What is BIMI's impact on email engagement metrics?
Matthew Whittaker
Co-founder & CTO, Suped
Published 6 May 2025
Updated 19 Aug 2025
8 min read
In the complex world of email, where every message competes for attention, brands are constantly seeking new ways to stand out. Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) has emerged as a significant development, promising to elevate brand visibility and foster trust directly within the inbox. This standard allows your verified logo to appear alongside your email, offering an immediate visual cue to recipients.
The primary goal of BIMI is to enhance brand recognition and trust, which are foundational elements for improving email engagement. When subscribers see a familiar and authenticated logo, they are more likely to interact with the message, leading to a ripple effect on various engagement metrics. It's about providing a visual reassurance that the email is legitimate and from a trusted sender.
While BIMI is not a direct deliverability protocol itself, its impact on engagement metrics can indirectly influence how mailbox providers perceive your sending reputation. A positive shift in engagement signals to providers like Google and Yahoo that your emails are valued by recipients, which can help maintain good inbox placement and reduce the likelihood of being placed on a blocklist (or blacklist).
The visual impact and trust BIMI builds
BIMI's core mechanism revolves around displaying a brand's logo in the inbox, right next to the sender's name. This visual element, validated by a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC), aims to build instant trust and recognition. In a crowded inbox, a familiar logo can make an email stand out, prompting the recipient to engage rather than scroll past. This direct visual validation helps recipients quickly identify legitimate communications from brands they know and trust.
The psychological impact of seeing a trusted brand logo cannot be understated. It reinforces brand identity and assures the recipient that the email is not a phishing attempt or spam. This enhanced sense of security and familiarity directly contributes to improved recipient behavior, from opening the email to clicking on its content. This is particularly crucial in an era where email fraud is a constant concern for users.
To enable BIMI, you must have strong email authentication, specifically DMARC, properly implemented and enforced. This ensures that only authenticated messages can display your logo, preventing bad actors from misusing your brand. You can learn more about its implementation requirements.
BIMI prerequisites
DMARC enforcement: Your domain must have a DMARC policy set to quarantine (p=quarantine) or reject (p=reject). This ensures only authenticated emails are delivered.
SVG logo format: Your logo must be in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format, specifically tailored for BIMI display.
Verified Mark Certificate (VMC): For many mailbox providers, including Gmail, a VMC is required to prove ownership of the logo and enhance trust. These are issued by accredited certificate providers.
Key engagement metrics and their boost
The most direct impact of BIMI is often seen in open rates. When a recipient instantly recognizes your brand, they are more inclined to open the email. Studies have indicated that BIMI can lead to a noticeable uplift in open rates, with some reports showing increases ranging from 10% to over 20% according to early Verizon studies. This improvement directly reflects enhanced trust and brand recall. Improved open rates are also a strong signal to mailbox providers that your emails are legitimate and wanted, further aiding deliverability.
Beyond the initial open, BIMI can also influence click-through rates (CTR). A brand's logo not only prompts an open but also conveys authenticity, which can lead to higher confidence in the email's content. This increased trust often translates into more clicks on links within the email, driving recipients further down the engagement funnel. Essentially, it removes a layer of doubt that might otherwise prevent a click.
While direct quantitative data on conversion rates and revenue lift solely attributable to BIMI can be challenging to isolate, the positive shifts in open and click rates logically lead to better overall campaign performance. Higher engagement metrics mean more eyes on your content and more interactions, which in turn can lead to increased conversions and revenue. It's about optimizing the top of the funnel to maximize downstream results. You can read more about the quantitative impact of BIMI.
Uplift reported, though specific percentages vary based on industry and campaign.
Brand recognition
Varies
Significantly improved, leading to increased trust and recall.
Spam complaints
0.1-0.5%
Potential for reduction due to higher trust and fewer misidentifications.
Indirect deliverability benefits
While BIMI itself does not directly influence email deliverability by altering how emails are routed or authenticated, its positive impact on engagement metrics creates an indirect, yet significant, benefit. Mailbox providers heavily rely on user engagement signals to determine sender reputation and inbox placement. When subscribers consistently open, click, and interact positively with your emails, it signals to providers that your content is valuable and legitimate.
Conversely, a lack of engagement, or worse, high spam complaint rates, can lead to your emails being flagged as spam or blocked (blacklisted) by providers. By fostering trust and recognition through BIMI, you can potentially reduce spam complaints and increase positive interactions. This improved sender reputation can lead to better inbox placement, meaning fewer emails land in the spam folder. This is why some sources say BIMI has an indirect positive effect on deliverability.
Therefore, even though BIMI is not a deliverability standard in the same vein as SPF, DKIM, or DMARC, its role in improving engagement makes it a valuable component of an overall email security and deliverability strategy. It helps create a feedback loop where increased trust leads to better engagement, which in turn signals good sender behavior to mailbox providers, reducing the risk of being placed on a blocklist. For more details, consider reading about how BIMI improves deliverability and engagement.
Before BIMI
Limited brand visibility: Your brand relies solely on the sender name and subject line to catch attention. No visual logo in the inbox.
Potential for impersonation: Without a verified logo, it's easier for phishers to spoof your domain, leading to user distrust.
Standard engagement metrics: Open and click rates are primarily influenced by subject line appeal and sender reputation built over time.
After BIMI
Enhanced brand presence: Your verified logo appears prominently, increasing brand recognition and recall in the inbox.
Increased trust and security: The logo acts as a visual seal of authenticity, helping recipients distinguish legitimate emails from fraudulent ones.
Improved engagement metrics: Users are more likely to open and click, leading to higher open rates and CTRs, as seen in Gmail's expanded support.
Implementing BIMI and measuring its success
Implementing BIMI involves a few technical steps, primarily centered around your DNS records and securing a VMC. The process requires careful configuration to ensure your logo displays correctly across supporting email clients. It typically involves adding a specific TXT record to your DNS that points to your BIMI SVG logo file and the VMC. You can find more information about validating your BIMI SVG and certificate.
Measuring the impact of BIMI on your engagement metrics requires consistent monitoring of your email campaign data. Pay close attention to changes in open rates, click-through rates, and even conversion rates after implementing BIMI. While attributing every improvement solely to BIMI can be challenging given other variables in email marketing, a significant and sustained uplift in these metrics after BIMI adoption is a strong indicator of its positive effect.
It's also beneficial to conduct A/B tests if possible, sending emails with and without BIMI to segments of your audience to isolate its impact more precisely. This approach can provide clearer insights into the quantitative benefits for your specific brand and audience. Remember to consider other factors that influence engagement, such as subject line optimization and content relevance, as part of your overall analysis. As a starting point, here's an example of a BIMI DNS record:
Example BIMI DNS TXT recordDNS
default._bimi.yourdomain.com IN TXT "v=BIMI1; l=https://yourdomain.com/logo.svg; a=https://yourdomain.com/vmc.pem"
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Ensure your DMARC policy is at quarantine or reject before implementing BIMI for maximum effect.
Use a clean, simple SVG logo that is easily recognizable and adheres to BIMI specifications.
Continuously monitor your email engagement metrics before and after BIMI adoption.
Common pitfalls
Not having a DMARC policy enforced, which prevents BIMI from displaying.
Using an SVG logo that does not meet the strict formatting and security requirements.
Expecting immediate, drastic changes without ongoing monitoring and optimization.
Expert tips
Beyond open rates, look at micro-conversions within the email journey to truly gauge BIMI's influence.
Consider how BIMI plays into your overall brand identity and trust-building efforts across all channels.
Analyze BIMI's impact specifically on mobile email engagement, where logos are highly prominent.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says a client recently observed a 4%-9% engagement boost after implementing BIMI, which they attributed to the logo display.
2024-06-12 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says it's crucial to clarify what kind of engagement boost is being measured when clients report numbers, whether it's an absolute or relative increase.
2024-06-12 - Email Geeks
Elevating your brand presence and trust
BIMI represents a significant step forward in email authentication and brand trust. Its ability to display a verified brand logo directly in the inbox enhances brand recognition and provides a crucial visual cue of authenticity to recipients. This heightened trust directly translates into improved engagement metrics, such as open rates and click-through rates, which are vital for successful email campaigns.
While not a direct deliverability solution, the positive impact of BIMI on engagement indirectly strengthens your sender reputation, contributing to better inbox placement and reducing the risk of your emails being caught by spam filters or landing on a blocklist. For any brand prioritizing security, trust, and engagement, BIMI is a valuable standard to implement as part of their comprehensive email strategy. You can also explore the impact BIMI has on brand recognition and email engagement.
Google and 
Yahoo that your emails are valued by recipients, which can help maintain good inbox placement and reduce the likelihood of being placed on a blocklist (or blacklist).
Gmail, a VMC is required to prove ownership of the logo and enhance trust. These are issued by accredited certificate providers.
