What performance improvements can I expect when using VTO?
Yahoo cannot guarantee specific performance improvement targets for senders using VTO. However, senders using VTO for their campaigns have seen increases in both open and click-through rates.
Does VTO guarantee top slot placement in a subscriber's message list?
VTO is not a paid advertisement and does not guarantee top slot placement in a subscriber's message list. There is always a small chance that a normally delivered email or two might be delivered at the exact time a VTO email is delivered and end up right above the VTO message.
What is VTO's impact to deliverability?
VTO tells Yahoo to hold an email campaign for delivery until the subscriber is actually looking at their mailbox.
VTO does not directly impact deliverability nor does it guarantee delivery to the inbox. Messages sent to Yahoo subscribers still go through the spam filter process and subscribers can mark messages as spam as they do today.
However, there may be secondary, positive effects on deliverability for some senders as engagement metrics improve and fewer messages are marked as spam.
Is there a reputation requirement in order for VTO to work?
No, there is not a reputation requirement for VTO to work. However, VTO is designed to reward good senders, not spammers. If you have poor sending practices and reputation with a low inbox placement rate at AOL and Yahoo!, you may see little to no benefit from using VTO. Most of your messages won't reach Yahoo subscribers because they are landing in the spam folder.
Does VTO only work with Yahoo mailboxes?
Yes, VTO only works with Yahoo mailboxes. It does not work with Gmail, Microsoft or any other mailbox provider mailboxes.
What domains are covered by VTO?
The primary domains of interest to most senders covered by VTO are Yahoo and AOL. VTO also covers domains for Verizon, Netscape, AT&T, and other smaller domains using the Yahoo email infrastructure.
Is there a minimum campaign volume requirement to use VTO?
- To ensure you see a benefit using VTO, Yahoo recommends a minimum campaign size of 50,000 subscribers at Yahoo domains.
- An absolute minimum of 1000 emails must be delivered to begin reporting campaign data.
How long should a campaign last in order to see VTO benefits?
The campaign duration dictates how long an email is held for a subscriber until they open their mailbox. If the campaign duration is too short, there may be little to no VTO benefit. If the duration time is too long, a subscriber may receive irrelevant or expired email.
An ideal campaign duration is approximately 48 to 72 hours. On average, 95% of Yahoo users check their email every 48 hours. The maximum campaign duration time is 30 days.
You should select a campaign duration that makes sense for your normal sending patterns and subscriber engagement window.
Is there a limit to the number of campaigns sent using VTO?
There is not a limit on how many campaigns you can send using VTO. However, Yahoo's spam filter still scans all incoming email, including email using VTO. Multiple campaigns with too many messages from a single sender may be throttled, similar to what happens today.
Does VTO only work for specific email clients like Yahoo! or does it work for Apple Mail?
VTO works with any email client used to access a Yahoo mailbox. It works on web-based email clients as well as through Yahoo's own top-rated email apps on iOS or Android. It also works with third-party email apps like Apple Mail.
What are the VTO campaign controls available?
There are a few aspects of a VTO campaign you control:
- Which campaign or campaigns use VTO.
- The campaign's start and end dates.
- This gives you flexibility to use VTO for time-sensitive campaigns and helps to control costs.
- Selecting what you want to do with email for users who have not opened their mailbox during the campaign start and end dates. You can choose to:
- Deliver the email as normal - without VTO placement benefits.
- Subscribers see the email in their message list in the order it was received along with email from other senders.
- Discard the email.
- You may select this option if the email campaign contains offers that are no longer valid after the campaign ends (e.g. a holiday sale).
- Deliver the email as normal - without VTO placement benefits.
Do we have to use VTO on a campaign-by-campaign basis?
Yes, you define when to use VTO on a campaign-by-campaign basis. It provides flexibility on when to use or not use VTO. Some senders may only want to use VTO for a select number of high-priority campaigns, and not every campaign.
How are campaigns prioritized if multiple campaigns using VTO are running at the same time?
Yahoo automatically gives highest priority to the the campaign that ends first.
What happens to a sender's email placement when everyone is using VTO?
Yahoo prioritizes placement of email that subscribers are most likely to open. The average Yahoo subscriber is signed up with 96 different merchants’ emails. The overlap of those merchants from one subscriber to another subscriber is less than expected, which minimizes placement conflicts. In addition, many subscribers visit their mailbox several times per day, so there are many opportunities to place a sender's email in one of the top spots in the subscriber's message list.
Yahoo is monitoring VTO performance and market dynamics and will resolve prioritization issues should the need arise.
