What should I do if Gmail blocks my email after using a purchased list?

Key findings

• Impact of purchased lists: Purchased email lists typically contain a high percentage of invalid addresses and spam traps, leading to significant increases in spam complaints and low engagement rates. This severely damages your IP and domain reputation.
• Sudden volume spikes: Abruptly increasing email volume, especially to a poor-quality list, is a major red flag for mailbox providers like Gmail, triggering aggressive filtering and blocks.
• Hard blocks versus spam folder: While Gmail often routes suspicious mail to the spam folder, severe reputation damage can result in an outright block, preventing messages from reaching any Gmail destination. This is a crucial distinction to address, as it means even your legitimate mail is not getting through.
• IP and domain reputation: Both your sending IP address and domain reputation plummet due to these practices. Gmail explicitly blocks messages due to the very low reputation of the sending IP address.

Key considerations

• Immediate cessation of sending: Stop all email sending to Gmail and Google Workspace addresses immediately for at least 7 days, and ideally longer, to allow your resources to 'rest'.
• Address the root cause: Permanently discard the purchased list. Focus on segmenting and cleaning your existing legitimate lists to ensure high engagement and low complaints. You can learn how to recover email deliverability from these issues.
• Do not swap infrastructure: Avoid changing your IP or domain. Problems related to poor sending practices tend to follow you, regardless of infrastructure changes, and this can delay recovery. Instead, learn what to do to recover from a Gmail block.
• Strategic rewarming: After the resting period, begin rewarming your sending volume to Gmail incredibly slowly, starting with only a few highly engaged contacts.

Key opinions

• List hygiene is paramount: A good house list requires constant hygiene, but purchased lists are fundamentally flawed and cannot be cleaned; they should be discarded entirely.
• Consequences of shortcuts: Taking shortcuts like purchasing lists can severely disrupt an email program, even for organizations with otherwise solid practices, leading to significant stress and loss of a valuable channel.
• Gmail postmaster tool utility: While Gmail Postmaster Tools may not offer direct human responses, opening tickets and making your case can still have an impact, as Google does review submissions.
• Long recovery period: Rebuilding a shattered Gmail reputation is a prolonged process, often taking 6 to 9 months to return to optimal deliverability, as noted by SendLayer on why Gmail blocks emails and how to fix it.

Key considerations

• Comprehensive email auditing: Regularly audit your email list and sending practices. As outlined by Data Axle, maintaining a healthy list and removing invalid addresses are critical to avoiding blocks.
• Client education: Educate clients on the severe repercussions of using purchased lists and the importance of organic list growth. Be prepared to decline working with clients unwilling to change harmful practices.
• Phased re-engagement: When re-engaging with Gmail recipients, prioritize your most engaged subscribers first. This helps build positive signals quickly and improves your Gmail domain reputation.
• Holistic blocking scope: Remember that Gmail blocks can extend to Google Workspace accounts, not just @gmail.com addresses, requiring comprehensive suppression during the recovery period.

Key opinions

• Spam trap detection: While individual spam traps are hard to identify, specialized tools can report on the number and types of spam traps hit, which is crucial for diagnosing the extent of list quality issues. You can learn more about what spam traps are and how they work.
• Website health: In some cases, a Gmail block can be linked to website malware. Checking your domain with Google Safe Browsing is an important diagnostic step.
• Data quality focus: The emphasis should be on improving overall data quality and acquisition methods rather than trying to identify and remove specific, ever-changing spam traps.
• Gradual rewarming imperative: Extremely slow rewarming, potentially starting with as few as 10 emails per hour and gradually increasing over weeks or months, is vital for rebuilding a severely damaged reputation with Gmail. This is often necessary when your Gmail IP reputation needs recovery.

Key considerations

• Thorough log review: Review all mail server logs to pinpoint when the block occurred and what specific sending behaviors or error messages preceded it. This provides actionable insights, as discussed on MailMonitor regarding removing your IP from Gmail's blocklist.
• Engagement monitoring: Post-block recovery heavily relies on high engagement rates, very low bounce rates, and minimal spam complaints and unsubscribes. Continuous monitoring is essential.
• Understand blocklist mechanisms: A block by Gmail due to low IP reputation means your sending behavior (especially from purchased lists) triggered their internal filtering systems, which can act like a private blacklist (or blocklist).
• Patience and persistence: Experts universally agree that recovery is a long-term commitment. It requires patience and consistent adherence to best practices, as there are no quick fixes for severe reputation damage.

Key findings

• Low reputation blocking: Gmail explicitly blocks messages (error 550-5.7.1) when its systems detect that the message is suspicious due to the very low reputation of the sending IP address. This indicates a severe trust deficit.
• Compliance is mandatory: Mailbox providers mandate compliance with their sending guidelines, particularly regarding permission-based sending, list hygiene, and complaint rates, to avoid being placed on a blacklist or blocklist.
• Authentication is critical: Properly configured SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are fundamental requirements for email authentication and are essential for establishing and maintaining sender trustworthiness. Understanding DMARC, SPF, and DKIM is important.
• User feedback matters: High spam complaint rates, low engagement (opens/clicks), and high bounce rates are all negative signals that contribute to reputation degradation, as documented in various postmaster guidelines.

Key considerations

• Strict adherence to opt-in: Only send emails to recipients who have explicitly opted in to receive them. Purchased lists violate this fundamental principle, leading to blocks.
• Monitor postmaster tools: Regularly use tools like Google Postmaster Tools to monitor your sending reputation, spam rate, IP reputation, and feedback loops. This helps you understand Google Postmaster Tools V2.
• Manage unengaged subscribers: Actively remove unengaged subscribers from your lists to improve engagement rates and signal positive sending behavior to mailbox providers.
• Provide easy unsubscribe: Ensure your emails include a clear and easy-to-use unsubscribe link to reduce spam complaints and maintain a healthy subscriber base.