Suped

Is it common for agencies to use one ESP with separate IPs per client, and does it impact email deliverability?

Summary

Agencies frequently use a single Email Service Provider (ESP) to manage multiple client accounts, primarily for operational efficiency and economies of scale. Within this centralized setup, it is a widespread and critically important practice to provision separate, dedicated IP addresses for each client. This strategic approach ensures that each client's email sending reputation is isolated and independently controlled. Consequently, any deliverability issues or negative sending practices from one client are prevented from adversely affecting the deliverability of other clients managed by the agency, thereby protecting the agency's overall reputation and ensuring consistent email performance for each distinct brand.

Key findings

  • Common Agency Practice: It is a common and often necessary practice for agencies to centralize email management for multiple clients through a single Email Service Provider, utilizing subaccounts or subusers.
  • Dedicated IPs Are Crucial: Assigning separate, dedicated IP addresses to each major client is a highly recommended and vital strategy for agencies using a single ESP.
  • Reputation Isolation: Dedicated IPs allow each client to build and maintain a unique, independent sender reputation, ensuring their deliverability is tied solely to their own sending practices and performance.
  • Prevents Deliverability Contamination: This setup effectively prevents poor sending behavior, such as high bounce rates or spam complaints, from one client from negatively impacting the deliverability of other clients managed by the agency.
  • Operational Efficiency: Agencies benefit from economies of scale and streamlined operational efficiency by leveraging a singular ESP platform for diverse client portfolios.

Key considerations

  • Data Isolation: Agencies must ensure the chosen ESP provides robust controls to prevent data mixing and ensure client isolation within the platform.
  • IP Warm-up: Each separately provisioned dedicated IP address requires a proper warm-up period to establish a good sending reputation.
  • Volume Assessment: Assigning dedicated IPs to many low-volume senders may not be optimal for deliverability, suggesting agencies should assess client sending volumes.
  • Active Reputation Management: Agencies need to actively manage each client's sending practices to maintain distinct and healthy sender reputations for their dedicated IPs.

What email marketers say

15 marketer opinions

It is a widespread and effective strategy for marketing agencies to centralize their email operations through a single Email Service Provider (ESP), gaining efficiencies while managing multiple clients. Crucially, this setup typically involves provisioning separate, dedicated IP addresses for each client. This approach is paramount for deliverability, as it ensures that each client builds and maintains a distinct sender reputation. By isolating IP addresses, agencies can prevent the sending practices of one client, such as high bounce rates or spam complaints, from negatively impacting the email deliverability and overall sender reputation of other clients within their portfolio. This meticulous segmentation provides consistent, predictable deliverability for each unique brand and safeguards the agency's overarching reputation.

Key opinions

  • Common Agency Practice: It is a common and often preferred practice for agencies to centralize email management for multiple clients through a single Email Service Provider (ESP), leveraging operational efficiency.
  • Dedicated IPs Are Crucial: Assigning separate, dedicated IP addresses to each major client is considered a vital and highly recommended strategy when using a single ESP.
  • Reputation Isolation: Dedicated IPs enable each client to build and maintain a unique, independent sender reputation, directly tying their deliverability to their specific sending practices and performance.
  • Prevents Deliverability Contamination: This setup effectively prevents poor sending behavior, such as high bounce rates or spam complaints from one client, from negatively impacting the deliverability of other clients managed by the agency.
  • Consistent Deliverability: Using distinct IPs ensures more consistent and predictable email deliverability for each separate brand within the agency's portfolio.

Key considerations

  • Low-Volume Senders: While beneficial, assigning dedicated IPs to many clients who send very low email volumes may not always be the most optimal strategy for deliverability.
  • ESP Capabilities: Agencies must ensure their chosen Email Service Provider offers robust subaccount management and the crucial ability to assign and manage separate IP addresses for each client.
  • IP Warm-up: Each newly provisioned dedicated IP address for a client will require a proper and careful warm-up period to establish a healthy and positive sending reputation.
  • Ongoing Monitoring: Agencies need to actively monitor and meticulously manage each client's sending practices to ensure the ongoing health and performance of their distinct IP reputations.

Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that it is fairly common for agencies to whitelabel ESPs and that ESPs typically isolate each client within the interface using different subaccounts, profiles, or views, despite using a single platform.

1 Feb 2025 - Email Geeks

Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that white label ESP systems often allow agencies to assign sub-accounts either shared or dedicated IPs, but warns that assigning dedicated IPs to many low-volume senders may not be optimal for deliverability.

26 Jun 2023 - Email Geeks

What the experts say

2 expert opinions

Agencies frequently use a single Email Service Provider (ESP) to manage multiple clients, a strategy that often incorporates the crucial step of assigning separate IP addresses to each client. This approach is widely considered beneficial for email deliverability. It enables each client to cultivate and control their unique sending reputation independently, which is vital because it isolates deliverability performance. Consequently, a single client's poor sending behavior, such as high bounce rates or spam complaints, is contained and does not negatively impact the reputation or deliverability of other clients managed by the agency. This isolation ensures that good senders maintain optimal deliverability, while potential issues are effectively quarantined.

Key opinions

  • Common Agency Model: It is a common and practical approach for agencies to centralize email operations for multiple clients using a single Email Service Provider, enhancing efficiency.
  • Deliverability Benefits: Utilizing separate IP addresses for each client within a single ESP is a highly beneficial strategy for optimizing email deliverability outcomes.
  • Individual Reputation Control: This setup allows each client to build, control, and maintain their own unique sending reputation, similar to having their own dedicated IP address.
  • Performance Isolation: The strategy effectively isolates the deliverability performance of individual clients, preventing one client's poor sending behavior from negatively affecting others.
  • Protection for Good Senders: It ensures that clients with strong, positive sending practices maintain high deliverability rates without being impacted by potential issues from other clients on the same platform.

Key considerations

  • Data Separation Protocols: Agencies must ensure the chosen Email Service Provider has robust internal controls to prevent any data mixing or cross-contamination between different client accounts, a crucial aspect for operational integrity.
  • Active Reputation Management: Each separate IP address necessitates diligent and ongoing management of the client's sending practices to cultivate and maintain a positive, independent sender reputation.
  • Client Volume Assessment: While beneficial, agencies should assess if assigning dedicated IPs to clients with very low email volumes is always the most effective strategy for reputation building.
  • ESP Support for Isolation: The Email Service Provider must offer the necessary features and infrastructure to effectively provision and manage separate IP addresses for individual clients, supporting true isolation.

Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks explains that as long as there are robust controls to prevent data mixing between clients, using a single ESP for multiple clients is simply a tool to get the job done.

2 Apr 2025 - Email Geeks

Expert view

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that agencies using one ESP with separate IPs per client is a beneficial strategy for email deliverability. This approach, similar to using dedicated IPs, allows each client to cultivate and control their unique sending reputation. It is crucial because it isolates the deliverability performance of individual clients, preventing a single client's poor sending behavior from negatively impacting the reputation and deliverability of other clients managed by the agency. This ensures that good senders maintain high deliverability, while potential issues are contained.

9 Aug 2024 - Word to the Wise

What the documentation says

4 technical articles

For marketing agencies managing diverse client portfolios, utilizing a single Email Service Provider (ESP) while allocating separate IP addresses to each client is a widely endorsed and effective approach. This method directly addresses email deliverability concerns by establishing distinct sending reputations for every client. By ensuring that each client's sending performance is isolated, agencies can prevent the negative impact of one client's poor email practices, such as high bounce rates or spam reports, from affecting the deliverability or overall sender reputation of other clients. This strategic separation allows for precise control over each client's email outcomes, ensuring their deliverability is solely dependent on their own sending quality.

Key findings

  • Centralized Client Management: Agencies frequently leverage a single Email Service Provider's (ESP) capabilities, such as subuser accounts or dedicated IP pools, to efficiently manage a diverse portfolio of clients.
  • Independent Reputation Control: Assigning dedicated IP addresses to individual clients within an agency's ESP account grants them complete and independent control over their unique sender reputation.
  • Cross-Client Deliverability Protection: This segregation of IP addresses effectively quarantines any negative sending practices from one client, preventing them from adversely affecting the deliverability of other clients.
  • Distinct Performance Profiles: Each dedicated IP address cultivates a distinct and independent deliverability profile, ensuring that a client's email success is solely tied to their own sending patterns.
  • IP Warm-up Necessity: A crucial aspect of utilizing dedicated IP addresses is the requirement for a specific warm-up period to establish and maintain a positive sending reputation for each client.

Key considerations

  • Dedicated IP Warm-up: Agencies must implement a structured warm-up process for each new dedicated IP address to effectively build a robust and positive sending reputation for the respective client.
  • Client Volume Suitability: While highly effective, agencies should assess if allocating a dedicated IP is truly beneficial for clients with very low email sending volumes, as shared IPs might be more suitable in such cases.
  • ESP Platform Capabilities: The selected Email Service Provider must offer robust features for managing subaccounts, associating specific IP addresses with distinct client identities, and supporting comprehensive deliverability reporting for each.
  • Continuous Reputation Oversight: Maintaining the health of each client's dedicated IP requires continuous monitoring of their email sending metrics and proactive management of any potential issues or changes in sending patterns.

Technical article

Documentation from SendGrid Documentation indicates that agencies can effectively manage multiple clients via subusers within their platform. Assigning dedicated IP addresses to these subusers is a common and recommended practice, as it gives each client independent control over their sending reputation and ensures their email deliverability is not affected by other clients' sending patterns.

8 Aug 2023 - SendGrid Documentation

Technical article

Documentation from Mailgun Documentation on dedicated IP addresses explains that they offer full control over an organization's sender reputation. For agencies managing multiple distinct clients, this translates directly into the crucial ability to isolate and manage the deliverability performance of each client independently, significantly mitigating the inherent risks associated with shared IP addresses.

14 Oct 2022 - Mailgun Documentation

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