The 100% Blockade: How Factors.ai Scaled to 1.1 Million Emails After a Total Deliverability Crash

Executive Summary

The Situation

Factors.ai is a leader in B2B marketing attribution. They rely on high-volume outbound data to fuel their growth.

In early October 2025, they attempted to scale their email volume. The result was catastrophic. On October 11th, their spam rate hit 100%. Every single email was being blocked. They had the engine to send millions, but the road was closed.

The Fix

They deployed InboxDoctor's enterprise-grade "Spam Rescue." We didn't just warm the domain; we managed an industrial-scale intervention, moving nearly 90,000 emails out of spam to force the providers (Google/Microsoft) to accept their high volume.

The Scorecard (Oct 08 - Dec 05)

Metric	The Crash (Oct 11)	The Recovery (Dec 05)
Spam Rate	100% (Total Block)	< 1% (Stable)
Volume Sent	0 Deliverable	1,150,399 Sent
Emails Rescued	0	89,398 Saved from Spam

The Challenge (The "Red Zone")

The Crash

On roughly October 11th, the alarm bells rang. The "Email Spam Rate" chart shows a vertical spike straight to 100%.

Why This Happened

The "Volume Shock." When a B2B company rapidly increases sending volume, algorithms trigger a "Bot Defense" mechanism. Factors.ai tried to scale too fast without adequate reputation "Air Cover." The ISPs (Internet Service Providers) didn't just filter them; they blocked them entirely.

The Solution (The Protocol)

How We Fixed It

To support a sender continuously pushing 1M+ emails, "passive" warmup isn't enough. We needed aggressive intervention.

The Strategy

Industrial Scale Warmup: We pumped 1,150,399 warmup emails through the system over 60 days to mask their sales activity.

The "89k Correction" (Move to Inbox): We detected 89,398 emails landing in spam and automatically moved them to the Primary Inbox. This is equivalent to 89,000 manual "This is Safe" reports sent to Google and Microsoft.

The "Engagement Shield": We generated 395,516 replies. This created a massive web of "conversational" data points that convinced algorithms that Factors.ai is a high-engagement sender, not a spammer.

Week-by-Week Recovery Plan

Timeline	Action Focus	Result
Week 1 (Oct 9-16)	Crisis Management	Spam rate spikes to 100%, then oscillates violently (40-60%). We deploy max "Rescue" protocols.
Week 2 (Oct 17-24)	The Stabilization	Continued high-volume rescue. Spam rate drops from ~60% to near 0% by Oct 24.
Week 3 Onwards	High-Velocity Scale	Domain stabilizes. We maintain a steady flow of total ~20k-40k warm-up emails daily on 5 mailboxes to protect their outreach.

The Results (Data Don't Lie)

The numbers show massive scale:

1.1 Million Emails Sent: We proved you can send high volume if you have the right reputation management.

The "L-Shape" Recovery: Look at the "Email Spam Rate" chart. It forms a perfect "L" shape—a massive spike followed by a flatline at the bottom. This is the ideal recovery curve.

Outperforming the Spam: We moved 89,398 emails out of spam, which is higher than the total number that stayed in spam (79,608). We literally beat the spam filter more times than it beat us.

Key Performance Metrics

Metric	Total
Total Warmup Emails Sent	1,150,399
Emails Rescued from Spam	89,398
Total Replies Generated	395,516
Reply Rate	34%
Emails Remaining in Spam	79,608
Recovery Period	60 days (Oct 08 - Dec 05)

The "Black Box" Insights (What We Found Under the Hood)

1. The "Volume Masking" Ratio

Most companies think they need a 10% warmup ratio. Factors.ai proves that at enterprise scale, you need Engagement Depth.

The Insight: We generated nearly 400,000 replies. This 34% reply rate on the warmup traffic acted as a shield. Google sees the volume, but because 1 in 3 emails gets a reply, they classify it as "Viral Conversation" rather than "Spam Blast."

2. The "Cliff Recovery" Phenomenon

Look at the Spam Rate chart between Oct 14 and Oct 19.

The Trap: Most people stop sending when they hit 50%+ spam rates.

The Lesson: Factors.ai kept sending through the tool. By pushing through the spam spike with our "Move out of Spam" feature active, they cleared the blockage in roughly 10 days. If they had stopped, the domain would have remained "burned." You have to push through the resistance, not retreat.

3. "Primary" vs. "Focused" (The Blue Bar Insight)

The Insight: As the Red bars (Spam) fade in late October, we see a massive rise in Light Blue (Focused) and Green (Primary) bars.

The Lesson: The algorithm didn't just stop marking them as spam; it started categorizing them as "Focused" (High Priority). This upgrade only happens when the "Reply Rate" (Engagement) is exceptionally high.

Live Proof (Inbox Placement Test)

See the volume in action.

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