Understanding Google’s New Inactive Policy and What it Means for Your Business

Google, known for continuously updating its policies for better user experience and safety, recently announced a significant change to its inactive account policy. Going forward, accounts with no activity for two consecutive years will be deleted.

Why is Google’s Inactive Policy Important?

First, the significance of first-party data in today’s business environment cannot be overstated. And Google’s Gmail isn’t just any email service— it’s currently one of the dominant players in the email account realm. It has superseded previous accounts such as Hotmail, AOL, and ISP-based addresses. Therefore, any changes Google implements will have a rippling effect across many businesses and their email marketing strategies.

So, why the change now? Google’s primary reason is to shield inactive accounts from potential identity theft. While this decision resonates with the essence of data security, it also sheds light on the importance of maintaining email hygiene.

The Implementation

The policy rollout is set for December 2023. This process, however, won’t be abrupt. Google plans to send out a series of emails and notifications, prioritizing accounts that were created but never got around to being used.

The Impact on Email Marketing

Concerned about your email marketing performance? This policy change could be beneficial. Sending emails to inactive addresses can negatively affect your inbox placement rates. Clean, validated data can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your campaigns, leading to a better ROI.

How AtData Can Assist

In this evolving scenario, businesses need to stay one step ahead to ensure their data remains accurate. This is where AtData can help:

• Email Hygiene: Because of Google’s new policy, there might be a surge in invalid Gmail accounts. SafeToSend provides proprietary mailbox verification to ensure that you maintain a clean slate by validating email addresses, reducing bounce rates, and enhancing email marketing efficiency.
• Insightful Analytics: It’s important to note the kind of email addresses that may fall into the “inactive” category. For example, nonpersonal email prefixes like like “ilovechocolate@” or “happydays@” may be more prone to inactivity compared to “johnsmith@” styled email addresses.
• Fraud Prevention: An old, unused email could potentially become a haven for fraudsters. By appending and cleansing your email lists, AtData ensures that you aren’t unknowingly sending communications to compromised accounts.
• Email Updating: As inactive email addresses get flagged by Google and ultimately deleted, this opens up old addresses for potential registration by new individuals. Through appending for identity matching, AtData allows you to target the intended person with their preferred, updated address saving money on misfired campaigns and protecting your reputation.

AtData remains committed to sharing insights and helping businesses adapt to this new policy seamlessly. At first glance, Google’s new policy may seem daunting. However, with informed decisions and the right tools at your disposal, there’s minimal cause for concern. As we monitor the policy’s real-world implications over the coming months, we promise to keep you updated on any significant discoveries. Until then, businesses should continue to rely on the strength of good email hygiene and the value of clean data.

Contact us to learn how we can alleviate concerns about your email database.