# How to Troubleshoot Spam Complaints Issues?
## What are Spam Complaints?
Spam complaints occur when recipients mark your emails as spam, typically by clicking the "**Report Spam**" button in their email client.
This signals to email providers that your content is unwanted or doesn't match recipient expectations. Spam complaints are **among the most damaging metrics** for your sender reputation and email deliverability.
As a sender, you should:
* **Monitor** your spam rate daily
* **Investigate** **systematically** any spikes to identify root causes and take corrective action.
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**Since April 2024**, spam rates officially play a crucial role in your ability to send emails to major providers like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Orange. Learn more: [Understanding the spam complaints rate](/guides-and-best-practices/email-deliverability/reputation-and-performance-monitoring/understanding-and-monitoring-the-spam-complaints-rate.md).
{% endhint %}
## Troubleshooting Methodology
Follow this step-by-step approach to identify the source of spam complaint issues:
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### **Review your onboarding process**
Is your marketing consent presented clearly and in compliance with local legislation and sender best practices?
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### C**heck the timeline**
Look for correlations between recently sent campaigns and spam complaint spikes.
*Note that recipients may see emails several days after you send them, and tools like Google Postmaster Tools have a 48-hour data refresh delay.*
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### I**dentify your worst-performing campaigns & automations**
Your poorest-performing campaigns sent during that period of time are likely the one irritating your audience the most.
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### **Check spam reports & mailbox providers tools**
Spam complaints reports and tools like Google Postmaster Tools provide useful information to identify the message causing irritation.
**Use the recipient's email address** contained in the spam report to understand what motivated that user to report your email as spam.
Alternatively, **Google Postmaster Tools' "Feedback Loop"** report will help you to identify which messages are irritating your audience (Learn more: [Using Google Postmaster Tools](/guides-and-best-practices/email-deliverability/reputation-and-performance-monitoring/mastering-email-deliverability-with-google-postmaster-tools.md)).
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## Common Causes and Solutions
If you are still having trouble identifying the issue, here are common mistakes to avoid:
### → Non-Compliant Marketing Consent Collection
**Hypothesis:** Subscribers probably aren't expecting your emails or don't want to receive specific types of messages.
**Solution:** Ensure your marketing consent collection process complies with legal requirements and email sender guidelines.
**Best practices include:**
* Consent must be given through a clear positive action that's distinct from other actions
* Explain what types of marketing emails you'll send, how often, and provide examples to help recipients make informed decisions
* Avoid ambiguity about the nature and scope of consent. For example, accepting terms of use and privacy policy cannot also serve as consent for marketing emails
* In some countries, consent requires an unchecked checkbox that must be checked by users to give consent. In others, manual validation (double opt-in) is required for legitimate opt-in
* Don't consider recipients as opted-in unless they have given clear, explicit consent
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*These are generic examples. Always consult your legal advisor to ensure compliance.*
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### → Missing Unsubscribe Links
**Hypothesis:** Marketing emails are being sent as transactional messages without unsubscribe links.
**Solutions:**
* Review your email activity to ensure that marketing communications aren't sent to recipients who declined marketing communications.
* Types of marketing messages commonly mistaken for transactional emails include: welcome emails, abandoned cart alerts, review requests, and others.
### → Hard-to-Find Unsubscribe Links
**Hypothesis:** The unsubscribe link may be difficult to locate.
**Solutions:**
{% stepper %}
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### U**se clear wording**
Simply label your unsubscribe link "Unsubscribe"
{% endstep %}
{% step %}
### M**ake links visible**
* Use footer text no smaller than 10 pixels
* Choose colors that contrast clearly with your email's background
* Separate the unsubscribe link clearly from other footer content (business address, legal mentions, etc.)
* For **very long emails** that may be [clipped by Gmail](/guides-and-best-practices/message/email/troubleshooting/why-is-gmail-clipping-emails.md), add an unsubscribe link at the top in a banner.
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### M**ake unsubscribing easy**
Unsubscribes are always better than spam complaints.
Always provide a global unsubscribe option alongside "update email preferences" to allow selective unsubscribing from marketing communications
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### → Excessive Marketing Pressure
**Hypothesis:** You're sending emails too frequently or aggressively.
**Solutions:**
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### Map your user journey
Map your user journey to see how many emails new subscribers receive in a single week. You can also review the performance of each steps of your automations:
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### Identify the most irritating messages
Try to identify the worst performing campaigns by calculating a **dissatisfaction rate** for each campaign.
* The dissatisfaction rate is the proportion of people who are dissatisfied when receiving a specific type of emails. You can calculate it by using the following formula: `Amount of unsubscribed users / amount of clicks * 100`.
* **Campaigns above 30%** should be reviewed carefully.
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### Review your segmentation
Never target all your opt-in subscribers. Focus on subscribers who have opened an email in the last 60-90 days.
During high-communication periods (like Black Friday):
* Pause campaigns / automations that might be less useful, to make room for more important messages on sales, and more.
* And/or improve your segmentation to focus on active users, instead of increasing the marketing pressure for all your subscribers.
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