What are the criteria for switching to dedicated IP?

So, big, classic question! And if I come back to you with this often discussed subject, it's because the question came up again yesterday (and it would be silly not to let everyone benefit from the answer that was given). As often (it's the case here), the question of dedicated IPs versus shared IPs comes from a low opening rate observation. By the way, Seb and I had the same identical question in return: "What are the opening rates by destination?"

Yes, because this question is often asked for a reason and your friends the deliverability consultants have this reflex to check if there is a problem with a particular destination (Gmail, Orange, Microsoft, ...). At the time of publishing these lines, we do not have an answer yet.

Dedicated IP or shared IP?

Contrary to what was said a few years ago, it is less and less necessary to isolate oneself on dedicated IPs in order to build up a clean reputation. Email operators now have the means to identify brands, whether with domains or with all the information left in the content of emails.

We will segment our answer into 3 very different cases. :

1. We have clean shipments and database quality.

There is a minimum of work on the inactives, the collection is of good quality, the sendings generate few negative reactions (complaints, dissatisfaction rate, ...). In this case, shared IPs (as long as the IPs' "neighbors" are also "clean") can bring many advantages:

• Less need to pay attention to volume peaks (without going overboard)
• Shock absorption when there are targeting errors (since reputation is shared with other players, it varies less quickly)
• Faster warmup time
• The need for deliverability monitoring simpler (there is no point for the advertiser to monitor the IPs as he is not the only one on them, let's leave this job to the router)
• Lower costs
• ... and we could still list a good series of them

2. Traffic is "borderline

In this case, it is often the routing solution that will impose to use one or more dedicated IPs. The objective is that you do not have a negative impact on the reputation of other users of the platform. The reasons are exactly the opposite of the first case. You probably have collection methods that generate negative interactions (complaints, bounces, ...) and/or an old base without specific work on inactives (low engagement, deletion of emails before opening, ...)... In this case, you will probably be forced to switch to dedicated IPs... There is no advantage for you (as the sender of the emails), but it's absolutely necessary from the point of view of your email router. The best advice is to try to improve your overall practices in order to improve your reputation (and don't think you can do it in less than 3 or 4 months).

3. The traffic is ULTRA MEGA QUALITATIVE

Maybe you were in case "1", but with hard work you end up with an exceptional reputation! All the indicators are green: almost no complaints, almost no bounces, very few inactives (which in addition enter a dedicated program and are then deactivated), very low dissatisfaction rates, very high engagement rates (more than 40% of opening, more than 15% of reactivity, ...)... everything is fine!

In this case, you may want to use dedicated IPs. This will allow you to be isolated and not be subject to the reputation fluctuations of your shared IP neighbors. Enjoy!

Conclusion

In conclusion, if the practices are borderline or on the contrary excellent, it is probably dedicated IPs that you need. In all other cases (which is the majority of email senders in loyalty), shared IPs are probably sufficient (or even recommended). Note also that you need a "minimum" traffic to switch to dedicated IPs! Without this, you will never build a reputation. Long live shared IPs!

Photo by Bojan Savnik on Unsplash