With changes coming across all advertising channels, email is no exception. In February 2024, Google and Yahoo had placed certain requirements that advertisers should be aware of for strategy going forward.
Who do these requirements apply to?
These sender requirements will apply to anyone considered a bulk sender. For google this means anyone sending 5,000 or more emails per day. Yahoo requirements will also apply to anyone considered a bulk sender, but they “will not specify a volume threshold” for bulk senders.
The goal of these new requirements is to “deliver messages that consumers want to receive and filter out the messages they don't.” And if advertisers do not follow the new guidelines, they risk emails being rejected or automatically sent to spam.
So, what are the new requirements?
According to Yahoo, their new requirements are as follows:
Authenticate your email, and ensure your domain is in the from line of your email.
Set up SPF and DKIM email authentication for your domain
Support easy unsubscribe
Keep spam rates below 0.3%
Have a valid forward and reverse DNS record for your sending Ips
Similarly Googles requirements entail:
Set up SPF and DKIM email authentication for your domain
Format messages according to the Internet Message Format standard, RFC 5322
If you manage a forwarding service, including mailing lists or inbound gateways, add ARC headers to outgoing email.
For direct mail, the domain in the sender's From: header must be aligned with either the SPF domain or the DKIM domain.
Marketing messages and subscribed messages must support one-click unsubscribe, and include a clearly visible unsubscribe link in the message body.
In 2024, Google and Yahoo are joining other platforms like Meta in setting policies that will force advertisers to reassess their audience targeting and are forcing more authentic advertising practices. By following these requirements, Google expects that advertisers can expect to “prevent you and your organization from being impersonated, protect email recipients from being targeted with malicious content”, and advertisers will be less likely to have their emails “rejected or marked as spam”.
So what is the timeline for the enforcement of these new guidelines? Google has noted that the enforcement of these guidelines will be “gradual and affect only non-compliant traffic” starting in April 2024. Yahoo began enforcing their guidelines as of February 2024.
With these new requirements in effect, we recommend that advertisers take immediate steps to ensure they are compliant and will not see major declines in performance due to non-compliance.
Need help getting started? Reach out to your Revel account team to identify any areas of non-compliance within your email advertising program.
Sources:
https://senders.yahooinc.com/faqs/
https://support.google.com/a/answer/14229414?hl=en
https://senders.yahooinc.com/best-practices/
https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126?visit_id=638467258096588653-1428100581&rd=1
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