Klaviyo's Deliverability Tab: How to Read the Metrics During BFCM

During BFCM, send volume goes up, and so does exposure to a reputation problem. Klaviyo has a deliverability tab for each campaign and each flow email. It does not replace the mailbox providers' own tools, but it gives you thresholds and a breakdown by provider, domain and country on one screen.

TL;DR. The tab shows five metrics (open, click, bounce, unsubscribe, spam complaint), each rated Healthy, Room for improvement or Needs Attention. The charts break these measures down by mailbox provider, domain, country and email client. In our view, you check it at every high-volume send during the operation, not only after an incident.

Want an outside look before you build? We offer a Q4 readiness audit: 30 minutes, free, no strings attached.

Where to find the tab

For a campaign, open a sent email campaign and choose the Deliverability tab. For a flow, open the flow email and click Edit to see the tab (Klaviyo, understanding the campaign and flow deliverability tab). The page displays the five key metrics and a status for each one.

The thresholds, metric by metric

On the tab's page, the Needs attention column for the complaint rate reads ">0.05" without the percent symbol. Klaviyo's page on deliverability monitoring repeats the same table with ">0.05%" and speaks of a spam rate "over 0.05%" (Klaviyo, getting started with deliverability monitoring): the threshold is indeed 0.05%.

Two reading precautions, in our view. These thresholds are Klaviyo's, not the mailbox providers'. And the open rate is skewed by Apple's privacy protections: our article on Apple Mail Privacy Protection explains the effect. A "healthy" open rate therefore does not, on its own, show that emails reach the inbox.

If a metric is rated Room for improvement or Needs Attention, the page links to a troubleshooting guide for declining performance.

The four breakdown charts

By mailbox provider

This chart shows whether the problem is limited to one provider. It displays the key metrics for the providers your customers use. The five providers shown by default are the ones that received the most messages. A provider with a Needs Attention status is also displayed on load, for visibility. Two categories can be selected: positive engagement (open and click) and negative engagement (bounce, unsubscribe, spam complaint).

By email domain

Same logic, at the level of the email address domain: the five most represented domains are displayed first, and a domain in Needs Attention appears on load.

By country

This chart breaks results down by country and, according to the page, can help optimize send times for your main audience. The display rules are the same. The page links to the documentation explaining how a profile's location is defined in Klaviyo.

By email client

This chart shows how recipients read the email: split between desktop and mobile, as a percentage of total opens and as a number of open events. It relies on the user agent properties of the open event. The page specifies that the email client is hidden when the email is opened with Apple Mail Privacy Protection, so open data can lean toward desktop if many customers use that protection.

Send volume by provider, domain and country

A separate card shows what share of total send volume a provider, a domain or a country represents, with a split between delivered and bounced emails, as a percentage of total sends. It helps you see where most of your sends go and whether those sends arrive.

The Needs Attention status in the dropdown lists

When a domain or a country shows very weak results, the Needs Attention status appears next to its name. It is only visible if at least two metrics are in the Needs Attention zone and if the domain or country represents at least 5% of the campaign's send volume. In our view, a small domain in trouble may therefore not trigger the status: the absence of a status does not prove the absence of a problem.

What to do with a degraded reading

In our view, the tab is read at three moments: after the opening send, after each large-audience send, and at the start of the following week. The possible causes can be deduced from the charts.

Our article on list hygiene details the cleaning, and the one on the Google and Yahoo rules recalls the providers' requirements. To read reputation on the Gmail side, our guide to Postmaster Tools shows the other source of truth.

Protect the open rate with engaged segments

Klaviyo's page on improving open rate gives five levers: engaged segments, targeted subject lines, list cleaning, the right send time and performance tracking (Klaviyo, increasing campaign open rates). For BFCM deliverability, the first is the one that matters most, in our view.

The page suggests defining an engaged segment as subscribers who recently opened or clicked, or who recently signed up. Recommended starting point: opened or clicked in the last 30 days, plus sign-ups from the last 15 days. You then evaluate performance and adjust: if the open rate is clearly above 20%, you widen to 60 days, and if it falls below 20%, you narrow, for example to 14 days, until you find the engaged core. The page specifies that these criteria should follow the brand's sending rhythm, and mentions the strategy of engaged segments over 30, 60 and 90 days, or segments by frequency.

In our view, this reasoning carries over to the operation as follows: the opening send goes to the engaged segment, and sends widened to older profiles are placed later in the calendar, once the first results have been read in the tab. The engagement score offers another way to rank these profiles, and the BFCM send calendar gives the timeline.

The page's other levers: a clear subject line with a sharp call to action, personalization, urgency when the message calls for it, regular cleaning of unengaged, mistyped or fake addresses, sending at the recipient's local time, and continuous tracking. The page notes that a critically low open rate triggers an alert from Klaviyo.

Checklist before BFCM

These points are Deliver's advice.

1. The five metrics of the last large campaign are recorded before the operation, as a point of comparison.
2. The charts by provider and by domain are read after the opening send.
3. An engaged segment is defined for volume sends, with its window of 30 days or more.
4. Unengaged profiles do not receive volume sends before the first results have been read.
5. The list is cleaned before the operation, not during it.
6. One person is designated to read the tab after each important send.

FAQ

Where is the Deliverability tab?

In a sent email campaign, under the Deliverability tab. For a flow, in the flow email, via Edit.

Which metrics does the tab show?

Open rate, click rate, bounce rate, unsubscribe rate and spam complaint rate.

Why does my country or domain not show Needs Attention when its results are weak?

The status only appears if at least two metrics are in the Needs Attention zone and if the country or domain accounts for at least 5% of the campaign's send volume.

Is the email client always visible?

No. It is hidden when the email is opened with Apple Mail Privacy Protection.

Which engaged segment should I choose to start?

The page suggests as a starting point subscribers who opened or clicked in the last 30 days, plus those who signed up in the last 15 days, to be adjusted according to the open rate.

Want an outside look at your deliverability? We run Q4 readiness audits, or you can talk directly with the Deliver team.