Gmail categorization is a data feature that shows you how Gmail is categorizing your emails. Gmail categorization is based on subscriber data from SmartSeeds so you can see how your campaigns are classified across the Primary, Promotional, Social, Updates, and Forums categories. In addition to showing you how a campaign was classified, it also shows you whether it was placed in the inbox or filtered into the spam folder for each category. 

With this information, you can better understand another context in which your subscribers are reading your email. This can help you potentially adjust your email strategy to ensure your campaigns are being treated appropriately for maximum engagement. 

Example

You may see that your order confirmations are being categorized as Promotional rather than Updates. To change this, you can test different email adjustments such as:

• Reducing promotional content in your order confirmations
• Using more straightforward subject lines
• Switching the sending domain to one that is used to commonly send order confirmations

Important: Gmail classifies all incoming email into the different Gmail categories. They do this in order to place the email in the correct tab if a user:

• Has already activated the Gmail Tabs feature
• Activates the Gmail Tabs feature
• Marks an email in the spam folder as "not spam"

This means we show you Gmail categorization data even if subscribers have the Gmail Tabs feature turned off or if email is filtered to the spam folder. 

For more information about Gmail's category definitions, please refer to their Bulk Sender Guidelines. 

How does Gmail categorization work? 

1. Gmail categorizes your email.
• Gmail applies a category to each incoming email. However, Gmail categorization is not identical across a single campaign for all subscribers. There are multiple factors that can influence different classifications for the same campaign. These factors include subscriber interaction, sender address, and mixed content (promotional and transactional) in one email. 
2. Gmail SmartSeeds mailboxes receive your campaign.
• Return Path uses SmartSeeds data to see how Gmail is categorizing your email for seeded campaigns.
3. Gmail categorization data becomes available as a percentage in your Return Path account.

What types of messages typically get filtered into each category?

• Primary: person-to-person conversations and messages that don't appear in other tabs
• Social: messages from social networks, media-sharing sites, online dating services, and other social websites
• Promotions: deals, offers, and other marketing emails
• Updates: personal, auto-generated updates including confirmations, bills, receipts, bills, and statements
• Forums: messages from online groups, discussion boards, and mailing lists