Inbox placement test
See whether your cold email lands in the inbox, a tab or spam at Google Workspace, Gmail, Microsoft 365 and Outlook.com. The test runs in the Ken app, on your own campaign.
How a test works
Open a campaign and choose the domain or inbox to send from, the lead to fill the merge fields with and the copy version. Each can be random.
One copy goes to each seed inbox at Google Workspace, Gmail, Microsoft 365 and Outlook.com, from your inbox, with your subject, body and links.
The test reports how many copies reached the inbox, a tab, spam or nowhere, and the inbox rate at each provider.
What a result looks like
A fictional test, in the shape the app reports.Inbox rate at each provider. Read them one by one: here Gmail and Workspace are fine, and Microsoft's filters are the ones to work on. Ken's Delivery chart leads with the business providers, where B2B prospects read their mail.
Next
What an inbox placement test measures
DNS checks and mail testers tell you whether a message is set up right. A placement test shows where it lands. One email goes to a set of seed inboxes at Google Workspace, Gmail, Microsoft 365 and Outlook.com, and the test reports each copy as inbox, a tab, spam or missing.
The seeds are real mailboxes at those providers, so the result reflects their filters and your sending reputation as they see it that day. In Ken the test sends your campaign's own copy, filled in for one of your leads, from the inbox you choose.
How to read the result
Read each provider on its own. Google Workspace can deliver a message to the inbox while Microsoft 365 sends the same message to junk, because they weigh signals differently. For B2B, the business providers matter most: that's where your prospects read their mail.
A tab isn't spam, but for a one-to-one sales email it suggests the message reads like marketing: an HTML template, images, tracking, several links. Missing usually means the provider rejected or is still holding the message, so check for bounces before you read it as spam.
One test is a sample. Seed inboxes have no history with you, while some prospects do. Treat the result as a signal and test again after each change.
What to do with a bad result
- Spam at every provider. Check authentication with the domain health check, then blocklists. A new domain may just need more warmup.
- Spam at one provider. Lower volume to that provider for a while and check its own tools: Google Postmaster Tools, or Microsoft SNDS if you run your own IPs.
- Tabs. Cut images and links, turn off open tracking and send plain text.
- Missing. Look for bounces and block messages from that provider.
Why it matters for cold email
Cold email gives no feedback when it fails. A message in spam doesn't bounce, so a campaign can run for weeks to an empty audience while every dashboard looks normal.
Test before a launch and after any change to inboxes, domains, sending tool or copy. It catches a problem before it costs you a list.