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Sender Setup in Link AI

A campaign succeeds or fails on the sender. Even the best message in the world will fail if it comes from a three-day-old Gmail with no SPF and no warmup. This guide explains how to connect Gmail or Outlook correctly, and how to ensure your emails actually reach the Inbox.

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Supported Mail Providers

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Connecting Gmail (Personal Account)

  1. In the Dashboard, click Senders → Connect → Gmail.
  2. Google’s OAuth screen opens. Pick the account.
  3. Approve the permissions: gmail.send, gmail.readonly (for reply detection), gmail.modify (for label sync).
  4. You’ll return to the Dashboard with status Connected.
What you should know:
  • We don’t read your whole Inbox. Only the thread of the specific campaign.
  • OAuth tokens are stored encrypted. You can revoke from Senders → Disconnect anytime.
  • A brand-new Gmail (under 2 weeks) will fail on deliverability. Wait, or use an older account.

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Connecting Google Workspace (Custom Domain)

This is the recommended setup for serious outbound. You send from name@yourcompany.com, not @gmail.com. Deliverability is significantly higher. Before connecting — the domain admin needs to verify 3 DNS records exist:

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SPF

A TXT record pointing to Google’s servers:

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DKIM

Enabled from the Google Admin Console:
  1. Admin → Apps → Google Workspace → Gmail → Authenticate email
  2. Generate new record for the domain
  3. Copy the public key to DNS as a TXT record named google._domainkey
  4. Return to Admin and click Start authentication

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DMARC

Start with p=none (monitor mode) for 30 days, then move to quarantine:
How to confirm it works? Send a mail-tester:

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Connecting Outlook / Microsoft 365

  1. Senders → Connect → Outlook.
  2. Microsoft OAuth. Approve Mail.Send, Mail.Read, MailboxSettings.Read.
  3. Return with status Connected.
For Microsoft 365 with a custom domain:
  • SPF: v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all
  • DKIM: enabled in Microsoft 365 Defender → Email & Collaboration → Policies → DKIM
  • DMARC: same as Google — start in monitor mode

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Warmup — The First 30 Days

A new account, or one that has never done outbound, needs warmup. Without it, you land in Spam 50%+ of the time. Link AI has built-in warmup (Settings → Warmup → Enable). It:
  • Sends 2-5 emails/day at the start, scaling to 40-60/day by week 4
  • Auto-receives replies from a warmup network (real cooperating accounts)
  • Marks messages as Important and lifts them out of Spam if they land there
Recommendation: enable warmup the day you connect the sender. Don’t run a campaign in the first two weeks. Day 15 you can start with 10-20 messages/day. Day 30 — up to 100/day.

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How to Verify the Sender Is Ready

Before your first campaign, you want to see 3 things:
  1. mail-tester.com returns 9/10 or 10/10
  2. In the Link AI Dashboard, Sender Health = Green
  3. SPF, DKIM, DMARC all pass in the headers of a sample email
If anything isn’t green — don’t send yet. Fix it first. Sending with a bad setup damages your domain reputation for months.

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Common Issues

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What’s Next

Connect a sender now

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