Google is starting a purge. Personal Gmail accounts that have been inactive for two plus years will be deleted starting December 1, 2023, this comes off a new policy set by Google earlier this year.
We outline the must-know details and what businesses can do today to minimize risk of being blacklisted and wind up with a collection of data debt.
What is the situation?
In a phased approach, Google will start deleting personal Gmail accounts that have been inactive for two plus years starting December 1, 2023. This cleansing effort does not impact school or business accounts. This comes off a new policy set by Google earlier this year in effort to reduce security risks.
“Our internal analysis shows abandoned accounts are at least 10x less likely than active accounts to have 2-step-verification set up. Meaning, these accounts are often vulnerable, and once an account is compromised, it can be used for anything from identity theft to a vector for unwanted or even malicious content, like spam.” – Ruth Kricheli, VP Product Management, Google
What is the scope?
According to Google there are 1.8 billion active Gmail users today.
Looking at the broader email market, the U.S. ranks first for the number of emails sent daily, including spam emails, but the opportunity for email marketing continues to grow. Statista finds:
- 9.8 billion emails are sent daily in the U.S.
- 8 billion spam emails are sent daily in the U.S.
- The email marketing market is projected to increase to $17.9 billion by 2027
While email marketing is in the billions, a 2021 Statista survey finds that 28% of respondents have over four email addresses.
What is the impact?
Deleted email accounts will mean you’re sending to inboxes that are inactive which will quickly result in:
- Bad sender reputation, which can lead to being blacklisted.
- A collection of data debt that muddies your database.
- Lower marketing ROI as you send to bad emails.
While there is no way to say exactly how many Gmail accounts will be deleted at this time, it’s safe to assume that it will be in the millions. You need to get ahead of this now.
What can I do?
Your priority is to clean your email list. There are several ways that you can approach this— and how Experian can help you.
Automatically validate emails in a batch cleanse
This is your quick win to stay in lockstep with the phased approach Google is taking when deleting inactive accounts.
Experian’s Email Validation
How it works: Automatically, send Experian your email list on a cadence that works best for you; we will run the list through our official sources to verify the email is properly formatted and active and return a clean list to you.
Append emails to complete your contact list with the best email
This is your longer-term strategy that returns valid emails and identifies the best-used consumer email, so even if your customer has multiple addresses, you know that you’re using the best one.
Experian’s Email Append
How it works: Send Experian your contact list complete with name and postal addresses; we run the list through our official sources and match the valid email to the given name and postal address and return a clean and completed list with verified emails.
The Google Gmail cleanse is not waiting—you need to act now. By regularly monitoring and cleaning your email database you will:
- Remain in compliance, keeping your good sender reputation.
- Deliver a better customer experience by reaching the right inboxes.
- Achieve higher ROI for email marketing campaigns.
