[FAQ]

Hello,

I’m the marketing lead for an e-commerce company based in Amsterdam. Our email list has grown significantly, and we’re now sending a high volume of campaigns. Our email service provider has suggested we move from their standard shared IP pool to a dedicated IP address.

I’m trying to understand the practical difference. I know a dedicated IP is just for us, but what are the actual pros and cons for our email sending? Does it guarantee better deliverability, or does it come with its own risks? I’m trying to make a business case for the extra cost, so I need to be clear on the benefits.

Thanks for any insights.

[Jeff Bullas]

That’s a crucial decision for any high-volume email sender.

Short Answer: A shared IP is an address used by multiple companies, where your email sending reputation is influenced by others. A dedicated IP is an address used only by your organisation, giving you complete control over your own sending reputation.

This choice is fundamentally about whether you want to manage your own email sender reputation or be grouped in with others.

With a shared IP, which is the default for most email service providers, your emails are sent from the same IP address as many other customers. The main advantage is that it requires no setup or “warming up” from you. The significant disadvantage is the “noisy neighbour” problem. If another company on your shared IP engages in poor sending practices and gets flagged for spam, the IP’s reputation can be damaged, which can negatively impact the deliverability of your own emails. This means your perfectly crafted text and image content might land in the spam folder because of someone else’s actions.

With a dedicated IP, you are the only sender using that address. The primary benefit is that you have complete control over your reputation. Your good sending habits will directly result in good deliverability, ensuring your email content has the best possible chance of reaching the inbox. The main responsibility is that you must build this reputation from scratch through a careful process called IP warming, where you gradually increase your sending volume over time. For high-volume senders with good list hygiene, a dedicated IP is almost always the recommended choice as it isolates your reputation and gives you full ownership of your email deliverability success.

Cheers, Jeff

[Author]

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