IP & Domain Warming
Guide for BayEngage

Why IP & Domain Warming Matters

ISPs like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo evaluate every sender based on their historical behavior. A brand-new IP address or domain has no history — which means no established reputation. When an unknown sender suddenly sends thousands of emails, ISPs treat it as suspicious. Spam campaigns typically come from freshly obtained IPs and domains.

Warming is the process of gradually increasing your email volume over several weeks, starting with your most engaged subscribers. This builds a positive reputation history before you scale to your full list.

When Do You Need to Warm?

• New dedicated IP address — If BayEngage assigns you a dedicated IP (typically at higher send volumes), it starts cold
• New sending domain or subdomain — Even if your main domain has reputation, a new subdomain starts fresh
• After a long sending gap — If you haven't sent for 60+ days, your IP/domain reputation decays and needs re-warming
• After migrating from another ESP — Your reputation doesn't transfer; warm the new sending infrastructure from scratch

IP Warming vs Domain Warming

Modern ISPs — particularly Gmail — weight domain reputation more heavily than IP reputation. Even on a shared IP with good reputation, a new sending domain needs to earn its own trust through consistent, engaged sending.

8-Week Ramp Schedule

This schedule assumes you're starting from zero reputation. Adjust based on your list size — if your full list is 10,000 subscribers, your Week 8 target doesn't need to reach 175,000.

Key Rules During Warming

• Only advance if metrics are healthy — Don't move to the next week if spam complaint rate is above 0.1% or inbox placement drops below 80%
• Send consistently — Irregular sending (nothing for days, then a spike) signals spam-like behavior. Send at consistent intervals.
• Use your best content — Warming sends are not the time for test campaigns or promotional blasts. Use your highest-performing content.
• Send to engaged segments first — Positive engagement signals (opens, clicks) build reputation. Disengaged contacts slow it down.

Metrics to Watch During Warming

Daily Checks

• Inbox placement rate — Run a seed test after each warmup send. Target: 90%+ inbox placement across Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo
• Spam complaint rate — Monitor via Google Postmaster Tools. Warning threshold: 0.1%. Stop and reassess above 0.3%.
• Hard bounce rate — Should be below 1% during warming. Higher means list quality issues.

Weekly Checks

• Domain reputation in Postmaster Tools — Should progress from LOW toward HIGH over the warming period
• Engagement rate trends — Click rates from your warmup audience (your best subscribers) should be above your historical average
• Blacklist status — Check that your sending domain hasn't appeared on any blacklists

Green Lights: Ready to Scale

• Inbox placement rate consistently above 90%
• Spam complaint rate below 0.05%
• Domain reputation HIGH in Google Postmaster Tools
• Hard bounce rate below 1%
• No blacklist appearances

Red Flags: Slow Down or Stop

• Inbox placement drops below 80% at any major provider
• Spam complaint rate exceeds 0.1%
• Sudden increase in soft bounces (server-level deferrals — a sign of reputation problems)
• Domain reputation drops to MEDIUM or LOW in Postmaster Tools
• Appearance on a major blacklist

When Inbox Placement Drops During Warming

If inbox placement falls during warming, stop scaling and diagnose before proceeding. Common causes:

Segment Too Broad Too Fast

You've included less-engaged subscribers before your reputation was strong enough. Solution: drop back to your most-engaged segment, stabilize metrics, then try scaling again more slowly.

Content Triggering Spam Filters

Even good senders can hit filters for content reasons. Run a test using the free deliverability checker to identify content issues. Common culprits: image-heavy emails with little text, URL shorteners, excessive promotional language.

Authentication Failures

Verify SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are passing for your sending domain. A misconfigured record can tank inbox placement suddenly. Use the deliverability checker to confirm all three pass.

Volume Spike

Jumping volume too aggressively (doubling or tripling in one step) triggers ISP rate limiting. Slow the ramp — stick to the 2x schedule and don't skip weeks.

BayEngage Warming Setup

Dedicated IP vs Shared IP

Most BayEngage accounts send via shared IP pools. BayEngage manages the reputation of these shared pools. If you're on a shared IP:

• You don't need to warm the IP itself
• You do need to warm your sending domain
• BayEngage's shared IP benefits from their pool-level sending hygiene

At higher send volumes, BayEngage may offer dedicated IP options. A dedicated IP gives you full control over your IP reputation — but it also means you're responsible for warming it from scratch.

Creating Warmup Segments in BayEngage

1. Go to Contacts → Segments → New Segment
2. Create "Warming - Week 1" segment: contacts who opened in the last 30 days
3. Create "Warming - Week 2" segment: contacts who opened in the last 60 days
4. Continue creating segments for each warming week
5. Use these segments as the recipient list for each week's warmup campaign

Throttling Send Volume

1. When creating a campaign in BayEngage, look for Send Settings → Throttle or Batch Sending options
2. If available, spread sends over several hours rather than sending all at once
3. For large warming sends, splitting a campaign across multiple days is acceptable

Authentication Prerequisites

Before sending any warming emails, confirm all three authentication records are in place. Do not start warming without them — unauthenticated sends will fail to build reputation.

Warming Checklist

Before You Start

• ☐ SPF record published and passing — SPF Builder
• ☐ DKIM enabled in BayEngage and DNS record published
• ☐ DMARC at p=none with reporting address — DMARC Generator
• ☐ All authentication passing via deliverability checker
• ☐ Suppression list imported from previous platform
• ☐ Engagement segments created in BayEngage
• ☐ InboxEagle seed list added to each warming campaign
• ☐ Google Postmaster Tools connected to sending domain

Weekly During Warming

• ☐ Seed test run after each campaign — confirm inbox placement above 90%
• ☐ Postmaster Tools checked — domain reputation trending up
• ☐ Spam complaint rate below 0.1%
• ☐ Hard bounce rate below 1%
• ☐ No blacklist appearances — blacklist checker
• ☐ Volume increase within 2x of previous week (don't skip weeks)

Warmup Complete When

• ☐ Sending full target volume without inbox placement drops
• ☐ Domain reputation HIGH in Postmaster Tools
• ☐ Complaint rate stable below 0.05%
• ☐ Inbox placement above 90% consistently across all major providers