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When to consider multiple dedicated IPs for large email lists and what causes deliverability degradation?

Summary

For businesses managing extensive email lists, determining the optimal number of dedicated IP addresses is a critical decision that significantly impacts email deliverability. While a single dedicated IP can suffice for moderate volumes, scaling up can introduce challenges, leading to degraded deliverability and reduced inbox placement. Understanding the thresholds and contributing factors to this degradation is essential for maintaining strong sender reputation and ensuring your messages reach their intended recipients.

What email marketers say

Email marketers often face a balancing act when managing large lists: how to scale sending volume without sacrificing inbox placement. Their experiences highlight practical thresholds and the nuances of deliverability degradation, particularly with high-volume campaigns and growing subscriber bases. Many attribute performance dips to hitting ISP rate limits or a shift in audience engagement.

Marketer view

Email marketer from Email Geeks notes that with email lists exceeding 400,000 active subscribers on a single dedicated IP, they observed a significant degradation in open rates and overall deliverability over several weeks. This raises concerns about whether the volume might be too high for a single IP address.The degradation was about a 6% drop, which translated to roughly 24,000 fewer opens for their large list. This indicates that even slight percentage drops can have a substantial impact on overall campaign performance for high-volume senders.

06 Aug 2018 - Email Geeks

Marketer view

Campaign manager from Email Geeks explains that for extremely high throughput needs, such as sending 12 million emails in an hour and a half, multiple dedicated IPs are essential. They recount experience with political campaigns requiring four or more IPs to handle such immense volumes effectively.This high-volume scenario highlights that inbox providers often limit the number of emails received from a single IP per connection. Therefore, more IPs enable more concurrent connections, which is crucial for rapid email deployment without excessive queuing or throttling.

06 Aug 2018 - Email Geeks

What the experts say

Industry experts provide deeper insights into the complex algorithms and reputation metrics used by major inbox providers, often emphasizing that the role of IPs is part of a larger, more intricate puzzle. They highlight the importance of content, sender behavior, and seasonal fluctuations, especially when troubleshooting mysterious deliverability drops.

Expert view

Deliverability expert from Email Geeks clarifies that Gmail's email filtering heavily emphasizes domain and content reputation over the IP address itself. While IP is considered, it's always in the broader context of the message's relevance and user engagement, aligning with Google's search-based technology.They note that Gmail, having started email services later than many other providers, was able to build its reputation systems without being constrained by older, IP-centric models, allowing for a more nuanced approach to filtering.

06 Aug 2018 - Email Geeks

Expert view

Email deliverability consultant from Wordtothewise states that a slight but persistent degradation in deliverability over time should prompt senders to examine all email streams referencing their domain, not just those they explicitly send. Unauthorized or fraudulent uses of the domain can quietly impact overall sender reputation.This holistic review is crucial because even if direct sending practices are pristine, external factors can contribute to a decline in inbox placement, making it harder to diagnose the root cause without a comprehensive audit.

14 May 2024 - Wordtothewise

What the documentation says

Official documentation from email service providers and industry bodies consistently outlines best practices for using dedicated IPs and mitigating deliverability issues. These resources typically emphasize that dedicated IPs are most beneficial for high-volume, consistent senders who are able to rigorously manage their sender reputation. They also provide guidelines on factors that contribute to deliverability degradation, often focusing on list health, sending patterns, and recipient engagement.

Technical article

Documentation from Mailchimp explains that companies sending thousands of emails can significantly benefit from using dedicated IP addresses. This is because dedicated IPs provide complete control over sender reputation, which is crucial for maximizing deliverability rates. Unlike shared IPs, where the actions of other senders can impact your reputation, a dedicated IP allows you to build and maintain a reputation based solely on your own sending practices.They emphasize that consistent sending of high-quality, engaged email is vital. A dedicated IP allows for a more predictable and stable sending environment, but this stability relies heavily on the sender's commitment to good email marketing hygiene and audience engagement.

20 May 2024 - Mailchimp

Technical article

A technical guide from Amazon Web Services (AWS) suggests that it's recommended to use multiple dedicated IP addresses, especially when sending very large volumes of email. Distributing the email load across several IPs helps manage the volume and maintain optimal delivery speed.They also highlight that new capabilities in email sending services can remove much of the heavy lifting associated with setting up, provisioning, monitoring, and managing sending over dedicated IPs. This implies that while multiple IPs offer benefits, modern tools aim to simplify their complex management for users.

03 Jun 2020 - Amazon Web Services, Inc.

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