Summary
The practice of paying individuals to artificially boost email engagement metrics, such as opens, clicks, and removals from spam folders, is a controversial topic within the email deliverability community. While it might seem like a quick fix to improve sender reputation, experts widely agree that such methods are ineffective and can lead to severe long-term damage. Mailbox providers (ISPs) have sophisticated algorithms designed to detect unnatural engagement patterns, which can flag senders for malicious activity and result in permanent blocklists or severely impaired deliverability. This approach fundamentally misaligns with the goal of building genuine recipient relationships and sustainable email programs.
Key findings
- Ineffectiveness: Mailbox providers (ISPs) use advanced algorithms to detect artificial engagement, rendering paid engagement schemes largely ineffective. These systems identify unusual mail patterns that indicate manipulation, often nullifying any perceived benefit.
- Violation of terms of service: Such practices almost certainly violate the terms of service of major mailbox providers, leading to potential account suspension or termination.
- Reputation damage: Engaging in paid engagement can severely harm your sender reputation, making it harder to reach the inbox in the future, even with legitimate sending practices. Mailbox providers track email engagement for reputation very closely.
- Ethical concerns: The community generally views these services as unethical 'snake oil' tactics designed to game the system rather than build a sustainable email program.
Key considerations
- Focus on genuine engagement: Instead of artificial boosts, marketers should prioritize strategies that cultivate real subscriber interest and interaction, which is the foundation of long-term deliverability success.
- Long-term impact: Any short-term gains from paid engagement are quickly negated by severe, lasting negative consequences for deliverability. It's crucial to understand how email engagement metrics really work.
- Alternative strategies: Invest in building a healthy list, segmenting audiences, personalizing content, and optimizing email campaigns for natural engagement. Monitor your email engagement thresholds to ensure healthy sending practices.
What email marketers say
Email marketers often seek ways to improve their campaign performance and deliverability. While the temptation to use services that promise quick boosts in engagement metrics can be high, the consensus among experienced marketers is overwhelmingly against paying for artificial engagement. These services are seen as manipulative and counterproductive, ultimately jeopardizing long-term email program health rather than helping it.
Key opinions
- Gross and wrong: Many marketers express strong negative feelings, describing such services as 'gross', 'wrong', and unethical. The general sentiment is that it's an attempt to game the system.
- Red flags: The mere existence of such offers, especially those promoting 'cold outreach' or 'warmup services' through paid engagement, raises numerous red flags about their legitimacy and effectiveness.
- Useless and misleading: Marketers frequently dismiss these services as useless, akin to 'snake oil', because they don't address the underlying issues of poor engagement. Focusing on increasing email click-through rates through organic methods is key.
- Short-sighted: Attempts to rapidly 'warm up' IPs by sending to thousands of paid recipients are seen as insufficient and potentially harmful for building a sustainable sending reputation. Instead, explore vital email engagement metrics that indicate true audience interest.
Key considerations
- Ethical marketing: Adhering to ethical marketing practices, such as permission-based sending, is paramount for long-term success. Avoiding services that encourage gaming the system is crucial.
- Genuine list building: Focus on building an engaged email list organically. For senders with a large, unengaged list, a strategic re-engagement plan is far more effective than artificial boosts.
- Risk of blacklisting: Marketers acknowledge the significant risk of landing on blacklists and blocklists, which can severely impact deliverability and necessitate costly reputation recovery efforts.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks notes that engaging in practices that pay people to open, click, and remove emails from spam is not illegal. However, it almost certainly violates the terms of service of major mail providers such as Google and Microsoft.
Marketer view
Marketer from HostAdvice explains that email engagement measures how recipients interact with emails, including actions like opening, clicking links, and replying. These metrics are crucial for gauging the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and inform strategies for improvement.
What the experts say
Deliverability experts universally condemn the practice of paying for email engagement. Their perspective is rooted in a deep understanding of how mailbox providers operate, recognizing that artificial manipulation is easily detected and severely penalized. They emphasize that such tactics not only fail to achieve their intended purpose but actively undermine the sender's reputation and long-term deliverability.
Key opinions
- Detected by ISPs: Experts confirm that ISPs have long-standing sophisticated mechanisms to identify and nullify artificial engagement from recipients with unusual mail patterns. This means the tactics simply don't work.
- Spam indicators: Services promoting paid engagement often exhibit characteristics common among spammers, such as vague use cases and a disregard for permission-based sending. This aligns with reasons why emails go to spam.
- Counterproductive: Instead of improving deliverability, these services create a data feed that can be used by ISPs to identify and block problematic senders, making the situation worse.
- Insufficient scale: The volume of engagement generated by these services is typically too small to genuinely influence automated or manual spam processing systems at major mailbox providers. One needs to evaluate marketing strategy beyond simple metrics.
Key considerations
- Trust and reputation: Building a strong sender reputation is a long-term endeavor based on legitimate engagement and adherence to best practices. Any attempt to bypass this process through artificial means will erode trust with ISPs.
- Algorithmic detection: ISPs continuously refine their algorithms to identify and penalize manipulative tactics. What might seem to work briefly will eventually lead to severe deliverability issues. Improving domain reputation requires genuine effort.
- Genuine sender behavior: True email deliverability success comes from consistent, valuable communication that encourages natural opens, clicks, and positive interactions from engaged subscribers.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks explains that while it's probably not illegal to pay for engagement, it almost certainly violates the terms of service of major mail providers. This can lead to serious repercussions for the sender's email program and reputation.
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise notes that artificial engagement schemes are a form of gaming the system, and mailbox providers are well-equipped to identify and neutralize such attempts. These tactics are quickly detected and rendered ineffective, providing no long-term benefit.
What the documentation says
Official documentation from major mailbox providers and industry bodies consistently emphasizes the importance of legitimate, consent-based email practices. They outline how engagement signals are used to assess sender reputation, making it clear that any attempt to artificially manipulate these signals will be detected and penalized. The focus is on natural interaction driven by valuable content, not coerced actions.
Key findings
- Holistic evaluation: Mailbox providers assess sender reputation based on a holistic view of sending behavior, including complaint rates, spam trap hits, and unsubscribe rates, not just opens and clicks. For example, Google Postmaster Tools spam rate dashboard offers crucial insights.
- Negative signals: Unusual engagement patterns, such as a high volume of opens from previously inactive users after using a paid service, can trigger spam filters and lead to messages being routed to the spam folder or even blocked outright.
- User experience focus: Documentation often highlights that the primary goal of ISPs is to protect users from unwanted mail. Any practice that manipulates engagement undermines this goal and will be addressed. This is also how a DNSBL affects email deliverability.
Key considerations
- Adherence to guidelines: Marketers should strictly adhere to the sending guidelines provided by major mailbox providers. These guidelines are designed to ensure legitimate and valuable email traffic.
- Organic growth: The most effective way to improve email deliverability and engagement is through organic list growth and consistent, high-quality content that naturally encourages interaction. This also helps you ensure you comply with email marketing benchmarks.
- Long-term strategy: Deliverability is a long-term game. Short-cuts or manipulative tactics will ultimately fail and can lead to irreversible damage to your sending reputation.
Technical article
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools states that domain and IP reputation are heavily influenced by user engagement signals, including spam reports, direct replies, and whether emails are opened or deleted without being read. Unusual spikes in positive engagement, especially from new or low-reputation senders, are flagged for further scrutiny.
Technical article
RFC 5322, which defines the format of Internet email messages, implies that email communication should be exchanged between legitimate users. Any attempt to artificially generate engagement from non-human or incentivized interactions can violate the spirit of these foundational standards, affecting how mail servers process such traffic.
Related resources
12 resources
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