Klaviyo Deliverability: Why Emails Go to Spam and How to Fix It
Quick answer
Klaviyo emails usually land in spam for a few fixable reasons: an unauthenticated sending domain (missing or misaligned SPF, DKIM, and DMARC), a cold or unwarmed domain, sending to unengaged or stale addresses, or a spam-complaint rate above ~0.1%. The fix: authenticate your domain (SPF plus aligned DKIM, with DMARC at least p=none and monitored), warm up gradually, prune unengaged subscribers, and keep complaints under 0.1% and bounces under ~2%. Because Klaviyo sends from shared IP pools, your reputation is influenced by other senders on the same infrastructure. Moving to dedicated sending infrastructure, such as self-hosted Broadcast paired with Amazon SES or Postmark, gives you an IP reputation that is entirely your own.
Klaviyo’s sending infrastructure is solid; most Klaviyo deliverability problems are configuration and list problems wearing Klaviyo’s name. That is good news, because configuration and list problems are fixable in days, not months. This page covers the causes in the order they actually occur, the step-by-step fix, how to read Klaviyo’s own deliverability reporting, and a repair plan for a domain that has already taken damage.
Why Klaviyo emails go to spam
Five causes cover nearly every case, in rough order of frequency:
- Missing or misaligned authentication. If your account still sends from a shared Klaviyo domain, or your branded domain’s DKIM signature does not align with your From address, Gmail and Yahoo treat the mail as unverifiable. Since their February 2024 bulk-sender rules, that is enough on its own to be filtered.
- Shared IP reputation. Most Klaviyo accounts send from shared IP pools, so your inbox placement is partly shaped by the behavior of other brands on the same IPs. You cannot fix this one with settings; you can only outweigh it with strong engagement, or leave the pool.
- A cold domain or a volume spike. A newly branded sending domain has no reputation, and mailbox providers judge spikes against your sending history. A first big campaign from a fresh domain is the classic trigger. See how to warm up an email domain.
- Stale or unengaged lists. Sending to subscribers who have not opened in months drags your engagement rates down, and engagement is the metric Gmail weighs most heavily.
- Content and tracking signals. Image-heavy emails, link shorteners, and tracking links that run through a shared Klaviyo click-tracking domain all add negative weight. None of these alone puts you in spam; stacked on top of a reputation problem, they keep you there.
Fix it step by step
1. Authenticate a branded sending domain
This is the highest-leverage fix. In Klaviyo, set up a branded (dedicated) sending domain under your account’s domain settings: Klaviyo generates the DKIM and CNAME records, and you add them at your DNS host. Then publish SPF for your sending subdomain and a DMARC record on your root domain. Start DMARC at p=none to monitor, and tighten to quarantine or reject once the reports come back clean.
Two details that trip people up: the DKIM signature must be aligned with your From domain, not just present, and DMARC without either aligned SPF or aligned DKIM fails even when both records exist. Our free SPF generator, DMARC generator, and DMARC testing tool cover the mechanics.
2. Brand your click-tracking domain
By default, links in Klaviyo emails route through a shared click-tracking domain. When the visible From domain and the link domains disagree, filters notice. Set up a dedicated click-tracking subdomain (a CNAME on your own domain) so every domain in the message is yours. It is a small change with a real placement effect for senders already on the margin.
3. Warm up before you scale
If the branded sending domain is new, do not send your full list on day one. Start with your most engaged segment and grow the volume over two to three weeks. The full schedule is in our domain warm-up guide.
4. Send to engaged segments, not the whole list
Build a Klaviyo segment like “opened or clicked in the last 90 days” and make it your default audience. Sending less mail to fewer people reliably improves placement, because the ratio of positive to negative signals is what mailbox providers score. Re-engage or drop the rest; do not keep broadcasting to them.
5. Handle bounces before they handle you
Klaviyo automatically suppresses hard bounces (invalid addresses) and suppresses addresses that soft-bounce repeatedly. Your job is to keep the bounce rate below ~2% in the first place: import only opted-in addresses, never purchased lists, and if a send bounces above 2%, stop and audit where those addresses came from before sending again. A high bounce rate is the fastest way to signal a bought or stale list.
6. Keep complaints under the hard limits
Spam complaints above 0.1% hurt; above 0.3%, Gmail actively filters you, and no content fix compensates. Register with Google Postmaster Tools to see your Gmail reputation directly, and check your complaint rate after every campaign, not quarterly.
Reading Klaviyo’s deliverability score
Klaviyo shows per-campaign deliverability reporting built on four inputs: delivery rate, open rate, spam-complaint rate, and bounce rate. Two rules for reading it:
- Trends beat absolutes. A score that slides across three consecutive campaigns is a warning even if it is still in the “good” band. A single mediocre campaign is noise.
- The negative metrics are the real score. Opens are inflated by Apple Mail Privacy Protection, so treat them as directional. Bounces (<2%), complaints (<0.1%), and unsubscribes (<0.5%) are the numbers mailbox providers act on, and the ones to fix first when the score drops.
If the score is low and the negative metrics look fine, the likely culprit is inbox placement: mail delivered to the spam folder still counts as delivered. Run a seed test with our email spam checker to see where messages actually land.
The 30-day reputation repair plan
If your domain reputation is already damaged, more sending makes it worse. The repair sequence:
- Week 1: Fix authentication completely (steps 1 and 2 above). Cut your audience to the most engaged segment you can define, such as opened in the last 30 days. Send your normal content to only that segment.
- Weeks 2 to 3: Hold the engaged-only audience. Watch Postmaster Tools; domain reputation typically starts moving after several consecutive clean sends. Keep complaints at zero-ish and bounces near zero, which a tight segment makes easy.
- Week 4: Expand the audience gradually, roughly 20 to 30% per send, watching complaint and bounce rates at each step. If a metric jumps, hold at the current size until it settles.
Recovery from an authentication problem takes days. Recovery from a reputation problem takes two to four weeks of consistent, clean sending. There is no faster path; services that promise one are selling engagement-bot noise that Gmail discounts.
When the fix is to leave the shared pool
If your authentication is clean, your list is engaged, and placement still will not recover, the remaining variable is infrastructure you do not control: the shared IP pool and the shared tracking domains. That is the point where moving makes sense, not as a first resort.
Broadcast is our self-hosted email marketing software: a one-time $250 license, run on your own server, paired with an ESP you choose (Amazon SES, Postmark, SendGrid, and others). Your sender reputation lives with your ESP and your domain, portable and entirely yours. We keep an honest Klaviyo alternative comparison if you want the full picture, including where Klaviyo is the better fit.
Frequently asked questions
Why are my Klaviyo emails going to spam?
Most often it comes down to authentication and reputation. If your sending domain is missing SPF, DKIM, or DMARC, or DKIM is not aligned to your From domain, mailbox providers can’t verify you, and messages get filtered. A cold domain, a spike in volume, sending to unengaged or purchased lists, and a spam-complaint rate above ~0.1% all push you toward the spam folder too. Fix authentication first, then engagement and list hygiene.
How do I set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for Klaviyo?
In Klaviyo, set up a branded sending domain in your account’s domain settings, which provides the DKIM and CNAME records to add at your DNS host. Add or update your SPF record for the sending subdomain, and publish a DMARC record (start at p=none to monitor, then tighten to quarantine or reject once reports look clean). Our SPF record generator and DKIM alignment guide walk through the specifics.
What is a good Klaviyo deliverability score?
Treat the score as a trend line rather than a grade. The inputs that matter are the negative metrics: bounces under 2%, spam complaints under 0.1%, unsubscribes under 0.5%. If those are healthy across several sends, placement follows. A sliding score across consecutive campaigns means a growing reputation problem even if each individual campaign still looks acceptable.
How do I fix a high bounce rate in Klaviyo?
Klaviyo suppresses hard bounces automatically, so a persistently high bounce rate means new bad addresses keep entering the list. Audit your signup sources: bot signups on unprotected forms and imported legacy lists are the usual feeders. Add form protection, verify imports before sending, and if a single send bounced above 2%, pause campaigns until you find where those addresses came from.
Does Klaviyo use a shared or dedicated IP?
Most Klaviyo accounts send from shared IP pools, which means your inbox placement is partly affected by the sending behavior of other brands on the same IPs. Dedicated IPs are available at higher volumes but require consistent volume to stay warm. If you want an IP reputation that is fully yours, self-hosted Broadcast paired with Amazon SES or Postmark gives you dedicated sending infrastructure you control.
How long does it take to recover Klaviyo deliverability?
If the root cause is authentication, placement can improve within days of fixing SPF/DKIM/DMARC. Reputation damage from complaints or sending to stale lists takes longer: typically two to four weeks of consistent sending to engaged subscribers only, while you warm back up and keep complaints under 0.1%.
