How to set up DFY Google Mailboxes

Email outreach works only if your sending setup is built correctly. It’s a foundation for good deliverability and long-term results.

For many teams building a stable sending infrastructure for cold outreach causes a lot of friction. This is why besides connecting your existing accounts, Snov.io offers done-for-you Google mailboxes.

Using this option, you can buy domains and create Google email senders in bulk directly from your Snov.io dashboard.

Every account is on Google’s native infrastructure, giving you top performance and deliverability out of the box.

Done-for-You Google Mailboxes are available on all Snov.io plans with no restrictions. You can create an unlimited number of domains and mailboxes.

Here are the steps needed to set up everything from scratch.

Create domains

First, you’ll need to generate a new domain to host the mailboxes.

As a general best practice, always create separate domains for outreach, so your main domain avoids the negative impact of cold emailing.

To get started, go to Email accounts → switch to Domains tab and click Create new.

Enter domain name

Enter your primary domain to the field. Snov.io will suggest a list of lookalike domain names you can choose from.

How to choose a domain name

Make sure your new domain name relates to or includes your main domain. This keeps your outreach domain recognizable and helps avoid spam filters. 

For example, if your main domain is snov.io and your cold domain is hellosnov.io, providers are more likely to treat it as a trusted domain.

If you want your own unique domain, enter the desired name. The first domain in the list will match what you entered. If that domain name is unavailable or the TLD is not supported, you'll see it marked as already taken. 

Choose any of the suggested domain names instead or make sure to use one of the supported extensions (.com, .org, .net).

Choose your domains

Green checkmark means the domain name is available. Select the domains you want to use. 

You can create multiple domains in bulk during one setup. When you start, we recommend creating at least 2–3 domains. This will allow you to distribute outreach safely across accounts with mailbox rotation and always have backup senders ready.

Which domain extension (the part after .dot) to use

We recommend .com as the default choice. For DFY accounts, Snov.io also supports these domain extensions:

• .com, .org, .net — all globally trusted and the most reliable for cold outreach. Choose whichever you prefer from this list.

Review your selected domains and the yearly price for each. The cost per domain depends on the domain extension you choose.

Enter contact details

Fill in your contact details to register the domain in your name. This is required to comply with domain ownership rules.

Enter your email, company name, full name, phone number, and address. Check the box to save contact info for future purchases to reuse these details next time.

Note: Make sure you enter accurate details, not random information. The domain registrar uses this information to assign domain ownership, and incorrect details may result in domain registration issues.

Create and distribute mailboxes

Set up your mailboxes and assign each one to a domain. For each mailbox, fill in these details:

• Profile photo — upload a photo for the Google Account owner's profile. Your recipients will see it as the sender's avatar. This is optional, but recommended as it adds a personal touch
• First name + Last name — shown as the sender name in the From field
• Username — the first part of the email address, before the @
• Domain — select which domain this mailbox will be created on

The sender name you set will appear in the From field. You can update it any time after the setup in the email account settings.

Distribute mailboxes across domains

You can start with 3 mailboxes on one domain and add more on the same domain later. Click Add another to create more mailboxes at once.

Each domain supports a maximum of 5 mailboxes. This is the recommended safe limit per domain that guarantees optimal deliverability.

Review order and complete checkout

The Total price at checkout reflects your first payment: the full yearly cost for all selected domains plus the first charge for all mailboxes.

The pricing is split into two parts:

• Each Google mailbox costs $5/month
• The yearly price per domain depends on the chosen extension

How billing works

DFY accounts are subscription-based and renew automatically at the end of each billing period. View details on your active subscriptions and upcoming charges for your domains and emails in the Billing settings.

• Domains renew annually. They are active for one year from the date of purchase. Note that you'll be charged a few days in advance to ensure the payment goes through on time
• Mailboxes renew monthly (every 30 days). Make sure your payment method is always up to date. If a mailbox renewal fails, both the mailbox and the domain it's on will be cancelled and permanently deleted. More information on billing rules here

Before you pay:

• Double-check that the mailboxes are distributed between domains the way you want. This cannot be changed later
• Domains and mailboxes are non-refundable. You keep the full ownership of purchased domains and accounts even outside of Snov.io

Check your domains and accounts

After your payment is complete, we’ll create the domains and mailboxes with all the necessary settings. The setup may take a few minutes.

Once everything is ready, you’ll see your domains in the Domains tab, and the new mailboxes will appear in your Email Accounts list with a Google domain label.

You can also use a Filter option on the right to display connected email accounts by provider. Select Google domain in the list.

Manage Google accounts

Besides using your DFY mailboxes in Snov.io, you can also access and manage them directly as regular Google accounts.

How to access your Google mailboxes

Your DFY mailboxes are real Google accounts you can sign in to at any time. 

To get the login credentials, go to Billing → Domains & Emails tab and click the three-dot menu next to the email address you need. 

There you'll find the account password and auth code. The login email is the mailbox address itself.

Prepare accounts for campaigns

In DFY accounts, all essential settings are already configured for you by Snov.io. 

SPF, DKIM, DMARC, MX, and CNAME records are configured automatically to ensure 100% domain health.

Here are the steps you still need to do to complete the setup and prepare your domains and mailboxes for campaigns.

Add redirect domain

Set a redirect domain for each of your outreach domains in Snov.io.

Why it’s needed

When using separate domains for cold outreach, a redirect domain ensures you don't lose any site traffic. In practice, if a prospect visits a domain from your email to check who you are, they'll be redirected to your main website instead of an inactive page. 

We recommend using your main domain as the redirect destination.

To set this up: go to Email accounts → Domains. Select the domain using the checkbox, then click Change redirect domain and enter your domain address.

Snov.io will apply the necessary changes automatically. Later you can update the redirect URL if needed.

Set daily sending limits & intervals

As a general rule, prioritize email quality over volume. Lower volume usually means better deliverability.

Set daily sending limits and sending intervals for each email account.

Go to Email accounts → Edit → Daily sending limit and set the daily limit per mailbox.

Our recommended campaign sending limits are:

• 15 emails/day: Starting limit for Google accounts
• 30-40 new emails/day: Recommended limit for warmed-up accounts. Safe to use if reply rate is 5% or more
• 50 new emails/day: Risky even with a strong reputation. Use only for a temporary increase, not as your regular limit
• 100 new emails/day: This is a spammer’s limit. Not recommended for cold outreach

These limits apply to campaign emails only. Warm-up emails are set separately in warm-up settings.

By default, each Google account is set to 15 emails/day. This is the recommended safe starting limit for new Google mailboxes.

Recommended delay between emails

By default, we set email accounts to use random intervals between emails: 600–900 seconds.

Before you begin warm-up, you can set the limit per account to 40 emails/day as this will be the warm-up goal. Warm-up will increase sending gradually each day until it reaches that limit.

To update limits in bulk: go to Email Accounts, select the accounts using the checkboxes, click Edit at the top, and update the value in the Daily sending limit tab.

Remember: You're not launching campaigns yet. At this stage, warm-up will prepare your accounts through automatic emails and replies.

Warm up accounts

DFY Google mailboxes are optimized for deliverability but have no sending history yet. 

Before using them in campaigns, you need to warm them up first. Don’t skip this step because it directly impacts account performance.

Start warm-up for all your accounts, including any you created as backups. The senders warmed up in the background means you'll always have ready-to-use accounts for mailbox rotation.

Note: Warm-up requires slots. Pro and Ultra plans in Snov.io include unlimited warm-up slots. On other plans, the number of slots depends on your plan. See warm-up limits.

To add accounts to warm-up → go to Email accounts → select mailboxes you want to add → click Start warm-up on the quick actions to do it in bulk.

Recommended warm-up duration:

Warm-up helps speed up sender reputation growth, but takes time to see real impact.

• Minimum: 2 weeks
• Recommended: 4 weeks

If you don’t have this time for all accounts, introduce them to real campaigns gradually. Add 2 mailboxes after 1 week of warm-up, 2 more mailboxes after 2 weeks, and so on.

Don't launch campaigns until the initial warm-up period is complete. Starting a campaign too early hurts both warm-up and campaign performance.

Recommended warm-up settings:

• Starting limit 2 emails/day
• A Progressive strategy to gradually increase to 40 emails/day as your warm-up goal
• Set the chosen warm–up end date

Here are the additional settings we recommend for best results.

• Turn on the Premium sender pool to warm up with paid business domains only (no free Gmails in the warm-up pool)
• Enable targeted warm-up if you send to both Gmail and Outlook recipients
• Set the warm-up schedule to the same time zone and hours you plan to use in real campaigns
• Enable custom tracking domain warm-up to make tracked links safer. DFY accounts include custom tracking domains by default, but open and click tracking can still hurt deliverability. Warming them up reduces that risk.

Monitor warm-up progress

During the warm-up period, you can monitor its progress on the warm-up dashboard. The process runs automatically until the end.

Deliverability check after warm-up

Before launching any campaign, run a simulation sending with Deliverability check to confirm your mailboxes are ready. This test is closer to a real-world campaign scenario. Check these metrics in the results:

• Inbox rate: If inbox score is 90% or higher — your accounts are ready to launch. If it's below → extend warm-up until it reaches at least 90%
• Placement by provider: If you see no issues with Gmail or Outlook — accounts are ready. If you notice issues with spam → make sure provider-specific warm-up is enabled and run warm-up for a few days more.

Perform a deliverability test after warm-up, before every new campaign, and at least once a week while campaigns are active.

Before campaign start

Here are the final recommended steps to take before you use the mailboxes in campaigns.

Sync inboxes

To view replies and work with your inbox while campaigns are active, you have two options:

• Sign in directly to each Google account
• Add your mailboxes to Unibox to sync all communications from all accounts in one place

Keep warm-up active

Use warm-up as a background process to protect deliverability even while the campaign is active.

Keep warm-up active alongside campaigns, but remember to adjust email sending limits.

• When campaigns are active, split your daily limit between campaign and warm-up
• When all campaigns are paused, use the full limit for warm-up
• On days when you send fewer cold emails than usual, add some warm-up emails

Set campaign & warm-up limits

Don’t spend the full daily limit for cold emails. Distribute limits between campaign sending and warm-up. It helps offset the negative signals that come with cold emailing.

The recommended daily limit distribution is 40 cold emails + 10 warm-up emails.

Warm-up and campaign limits are set separately in the Snov.io settings:

• Set the warm-up limit in warm-up settings
• Set the campaign sending limit per mailbox in email account settings

When you start a real campaign, warm-up emails are not counted toward the daily sending limit in email account settings. Only campaign emails are controlled by that limit.

However, both activities count toward the total limit per account. The recommended total is 50 emails/day or less. 

If you want to be extra safe with limits, use this ratio for the first week of campaigns: 4 warm-up emails for every 1 cold email.

• 40 warm-up emails/day
• 10 campaign emails/day

Each next week, add 5 emails/day to campaign sending and remove 5 emails from the warm-up limit. As your accounts gain more reputation and usage, 10 warm-up emails/day and 40 campaign emails/day will be optimal.

Increasing limits gradually based on engagement is the safest way to do it.

• If campaigns perform well, you can increase campaign and lower warm-up limit
• If engagement drop, lower campaign limit and increase warm-up so your sender reputation doesn’t fall

Tip: Use reply rate as your signal for safe limit increase.

Reply rate is 5% or more → add +5 campaign emails/day per mailbox every week

Reply rate is lower than 5% → return to the previous sending limit

Follow all our recommendations on how to avoid spam filters in this guide.