistently reach their intended audience, regardless of the specific tab they land in.
Gmail, is far more nuanced. Services offering a magic bullet to evade the promotions tab often operate on misleading premises, or worse, employ tactics that could harm your sender reputation in the long run. Many experienced professionals in the industry view such claims with significant skepticism, often labeling them as scams due to their unrealistic promises and potential negative consequences.
Gmail's filtering mechanisms actually work, the true purpose of the promotions tab, and what genuine strategies improve your email deliverability, helping you get your messages to the right place reliably.
Gmail that your emails are valued.
