Inbox placement rate
The percentage of test messages that reached the inbox rather than spam or nowhere, usually measured by sending to a seed list of mailboxes at several providers.
What it means
Inbox placement rate is reported by placement-testing services. The message goes to a seed list of test mailboxes spread over providers, and the service checks which folder each copy reached. GlockApps, for example, describes its seed list system as giving marketers an inbox placement rate, a spam rate and a not-delivered rate.
The figure describes the seed mailboxes, which have no history of reading your mail, while providers also weigh what each real recipient does with it. Treat the rate as a trend between tests of the same message and setup, not as the placement of your whole list.
Delivery rate and inbox placement rate answer different questions: the first counts acceptance by the receiving server, the second counts the folder.
Related terms
On this site
Sources
What this definition rests on. The wording is ours; the facts are theirs.
- GlockApps: Email deliverability glossaryglockapps.com
- RFC 6449: Complaint feedback loop operational recommendationsrfc-editor.org
- Gmail Help: Report spam in Gmailsupport.google.com
All 432 terms in the glossaryThe wiki: blocklists and bounce codes