YAMM Emails Going to Spam? A 10-Minute Checklist

YAMM emails going to spam, and you want to know why before your next send? This checklist is for business owners, founders, recruiters and small teams using Yet Another Mail Merge (YAMM) from a Google Sheet and their own Google Workspace address.

It takes about 10 minutes. You’ll check seven things in the order most likely to find the problem, and you’ll know what to fix before you send again.

Is YAMM the reason your emails go to spam?

Almost never. YAMM isn’t an email service with its own servers. It’s an add-on that sends each email through your own Gmail account, so your messages are judged on your inbox and your domain, the same as any email you send by hand.

That’s good news. It means the fixes are in your hands: your domain settings, how much you send, who you send to and what the email says. Switching mail merge tools won’t fix any of those.

YAMM emails going to spam? Start here

Match what you’re seeing to the check most likely to explain it.

Check 1: Your domain settings (2 minutes)

Start here, because a missing record can send every email to spam. YAMM’s help pages confirm that your domain’s settings apply to YAMM sends, since they go through your Gmail account.

Your domain (the part of your address after the @, like yourcompany.com) needs three short records in its DNS, the settings at the company where you bought the domain:

• SPF lists which services can send email for your domain.
• DKIM adds a digital signature that proves the email wasn’t changed on the way.
• DMARC tells receiving servers what to do with email that fails SPF or DKIM.

The fastest test: from your work address, send a normal email to a personal Gmail address you own. Open it there on a computer and click the down arrow below your name. If you see Mailed by and Signed by with your domain, SPF and DKIM are working. A question mark next to your name means the email wasn’t authenticated.

Google requires every sender to have SPF or DKIM. Gmail and Yahoo require all three for bulk senders. Set up all three for any mail merge.

Our free domain checker checks all three and tells you what to fix in plain English.

Check 2: How many you sent compared with normal (1 minute)

If your inbox usually sends 20 emails a day and your YAMM merge sent 400, that jump alone can push email to spam. Google’s sender guidelines warn that a sudden spike, like doubling what you normally send, can lead to rate limits or a drop in reputation.

YAMM gives you a clue here. If you’re on a paid plan but YAMM caps you at 400 recipients a day, your Google Workspace account is still in its trial or warm-up period. In other words, it’s new and has little sending history.

YAMM’s own help pages suggest starting new accounts with lists under 50 and watching how people react. What to do today:

• Split the list into smaller sends over several days.
• Send first to the people most likely to open and reply.
• Leave the rest of the list for later, when the inbox has more history.

Check 3: Bounces in the Merge status column (2 minutes)

A bounce is an email that couldn’t be delivered, usually because the address doesn’t exist. Lots of bounces tell Gmail your list is old or unchecked, and YAMM warns they can get your Google account blocked.

With tracking on, YAMM marks each failed email as BOUNCED in the Merge status column, with the reason in a cell note. You’ll also find the bounce messages under the YAMM - delivery issues label in Gmail.

What the bounce message tells you:

When you start your next merge on the same sheet, YAMM asks whether to skip addresses that bounced before. Choose Yes, skip them.

Check 4: Who’s on your list (1 minute)

Who you email matters more than anything else in this checklist. People who don’t expect your email ignore it, delete it or click Report spam, and every one of those counts against you.

Google’s guidance is to keep your spam rate below 0.10%, and never reach 0.30%. That’s about 1 complaint per 1,000 emails delivered. Yahoo asks bulk senders to stay below 0.3%.

Ask yourself about every row in the sheet:

• Do they know you? Customers, people who asked to hear from you, candidates who applied, contacts you’ve spoken with.
• Did they get a reason to expect this? YAMM points out that a public profile, like a LinkedIn page, isn’t permission to send promotional email.
• Is the list recent? If someone last heard from you six months ago, they may have forgotten you.
• Is it bought or scraped? Don’t use it. Google, Yahoo and YAMM all advise against bought lists.

Check 5: The unsubscribe link and tracking (1 minute)

YAMM doesn’t add an unsubscribe link for you. YAMM’s help pages say that without an easy way out, people hit Report spam instead, which hurts your reputation far more than an unsubscribe.

To add YAMM’s unsubscribe link:

1. Paste this at the end of your Gmail draft, as a link:

   https://app.yamm.com/unsubscribe
   

   Copy

   This is YAMM’s own unsubscribe address. YAMM turns it into a personal link for each recipient when the merge runs. Paste it fresh each time; don’t copy it from an earlier email.

2. When you start the merge, tick Track emails opened, clicked or bounced. The link only works with tracking on.

3. Check that the unsubscribe feature shows as Enabled before you click Send emails.

People who unsubscribe are left out of your future YAMM merges automatically.

Check 6: Your template (2 minutes)

Make your email look and read like a one-to-one email. Words matter less than most people think: Gmail weighs your reputation, authentication and how people react more heavily, and one word rarely sends an email to spam by itself. Pushy wording matters most because it makes people report you.

Look over your Gmail draft for these common problems:

• Messy formatting. YAMM notes that copying text in from Word or another document can add untidy code that spam filters distrust. Write the draft in Gmail, or use the Email draft building block in Google Docs.
• A misleading subject line. Don’t start with "Re:" or "Fwd:" unless it’s a real reply. Google’s guidelines warn against it.
• Shouty style. ALL CAPS, lots of exclamation marks, and money or "free" language.
• Too many links. Keep to one or two, use your full web address, and skip link shorteners.
• Attachments. Leave them out of a bulk send where you can, and link to the file on your site instead.
• The same text for everyone. Use YAMM’s markers for more than the first name, so each email fits the person.

For common trigger words and plainer alternatives, read our guide to spam trigger words and what really matters.

Check 7: Test before the full send (1 minute)

YAMM’s Send test email button is great for checking your markers and layout, but it only goes to your own account, and YAMM says it doesn’t fully match a live send. It won’t tell you where the email lands for other people.

For a better test, make a separate small sheet with a few addresses you own at Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo, and run a real merge to them. Check the inbox, the Promotions tab and the spam folder at each.

A placement test does this across several providers at once.

Our guide on how to test whether your email lands in the inbox, Promotions or spam shows how.

What warmup can and can’t fix

Warmup builds trust in your inbox. It can’t make people want an email they didn’t expect.

Warmuply warms up your Google Workspace inbox in the background and shows you a daily safe-send number to use in YAMM. It also checks your SPF, DKIM and DMARC in plain English, runs placement tests at Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo, and alerts you the same day if your domain is blacklisted. Nothing changes in how you use YAMM. Most inboxes need around 4–12 weeks before sending at full volume, and no tool can promise inbox placement: Checks 3 to 6 are still yours.

To see how Warmuply fits alongside YAMM, read about email warmup for YAMM users.

If your last YAMM merge already went to spam

Pause, fix, then restart small. Sending the same email to the same list again usually makes things worse.

1. Don’t relaunch the campaign to the rows that didn’t reply.
2. Work through Checks 1 to 6 and fix what you find.
3. Give any DNS changes time to take effect, then repeat the Check 1 test.
4. Restart with a small send to your most engaged contacts.
5. Grow the daily volume a little at a time, and test before each bigger send.

If the problem isn’t specific to YAMM, our wider guide on why your mail merge is going to spam covers every mail merge tool.

Before you hit send

• SPF, DKIM and DMARC all pass for your domain.
• Everyone on the sheet knows you or asked to hear from you, and previous bounces are skipped.
• The YAMM unsubscribe link is in the draft and tracking is ticked.
• Today’s send is close to what this inbox usually sends, not a sudden jump.

Check your domain with our free domain checker, then start a free 7-day trial of Warmuply. No card needed.