Understanding Klaviyo's anti-abuse and campaign performance monitoring

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Learn about Klaviyo's anti-abuse and campaign performance monitoring, and key performance metrics to focus on.

Klaviyo was built to make data-driven, targeted marketing easy so that you can focus less energy on operational hassles and more on creating content to drive sales. Unfortunately, there are malicious actors out there who abuse email marketing platforms — blasting spam at best and attempting to launch phishing attacks at worst. To protect all our customers (and their customers), we have anti-abuse measures in place and monitor campaign sends. Our goal is to support the best type of marketing: communication that's targeted, personalized, and wanted. Klaviyo notifies senders when campaign performance indicates potential abuse. Repeated problems with hard bounces, unsubscribes, or spam complaints can lead to account disablement. Review the campaign named in the alert and use the guidance below to address the issue. If your account is disabled, the primary account owner should check their email for more detailed information.

You may receive performance alerts and warnings from us but aren't knowingly trying to send spam or unwanted emails. If you're trying to build a great marketing strategy, but observe (or receive notices from us) that your campaigns aren't performing well, you can take steps to improve your sending habits. With focus and deliberate action, you can be on your way to sending more relevant emails and making more revenue.

High hard bounce rates

A high hard bounce rate means many of the emails you sent bounced, and were not successfully delivered. A hard bounce occurs when an email cannot be delivered due to a permanent reason. This could be caused by a variety of reasons, including a misspelled email. Klaviyo automatically suppresses any email address that experiences a hard bounce.

High hard bounce rates signal to inbox providers (e.g., Gmail and Yahoo) that you're either not cleaning your list or there's an issue with how you grow your list. While a few hard bounces are permissible, inbox providers interpret a large number of hard bounces as sending to email addresses that you bought or scraped off the internet.

Reduce hard bounce rates

To reduce hard bounce rates, you can take the following actions:

• Enable double opt-in immediately.
  New subscribers must confirm their subscription before joining the list. This helps keep invalid or mistyped email addresses off your list. List imports do not trigger double opt-in, so review imported contacts before sending to them.
• Do not buy lists.
  This is against Klaviyo's Terms of Service, as we support marketers who send relevant emails to subscribers who want to receive them. Only send to actual subscribers.
• Do not scrape the web for email addresses.
  Instead, add sign-up forms, run advertising campaigns, and ask your customers to share your business with their friends. Organic growth is the safest and most sustainable path to success.

If you continue to send campaigns with high hard bounce rates, your sending reputation can suffer, and Klaviyo may disable your account.

High unsubscribe rates

People unsubscribe from your email most often because they don't find your emails relevant to them. This could be because they're no longer interested in what you're sending, because you've sent something that doesn't speak to them, or because they didn't sign up to receive content in the first place.

A high unsubscribe rate can indicate that recipients no longer want your emails. Review your audience, content, and sending frequency. Unsubscribing is different from reporting an email as spam, so keep it easy for recipients to opt out.

Reduce unsubscribe rates

To reduce unsubscribe rates:

• Make sure you only send to subscribed recipients. Build an engaged segment that requires email subscription as well as recent engagement. Opening or clicking an email does not by itself mean someone has subscribed.
• Send targeted and personalized content. Start using segmentation to get more targeted with your communication.
• Make sure your emails don't contain graphic or explicit content.
• Make sure your subject line aligns with the content of the email itself. When people feel deceived, they are more likely to unsubscribe.

If you continue to send campaigns with high unsubscribe rates, your sending reputation can suffer, and Klaviyo may disable your account.

High spam complaint rates

When people receive a marketing email they didn't expect or don't want, they may instinctively look for an unsubscribe link. If that link is hard to find, recipients may use their inbox provider's option to mark the email as spam instead.

If 1 or 2 people mark your email as spam, this isn't always cause for alarm. Maybe they forgot they subscribed or didn't like your content and couldn't find the unsubscribe link. However, when a high percentage of your recipients mark your email as spam, this indicates a larger problem. Typically, it's 1 of 2 things:

• You're sending to people who didn't subscribe.
• You're sending unwanted or offensive content.

In either case, you should change your behavior to get your spam rate down.

Reduce spam complaint rates

Inbox providers take high spam report rates very seriously — it's the primary way they get feedback from their customers (your recipients) on whether or not someone sends unwanted mail. If you consistently get high spam report rates, inbox providers may block your emails or filter them to the spam folder. In both cases, fewer people will see your emails and your open rates (and revenue) may suffer.

To reduce spam complaint rates:

1. Send to subscribed recipients. Build an engaged segment that requires email subscription as well as recent engagement.
2. Include at least 1 unsubscribe link in your email and make it easy to find. Add an unsubscribe tag into the header and footer of each email.
3. Turn on double opt-in.
4. Make sure your email doesn't contain graphic or explicit content.
5. Make sure your subject line aligns with the email content. When people feel deceived, they are more likely to mark your email as spam.

If you continue to send campaigns with high spam complaint rates, your sending reputation can suffer, and Klaviyo may disable your account.

Low open rates

Low open rates can indicate that your email list contains people who are no longer interested in receiving content. Cleaning your list helps maintain good deliverability. Sending to engaged subscribers supports your sender reputation and inbox placement. Aim for open rates above 33%, alongside low spam complaint and unsubscribe rates. This is a benchmark for healthy performance, not a guarantee of inbox placement.

When you continually send to unengaged subscribers, inbox providers may send more of your emails to spam folders because a lack of engagement can signal unwanted mail. A drop in opens is a reason to review your audience and sending habits.

Open rates also have measurement limits. Apple Mail Privacy Protection can register opens without a person reading your email. Review clicks and other engagement alongside opens before deciding who is unengaged.

Increase open rates

To increase open rates, create and target an engaged segment with applicable emails. Do not overload subscribers with unnecessary content; instead, include a clear call-to-action in your messaging and send information they want to receive. Klaviyo offers robust segmentation tools to help you find your engaged subscribers and group them by their interests. This way, you can send content relevant to someone's specific purchase history, likes, email habits, etc. Personalized content can help encourage engagement.

For more information on creating successful email content, see our email design tips. Also, check out our benchmark report on how segmentation and targeted sending improves open rates and increases your revenue per email.

Klaviyo allows you to better understand your customers, send relevant messaging, and gain insights from your owned channels over time. The best businesses send emails that people want, and data shows that strong engagement earns a higher amount of revenue per recipient. If your campaigns continue to have low open rates, review your audience, content, and sending frequency to identify what needs to change.

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