How to prepare your sender accounts for campaigns

This guide shows how to warm up your sender accounts using Snov.io’s Email Warm-up tool and check their deliverability before starting automated campaigns.

To improve account performance and deliverability on all providers, warm up your senders before launching campaigns.

Email warm-up gradually increases sending volume and recreates real email activity by sending and receiving messages with other real accounts.

It helps ensure your campaigns reach the inbox consistently, especially when sending to large segments or running regular campaigns.

Warm-up sender accounts before campaigns

Before launching campaigns, run accounts through the initial warm-up period and do not send campaign emails during this time to get the full effect:

• 4 weeks: for new domains and new accounts
• 2 weeks: for existing accounts or accounts inactive for some time

Warm-up is especially important before sending campaigns to new or large segments. After the initial period, keep warm-up active at all times to maintain deliverability.

Add accounts to warm-up

Start warm-up right after connecting your accounts in Snov.io.

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.

You can start warm-up in two ways: automatic (quick launch) or manual configuration with advanced settings.

One-click warm-up launch

Quick warm-up launch automatically selects the optimal preset based on your sender activity over the last month:

• New or low-activity accounts: gradual ramp-up to prepare accounts for campaigns
• Active accounts: fixed daily warm-up to maintain deliverability

Go to Email Accounts and use the Quick launch button under Warm-up.

To launch in bulk, select accounts with checkboxes and click Start warm-up in the top panel.

Recommended warm-up presets

Here are the strategies Snov.io uses for warm-up.

For new accounts (Progressive warm-up):

• Starting volume: Number of emails sent on the first day. Warm-up starts with 2 emails by default
• Daily volume increase: Number of emails added each day. Warm-up increases by 2 emails per day
• Daily sending goal: The limit at which warm-up stops increasing. We recommend setting the warm-up goal to 40 emails per day

For existing accounts (Steady warm-up):

• Emails per day: Warm-up sends the same number of emails every day. We recommend setting this limit to 40 emails per day

The warm-up sending limit cannot be higher than your email account’s Messages per day limit. If it is set lower, we will automatically adjust the warm-up limit to the maximum allowed by your account settings.

Advanced warm-up setup

Use advanced settings to customize warm-up based on your current needs. Go to Email Warm-up to configure and start it manually.

Here are the settings we recommend:

Warm-up pool

Enable the Premium sender pool to warm up with business email addresses only. This simulates exchanging emails with other companies and has a stronger effect on sender reputation.

Targeted warm-up

Select the providers your contacts use (for example, Gmail or Outlook). Warm-up emails will be sent to the same providers, improving inbox placement and reputation on that specific provider.

Custom tracking domain warm-up

If you use a custom tracking domain for open and link tracking, include it in your warm-up. This helps build trust for tracked links and reduces the risk of emails being flagged when tracking is enabled in campaigns.

Tracking (opens and clicks) can affect deliverability, so warming up your tracking domain helps reduce risks when tracking is enabled.

Specific template warm-up

In warm-up settings, you can add your own email template, the same one you plan to use in campaigns. Warm-up will send emails using this template, improving deliverability for that specific content.

This option works best after completing the initial warm-up with AI-generated emails. AI content is unique in every message, which makes it more effective for the first warm-up. Once the initial warm-up is complete, switch to your own template in warm-up.

Manage active warm-ups

To check warm-up status and each account’s deliverability score, go to the Warm-up dashboard.

From here, you can see which accounts are currently warming up and manage them individually or in bulk:

• Pause or resume warm-up
• Edit warm-up settings and limits

Check account deliverability after warm-up

Warm-up helps build sender reputation, but inbox placement also depends on your sending setup and what’s inside the message:

• DNS records: SPF, DKIM, DMARC configuration

• Content: HTML or plain text, links, wording

Go to Deliverability check to run tests under real sending conditions.

Run deliverability tests regularly: after warm-up and every week while your campaigns are active.

Check these results after running tests:

• Domain health: 100% score is recommended
• Inbox rate: 90%+: ready for campaigns; if inbox rate is 80% or lower, continue warm-up until it improves
• Spam rate: 5%+: do not use this sender for campaigns. Fix detected issues and keep it on warm-up only until the score improves

Warm-up during campaigns

Your sender reputation changes based on your email activity. Campaigns can bring negative signals, like bounces or spam reports. Warm-up helps maintain reputation by generating positive signals.

Keep warm-up running when you’re not sending campaigns to prevent gaps in account activity. Long breaks in sending can hurt your reputation and may require re-warm-up before your next campaign.

• Keep warm-up active during and between campaigns
• Avoid long gaps in sending
• When campaigns are active, split your daily limit between campaign and warm-up
• When campaigns are paused, use your full daily limit for warm-up

Warm-up and campaign sending limits

When you start campaigns, don’t use your full daily sending limit for campaigns only.

For automated campaigns, keep your total daily sending (warm-up + campaign) at 100 emails/day or less. Exceeding the recommended total limit can negatively affect deliverability.

Split your daily sending limit between campaign and warm-up emails:

• during active campaigns, use about 70–80% for campaigns and 20–30% for warm-up
• for example, out of 100 emails/day: 80 campaign emails + 20 warm-up emails

Warm-up and campaign sending limits are set separately, but both count toward your total daily sending as seen by your mailbox provider.

When you start a campaign, warm-up emails are not shown in the limit in email account settings. Only campaign emails are controlled by that limit.

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

You can update both limits for multiple accounts at once. To update in bulk: select accounts with checkboxes on email accounts or on warm-up dashboard.

Adjust limits based on metrics

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

• If campaigns perform well, you can increase campaign and lower warm-up limit
• If engagement drops, lower campaign limit and increase warm-up

Use bounce rate and deliverability metrics as your signal for safe limit increase.

Deliverability is above 90% and Bounce rate is 5% or less: increase campaign emails and lower warm-up emails.

If you notice issues during deliverability tests or your bounce rate is above 5%, reduce campaign sending and increase warm-up.

Related articles

Warm-up slots and limits