Deliverability basics
A campaign needs a verified sending identity, an eligible audience and a healthy sending history. This lesson explains the controls maxclicks provides for authentication, consent and suppressions, and how to read delivery signals without treating acceptance as inbox placement.
For a first campaign, work through three checks in order: can your sender send, may this customer receive this message, and what happened to the delivery? A verified domain answers the first. A subscribed, unsuppressed contact answers part of the second. Only the resulting email activity can tell you what happened after the attempt.
Verify a sending domain
maxclicks sends on your behalf, so inbox providers need proof you authorized it. You provide that proof by verifying a domain: you add DNS records that say maxclicks may send as your domain.
Verification is required. Nothing sends from a domain until it is verified. There is no shared fallback domain. The first domain becomes the space default when added. That default still cannot send until verification succeeds. Moving the default later requires a verified domain, and existing emails can retain an explicit sender.
The flow is short:
Register the domain
Add your domain, for examplecompany.com, under Settings.Add the records
Copy the DNS records maxclicks generates and add them at your DNS provider.Start verification
Follow the background verification results until the domain shows Verified For Sending. DNS propagation and provider processing can delay the result.
The same job re-checks a verified domain. If its DNS records disappear, the job un-verifies the domain, and every send from it stops. Leave the records published as long as you send from the domain.
DNS records: SPF, DKIM, DMARC, return path
maxclicks generates the exact records to add. Each one plays one part in the authentication story.
| Record | What it proves |
|---|---|
| DKIM | Your messages were cryptographically signed by your domain. Receivers can verify the signature. |
| SPF | maxclicks is allowed to send for your domain. |
| DMARC | How receivers should treat mail that fails the checks above. |
| Return path | A subdomain where bounce notifications go, so failed deliveries are handled. |
You do not memorize the syntax. maxclicks shows each record with its value, and the domain page explains where each goes. The return-path subdomain is created for you beneath your chosen domain.
Suppressions
A suppression is a do-not-contact mark on an email address. It applies to every contact that shares the address, including contacts created later. A suppression applies either to your space alone or across all of maxclicks.
| Reason | Set by |
|---|---|
unsubscribed | contact |
hard_bounce | system |
soft_bounce_consecutive | supported reason; not automatically created today |
spam_complaint | system |
manual | authorized teammate |
legal | authorized teammate |
Suppressions change what sends:
- Marketing email is skipped for any applicable channel-wide suppression. A topic opt-out also blocks the address for that topic within the workspace.
- Transactional email is skipped only for a bounce suppression.
Hard bounces and spam complaints create suppressions automatically as their events arrive. The consecutive-soft-bounce reason is supported by sending checks but is not automatically created by the current event handling. Authorized teammates can set manual and legal reasons. See contacts for the full suppression model.
Sender reputation
A verified domain is what makes sending possible. Verification does not guarantee inbox placement. maxclicks shows you the signals it gets from the sending network: complaint records, bounce and complaint suppressions, and open recommendations for DKIM, DMARC, SPF, and BIMI. The workspace can have sending disabled separately from domain verification. Inspect its current reason and notices when a verified sender cannot send.
Reputation is earned over time. Send to people who asked for your email, review bounce and complaint signals, and treat suppression as one sending control rather than proof that the remaining audience is appropriate.
Read acceptance separately from delivery
An individual email’s Sent status records the sending provider's acceptance. Campaign and template funnel totals can include pending or unsuccessful email records; use report definitions when assessing those totals. Delivered records a later delivery event; the message may still be placed outside the inbox. Opens and clicks are recorded interactions, not a revenue or activation measurement. Use the recipient's email activity to investigate failures and Google Postmaster Tools for Gmail-specific signals.
When delivery is uncertain, a second send can become a duplicate. Reconcile the original message before sending the same customer another copy.
Next
With a verified domain and clean suppressions, you are ready to send. Continue to sending email, or open the domain reference for the full DNS walkthrough and sender profiles.