Understanding guided warming in Klaviyo
You will learn
Learn about guided warming in Klaviyo, which makes it easy to warm your sending infrastructure.
Warming your sending infrastructure trains inbox providers to view you as a “good sender.” This is essential any time you move to a new email service provider (ESP). In Klaviyo, we aim to make this as seamless as possible by offering guided warming to accounts who meet the prerequisites listed below.
Existing Klaviyo customers moving to a branded sending domain do not have to warm infrastructure again, as long as you have:
- A domain that has been registered for at least 30 days AND
- You’ve used the domain to send email already (e.g., you used this domain in the past with a prior email service provider or with Klaviyo in your from address).
Conversely, if you are a new Klaviyo account without engagement data or not using a Klaviyo-built integration, you will want to follow the modified platform introduction process.
During guided warming, Klaviyo uses your sending volume and audience engagement to recommend an audience for each email campaign. When Klaviyo recommends excluding unengaged profiles, it turns on that exclusion for a new campaign. You can review the recommendation before sending.
For complete information on which warming process to follow, read Understanding which warming process to use in Klaviyo.
Before you begin
Guided warming is available for eligible new accounts sending single-channel email campaigns. Flows and omnichannel campaigns do not count toward guided warming progress. To receive automatic audience recommendations and exclusions, your account must meet these requirements:
- Recently created a new account
- Have at least 5,000 active email profiles
- Have an enabled Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, or ExactTarget integration that has completed its initial sync
- Have email engagement events in Klaviyo, linked to profiles, that meet all of these requirements:
- At least 100 opens, excluding machine opens, between 1 and 365 days ago
- At least 100 clicks between 1 and 30 days ago
- At least 100 clicks in either the period from 31–60 days ago or the period from 61–90 days ago
- Sent at least 1 campaign in the last 30 days to at least 1,000 recipients through one of those ESPs, or delivered a Klaviyo email campaign to at least 1,000 profiles in that period
Klaviyo also needs to calculate a recommended sending volume from your sending history before automatic audience guidance can begin.
If your account has at least 5,000 active email profiles but does not meet the data requirements for guided warming, a progress banner can appear on the Campaigns page after 3 Klaviyo email campaigns each deliver to at least 1,000 profiles. This banner tracks warming progress without automatically excluding unengaged profiles. Once the account starts warming with only this banner, syncing the missing data afterward does not turn on guided warming.
About guided warming
When guided warming is active, you will be notified on the Campaigns page and in the Guided account warming section of the Recipients step in the campaign builder. During guided warming, Klaviyo will optimize your audience to help you maintain good deliverability as you ramp up.
As you add lists or segments to send to or exclude from receiving your campaign, Klaviyo will instruct you on best practices to refine this audience. When Klaviyo sees that your audience aligns with best practices for warming your account, then you will see a success message as displayed below.
If Klaviyo recommends a smaller audience, it automatically turns on Exclude unengaged recipients for a new campaign. The Guided account warming section shows how many profiles will be skipped and the engagement period used. This unengaged audience is not a segment that you create; rather it is a “smart audience,” that is maintained by Klaviyo and automatically updated at each stage of your warming progress.
If guided warming is on and excludes more than 90% of your selected audience, you will see a warning recommending that you send to your most engaged recipients. If no recipients remain, a separate warning appears. We recommend sending to an engaged segment.
We highly recommend that you follow these guided warming suggestions if they appear in your account. That said, you can choose to include the unengaged audience for this campaign by toggling off Exclude unengaged recipients. For example, if you have a legal obligation to contact everyone who has purchased a particular product, or if you are sending to an uploaded list of profiles that you do not have engagement data for in Klaviyo, then you may need to ignore this suggestion.
When you do so, a confirmation box will appear with more information on why excluding these profiles is important. If you wish to proceed despite this warning, click Ignore guidance. To keep excluding unengaged recipients, click Close and follow guidance. Note that ignoring guidance is not a best practice, and we recommend abiding by the suggestions to maintain good deliverability.
Click Next to save your audience settings and continue creating your campaign.
Guided warming recommendations evolve as you send with Klaviyo and progress through warming. If you create a new root domain for your branded sending domain, follow the appropriate warming process for that domain. Adding a domain does not restart completed or expired guided account warming.
When you finish the warming process, you will see a success message appear. The message will inform you that you have completed warming and can gain additional information on how to maintain a healthy sender reputation.
While your account is warming, guided warming expires after more than 45 days without sending a Klaviyo email campaign that delivers to at least 1,000 profiles. Flow emails and smaller campaigns do not keep it active. Once guided warming expires, its notifications disappear and it cannot be re-enabled.
How to know where you are in the warming process
Warming progress is displayed as a percentage in Klaviyo. This percentage depends on your current audience definition, the number of email campaigns delivered to at least 1,000 profiles, and campaign performance, including sending volume and opens that are not identified as machine opens.
To see where you are in the warming process, open Campaigns or check the percentage in the Guided account warming section of the Recipients step when creating your next email campaign. For example, a banner similar to the one below will display when you are 0% of the way through warming your account.
Additional resources
- Understanding which warming process to use in Klaviyo
Learn how to choose the right warming process in Klaviyo, so you can establish a strong initial sender reputation and be viewed favorably by inbox providers.
- Understanding email deliverability
Learn about email deliverability, including the steps you can take to establish a strong sender reputation so that your emails are delivered to the inbox.