Spam Score
Email MarketingAlso: Spam Rate · Email Deliverability Score
Quick definition
The percentage of recipients who mark your email as spam. High spam rates damage sender reputation and push future emails into junk folders.
Where it shows up in the data
What it actually means
Spam score measures how often your recipients actively complain about your emails. Every time someone hits 'Report spam', that complaint is logged against your sending domain and IP. ISPs use this signal to decide whether future emails from you go to inbox or junk. Gmail starts throttling senders at 0.1% spam rate and blocks at 0.3%. Once you cross those thresholds, your entire list suffers — not just the people who complained.
A 0.1% spam rate sounds tiny. Gmail's threshold for blocking your domain is 0.1%.
The Australian context
Australian businesses sending to mixed lists of Gmail and Outlook addresses are subject to both Google and Microsoft reputation systems. The Australian Spam Act 2003 adds legal obligations on top: unsubscribe mechanisms must work within five business days and consent must be documented.
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About New Rebellion
New Rebellion is a marketing intelligence consultancy. We build tools, score Australian businesses on how their marketing actually performs, and publish Debrief every day. This dictionary is part of how we work in the open.
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