Why Your Brevo Emails Go to Spam (And How to Fix It)

Short answer. A Brevo email lands in spam for one of five reasons, in this order of likelihood: incomplete DNS authentication (missing or misaligned SPF, DKIM, or DMARC on the sending domain), degraded shared-IP reputation, a poorly maintained list sending disengagement signals to mailbox providers, content that trips filters, or a misconfigured Brevo-specific setting. Diagnose in that order. Most cases resolve at step one or two.

A campaign goes out, the open rate collapses below 5%, and customer reports confirm what you feared: the email is in Spam, not Primary. No amount of tweaking the next subject line will fix that: the problem sits at the deliverability level, and it gets resolved by working through a set order of checks.

This guide follows a diagnostic tree: five checks, ranked by how often each one explains the problem. Each section says what to check and where to check it inside Brevo.

1. The diagnostic tree at a glance

Before digging into each cause, find your symptom in this table. It points you straight to the step to work on first.

If you don't know where to start, start with authentication. It is the foundation, and a problem at this level alone explains the majority of the spam placements we audit.

2. Step 1: authentication, dedicated domain or shared Brevo domain

In most of the audits we run, the primary cause of a spam placement is a sending domain that is poorly authenticated, or not authenticated at all, ahead of reputation and content.

The root-domain trap. Sending from contact@yourdomain.com without a dedicated subdomain exposes your primary domain to any drop in email reputation. If your sending reputation degrades, it can affect transactional email and your brand as a whole. The fix is a subdomain dedicated to marketing sends (mail.yourdomain.com or news.yourdomain.com), with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC applied there. The full step-by-step setup is covered in SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup.

Check all three records in Brevo. Go to Settings > Senders & Domains. Every record status should show green:

• SPF. One TXT record per domain, including include:spf.sendinblue.com. If you stack multiple sending tools (Brevo, Shopify, a transactional provider), they all need to sit in that same record, not in separate ones.
• DKIM. A CNAME record generated by Brevo, published in your DNS. Without it, the receiving server cannot verify the cryptographic signature on your emails.
• DMARC. Start at p=none to observe reports, then move progressively to p=quarantine and p=reject once legitimate senders are identified. Never skip a phase: a premature p=reject can block your own transactional email.

Quick diagnostic. If you are not sure your domain is properly authenticated, send a test email to a personal Gmail address and inspect the full message header. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC should all show "pass". A single failure is enough to explain a spam placement.

3. Step 2: shared IP reputation vs a dedicated IP

If authentication is clean and the problem persists, IP reputation is the next suspect.

Brevo uses shared IPs for standard accounts. That IP is pooled with other Brevo senders, so its reputation depends in part on how those other senders behave. In most cases Brevo actively manages and monitors the reputation of its shared IPs. But if your own domain sends without discipline (erratic volume, an unmaintained list), your domain reputation, which is distinct from the IP, degrades in parallel.

Warmup is not optional. A new domain, or a resumed send after a long pause, needs to ramp volume gradually. A domain that jumps from zero to several thousand sends in 24 hours is a suspicious signal to mailbox providers, independent of the shared IP's reputation.

Dedicated IP: only if volume justifies it. Brevo offers a dedicated IP as an add-on, available from the Business Plus plan, and it makes sense above roughly 100,000 sends per month. With a dedicated IP, your reputation depends solely on your own sending. But a new dedicated IP also needs warming, typically over 6 to 8 weeks, and it fixes nothing if the real problem sits in authentication or the list. Without enough volume to keep it active, a dedicated IP becomes an unnecessary cost that can even hurt placement.

4. Step 3: list hygiene and engagement signals

If authentication and the IP are clean, the problem is almost always how mailbox providers read engagement across your list.

What Gmail and Yahoo actually measure. They don't just track whether emails go out; they track how recipients respond: opens, clicks, complaints, delete-without-reading, unsubscribes. A list that accumulates inactive contacts who do nothing with your emails drags this ratio down mechanically, even when your content is relevant to the active portion of the base.

The thresholds that trigger aggressive filtering. A complaint rate above 0.10% puts your domain in a monitoring zone; above 0.30%, filtering becomes near-automatic at Gmail. A hard bounce rate above 2% is already a negative signal to mailbox providers.

Fix in this order:

1. Remove hard-bounced addresses (Brevo excludes them from future sends automatically, but verify no manual re-import brings them back).
2. Exclude role-based addresses (info@, contact@, admin@): low open rates, often monitored.
3. Put a sunset flow in place for contacts inactive for more than 180 days, before they drag down overall engagement.
4. If your list has gone 12+ months without active management, run a reconfirmation campaign targeting contacts inactive for 120+ days before resuming volume sends.

The full method, including the segments to build and a recommended cleaning cadence, is covered in Email list hygiene.

5. Step 4: content and structure

Content is rarely the primary cause of a recurring spam placement, but it can make an existing problem worse, or explain why one specific campaign lands in spam when others don't.

What actually matters:

• Balanced text-to-image ratio. An email built almost entirely from a single image is a classic negative signal for filters.
• Visible unsubscribe link. It should sit clearly in the body of the email, not only in tiny footer text. Brevo says it automatically adds an unsubscribe link when a campaign lacks one, but don't rely on that fallback: design a clear unsubscribe path from the start.
• Consistent sender name. A recipient who doesn't recognize the sender is more likely to click "Report spam" than "Unsubscribe."
• Physical address and required footer information. Missing it is a compliance signal some filters penalize, on top of being a legal requirement.
• Consistent link destinations. Avoid generic URL shorteners or links to domains unrelated to your brand: filters associate them with spam behavior.

None of these fix broken authentication or a poorly maintained list. Address them after steps 1 through 3, not instead of them.

6. Step 5: Brevo-specific settings to check

Once authentication, IP reputation, list hygiene, and content are all checked, review the Brevo-specific settings that directly influence placement.

• Verified domain under Settings > Senders & Domains. An unverified or partially verified status is enough to explain poor placement, even if the DNS looks correct on your end.
• Brevo Inbox Placement. Under Campaigns > Statistics > Inbox Placement, this tool gives a per-provider placement estimate after each send, without real-time monitoring. It's the first move to confirm a problem flagged by customers.
• Complaint and bounce tracking in campaign statistics. Review these after every send, not only once a problem has already surfaced.
• Warmup respected on any new domain or new dedicated IP. Confirm volume is ramping gradually rather than launching at full load.

The full set of seven checks to validate before a first send, including warmup protocols and the thresholds to watch, is covered in Brevo email deliverability: 7 checks before you send.

7. If you're already blocklisted

If an MXToolbox lookup confirms your IP or domain sits on a list like Spamhaus, Barracuda, or Microsoft's block list, do not submit a removal request before fixing the underlying cause. A delisting request sent without a prior fix ends in a refusal or a repeat listing on the next send. The full procedure, list by list, is detailed in Email blocklist removal: diagnose and get delisted.

What Deliver checks first on a Brevo audit

On most audits we run, the initial problem sits in the first two steps of this tree: incomplete authentication or reputation degraded by skipped warmup. Content and fine-grained settings only come after that. Our Brevo agency audits DNS, list quality, and settings to identify the exact cause instead of guessing.

FAQ

How long does it take for Brevo emails to go back to the primary inbox?

It depends on the cause. An authentication fix shows results within days once DNS propagates. Reputation damaged by months of poor engagement typically needs 4 to 8 weeks of disciplined correction: reduced volume, an audience narrowed to the most engaged contacts, then gradual expansion.

My emails land in Gmail Promotions, is that the same as spam?

No. Promotions is an inbox tab, not a spam folder. An email in Promotions is delivered and stays readable. The real red flag is an email landing in the Spam folder or getting rejected outright. Don't conflate the two diagnostics: they call for different fixes.

Do I need a dedicated Brevo IP to get out of spam?

Not in most cases. A dedicated IP matters for sustained, regular volume, generally above 100,000 sends per month. Below that, a well-managed shared IP, paired with clean authentication and an engaged list, is usually enough. A dedicated IP fixes neither an authentication problem nor a poorly maintained list.

Can Brevo limit my sending if my complaint rate is too high?

Yes. A high complaint rate can lead to limited or suspended sending on your account, and mailbox providers like Gmail can filter a large share of your emails into spam for the following weeks. There is no instant fix: the best prevention is never sending to a cold, unengaged list.

Should I switch ESPs if my Brevo emails go to spam?

Rarely. Switching tools does not fix broken authentication or a poorly maintained list; the same problem shows up again elsewhere. Diagnose the five steps in this tree first. A migration only makes sense once you've identified a structural limit specific to Brevo, not as a reaction to a single incident.

→ Book a Brevo deliverability diagnostic

Further reading

• SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup
• Brevo email deliverability: 7 checks before you send
• Email list hygiene
• Email blocklist removal: diagnose and get delisted
• Email deliverability guide

Charlotte Rodrigues, CRM Lead at Deliver.