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Inbox placement rate (IPR) is the percentage of sent emails that successfully land in recipients' primary inbox rather than spam folders, promotions tabs, or being blocked entirely. It is a more accurate measure of email deliverability than delivery rate, which only counts whether an email was accepted by the receiving server.
Inbox placement rate is the most important deliverability metric because it measures actual visibility to recipients. A high delivery rate means nothing if your emails are going to spam. Industry benchmarks suggest that a good inbox placement rate is above 80%, while anything below 70% indicates serious deliverability problems. Low IPR directly impacts your email marketing ROI - emails in spam folders get near-zero engagement, wasting your sending costs and damaging future reputation through poor engagement signals.
Inbox placement rate is calculated by dividing the number of emails that reach the inbox by the total number of emails sent, then multiplying by 100. For example, if you send 1,000 emails and 850 land in the inbox (with 100 going to spam and 50 bouncing), your IPR is 85%. Unlike delivery rate which might show 95% (950 delivered), IPR reveals the true picture of how many recipients can actually see your email. Measuring IPR requires seed testing or panel data because senders cannot directly see where emails land. Services like EmailVerify provide inbox placement testing.
A good inbox placement rate is 85% or higher. Rates between 70-85% suggest room for improvement. Below 70% indicates serious deliverability issues that need immediate attention. Top senders with excellent list hygiene and engagement can achieve 95%+ inbox placement rates.
Delivery rate measures whether an email was accepted by the receiving server (not bounced). Inbox placement rate measures whether accepted emails actually landed in the inbox versus spam or other folders. You can have a 98% delivery rate but only 60% inbox placement if many emails are going to spam.
Inbox placement rate requires seed testing - sending emails to a panel of test addresses across different providers and checking where they land. Services like EmailVerify, GlockApps, and Validity offer inbox placement testing. You cannot measure IPR from standard email analytics alone since they do not show spam folder placement.
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