How to read Klaviyo's deliverability report by inbox provider

Where is Klaviyo's deliverability report by inbox provider?

There are two places, and you'll use both.

The account view. Go to Analytics > Deliverability (if your menu says "Channel health," pick that), then choose Email. The hub has three tabs: Score, Reports and Bounce details. On Reports, set the message category to "Inbox Provider." You can pick a time period of the last 7, 30 or 90 days or a custom range, and choose all messages, only campaigns or only flows. Klaviyo shows the top 5 providers by delivered emails by default, and you can select up to 10.

The single-send view. Open any sent campaign and click its Deliverability tab. For a flow email, open the flow, click the email, choose "View details" under Performance, then the Deliverability tab. Look for the "Performance by inbox provider" section. It shows up to 5 providers, with any provider that needs attention listed first.

This is the view I'd look at first, because it gives a good picture of where people actually interact with your emails. Your overall open rate is an average. The provider split shows you who's doing the opening and clicking.

What does each number in the report mean?

The Reports tab splits into a few cards:

• Key metrics: your account-level open, click, bounce, unsubscribe and spam complaint rates, with a flag on anything that needs attention.
• Email send volume: delivered vs bounced emails for each provider.
• Negative engagement: bounce, unsubscribe and spam complaint rate by provider.
• Positive engagement: open and click rate by provider.

Klaviyo maps each email domain to the company behind it. So @me.com and @icloud.com both count as Apple. If you'd rather see raw domains, switch the category to "Email Domain."

The Bounce details tab goes one level deeper. It shows a heatmap of 11 bounce categories across up to 5 providers, and a table with each bounce's type (hard or soft), provider and category. That's where you find out if one provider is rejecting you for a specific reason.

What numbers does Klaviyo consider healthy?

Klaviyo's help center gives each metric three bands on the campaign and flow Deliverability tab:

A provider only gets the "Needs attention" flag in the dropdown when 2 or more of its metrics are in that red range and it makes up more than 5% of delivered emails for that send. So a tiny provider with a bad day won't light up your report.

One catch on spam complaints. Klaviyo's help center says Gmail doesn't report spam complaints back to sending platforms like Klaviyo, and points you to Google Postmaster Tools for your Gmail spam rate. Klaviyo also restates Gmail's guidance: keep spam rates below 0.1% and avoid reaching 0.3%. If most of your list is on Gmail, set up Postmaster Tools so you're not reading a spam rate that's missing your biggest inbox.

How do you tell if Gmail is burying your emails?

Compare opens and clicks, then compare providers.

Here's what I'd check if Gmail seems to be burying your emails:

1. Pull up the Reports tab for the last 30 days, all messages, by inbox provider.
2. Look at Gmail's open and click rate next to Yahoo, Microsoft and Apple. Is there a major dropoff on Gmail that the others don't have?
3. If Gmail's opens and clicks both fall off a cliff while other providers look normal, that points to a placement problem at Gmail.
4. If Gmail's clicks look in line with everyone else, you're probably fine, even if the open rate is lower.
5. Check Gmail's bounce rate and the Bounce details tab for blocks.

Klaviyo suggests reviewing deliverability across the last 30 days unless you send weekly or less, and checking Google Postmaster Tools weekly for domain reputation and spam complaints.

If you're working through a full spam problem, start with why your Klaviyo emails are going to spam. If you've never checked your setup against the Gmail and Yahoo bulk sender rules, read Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook sender requirements too.

Why does Apple show such a high open rate?

Because of Apple Mail Privacy Protection. Klaviyo's help center explains that when it's turned on, all images in the email are loaded ahead of time, whether the person opens it or not. That records a false open and inflates your open rate.

So in the inbox provider report, Apple will often look like your best provider on opens. Don't read that as engagement. Look at Apple's click rate instead, and compare clicks across providers when you're judging who's actually reading.

Klaviyo tags these as "Apple Privacy Open" on the Opened Email event, and you can filter them out of engagement segments. More on that in open rate vs click rate.

Is landing in Gmail's Promotions tab a deliverability problem?

No. A lot of founders think Promotions is evil. It's a reflection of how you've performed with your list.

Promotions is still the inbox. If the report shows Gmail clicks in line with your other providers, you're being delivered and read. Chasing the Primary tab with tricks is the wrong goal. Sending to people who want your emails is the right one. I go deeper on this in the Gmail Promotions tab post.

What should you do if one provider needs attention?

Tighten who you send to first. Engagement is what inbox providers read, so sending fewer emails to more engaged people usually lifts every number in this report.

A flavored diffuser brand tightened its audiences and its open rate went from 22% to 44%. A sports training tech brand sent to an engaged segment of 7,145 people and earned $0.19 per person, against $0.04 per person on a blast to 49,475. Smaller sends, better results.

From there:

• High bounces at one provider: check the Bounce details tab for the category, and clean out bad addresses.
• Spam complaints climbing: cut unengaged profiles from campaigns and make your unsubscribe link easy to find.
• New sending domain or big volume jump: slow down. See Klaviyo domain warming.

FAQ

WRITTEN BY Jack White

Founder of Bardown Digital, a Chicago-based Klaviyo email and retention agency for Shopify brands. He's worked with brands doing $500K to $100M a year, with $100M+ in email-attributed revenue across them.

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