How to Monitor Email Deliverability in Real Time: A Practical Automation Guide

📧 Monitoring email deliverability in real time is crucial for marketing teams aiming to maximize campaign success. Having instant visibility into email performance helps safeguard your sender reputation and improves engagement rates.

In this guide, you will learn how to build effective automation workflows that integrate platforms such as Gmail, Google Sheets, Slack, and HubSpot. We’ll cover step-by-step instructions, best practices, and technical details on creating real-time deliverability monitors that reduce manual effort and surface actionable insights promptly.

Understanding the Importance of Real-Time Email Deliverability Monitoring for Marketing

Email remains one of the highest ROI channels, with an average return of $42 for every dollar spent [Source: DMA]. However, to capitalize on this, marketers must ensure their emails reach recipients’ inboxes, not spam folders.

Real-time monitoring enables immediate identification of deliverability issues such as bounces, spam complaints, or engagement drops—allowing fast remediation. By automating this process, marketing teams can scale campaigns while maintaining stellar sender reputation and complying with regulations.

Designing an Automated Workflow to Monitor Email Deliverability

Key Problem and Benefits

Manually tracking email deliverability is inefficient, error-prone, and delays issue resolution. Automation workflows help by:

• Capturing delivery events instantly.
• Aggregating data for trend analysis.
• Triggering alerts on problems.
• Saving time for marketing and operations teams.

The primary beneficiaries include startup CTOs, automation engineers, and marketing operations specialists.

Tools and Services Integration

This example workflow integrates:

• Gmail API: for sending emails and accessing delivery reports.
• Google Sheets: to log deliverability metrics.
• Slack: for real-time alerts and team notification.
• HubSpot: to link deliverability events with contact data.
• Automation platform: using n8n, Make, or Zapier to orchestrate workflow.

Workflow Overview

The workflow follows this end-to-end logic:

• Trigger: New email sent or delivery event received (webhook or polling).
• Transform: Parse event data—delivery status, bounce type, recipient details.
• Actions: Log to Google Sheets, send Slack notification if issues detected, update contact record in HubSpot.
• Output: Real-time dashboard in Sheets and alerts to marketing team.

Step-by-Step Automation Setup

Step 1: Configure Gmail API to Track Email Events

Use Gmail’s Messaging API or integrate with an email service provider (ESP) that offers webhook notifications for bounces, complaints, or delivery confirmations.

Example n8n Gmail trigger configuration:
{
"resource": "message",
"operation": "watch",
"labelIds": ["SENT"]
}

This watches the sent mailbox for delivery updates. For ESPs like SendGrid or Mailgun, you can configure webhooks to push events directly to the automation tool.

Step 2: Capture and Parse Delivery Events

Use a webhook node or polling trigger to get delivery data. Parse JSON payload to extract key properties like:

• Email address
• Delivery status (delivered, bounced, deferred)
• Bounce type and reason
• Timestamp

Example parsing expression in n8n:
{{$json["event"] === "bounce" ? $json["reason"] : "delivered"}}

Step 3: Log Email Activity to Google Sheets

Appending each delivery event to a Google Sheet enables historical analysis.

Google Sheets node settings:

• Operation: Append
• Spreadsheet name: “Email Deliverability Logs”
• Sheet name: “Events”
• Columns mapped: Email, Status, Reason, Timestamp

Step 4: Notify Marketing Team via Slack for Issues ⚠️

If a bounce or spam complaint is detected, send an instant alert.

Slack node example configuration:
{
"channel": "#email-alerts",
"text": "🚨 Bounce detected for {{$json[\"email\"]}}: {{$json[\"reason\"]}}"
}

Step 5: Update Contact Status in HubSpot CRM

Keep your contact database in sync by updating email engagement or deliverability status.

HubSpot node example:

• Operation: Update contact
• Identify by email
• Set property: Last email deliverability status

Detailed Breakdown of Each Automation Node

Trigger Node

The initial node watches for delivery notifications from Gmail webhook or ESP webhook.

Key fields:

• Webhook URL (configured in email service)
• Authentication headers (API key or OAuth token)

Parsing Node

Transforms raw JSON to structured data using expressions.

Example expression to extract bounce reason:
{{$json.eventType === "bounce" ? $json.bounce.reason : "Delivered"}}

Google Sheets Append Node

Maps parsed fields to spreadsheet columns with authentication via OAuth.

Set to append rather than overwrite to keep complete logs.

Slack Notification Node

Uses Slack webhook URL to post messages. Includes conditional logic to post only for bounces or complaints.

Tip: Use formatting and emojis for clarity.

HubSpot Update Node

Updates contact records using HubSpot API. Requires API key or OAuth token with contact write scope.

Ensures marketing and sales teams have latest deliverability data.

Handling Errors and Ensuring Robustness

Common challenges include API rate limits, malformed webhook payloads, connectivity issues, and duplicate events.

Strategies:

• Implement retries with exponential backoff on transient errors.
• Use idempotent updates to avoid duplicate records (e.g., check if event already logged).
• Log all errors and alert admin via Slack or email.
• Validate webhook payloads before processing to avoid crashes.

Scaling and Performance Considerations

For increasing volumes:

• Switch from polling triggers to webhooks for real-time, efficient processing.
• Use queues to process high event loads asynchronously.
• Parallelize nodes where possible—e.g., simultaneous Slack and HubSpot updates.
• Implement workflow versioning to safely deploy improvements.

Security and Compliance Best Practices 🔐

Handle sensitive data carefully:

• Store API keys securely in environment variables, not in workflow code.
• Limit OAuth scopes to the minimum needed (read-only where possible).
• Mask or encrypt PII in logs and sheets.
• Ensure webhook endpoints validate incoming requests to prevent spoofing.

Testing and Monitoring Your Automation Workflow

Use sandbox accounts or test email sets to validate workflows before production.

Monitor:

• Workflow run history and success rates.
• Slack alerts for anomalies.
• Log metrics such as delivery percentages and bounce reasons over time.

Comparison Tables for Automation Tools and Strategies

Tool	Cost	Pros	Cons
n8n	Free self-hosted; from $20/month cloud	Open source, highly customizable, extensive nodes	Requires setup and maintenance for self-hosting
Make (Integromat)	Free tier; paid plans from $9/month	Visual editor, many integrations, easy error handling	Complex workflows can become costly
Zapier	Free limited plan; paid plans start at $19.99/month	Simple UI, large app ecosystem, fast setup	Limited multi-step workflows in lower tiers

Method	Description	Pros	Cons
Webhook	Push notifications from email service for events	Real-time, efficient, low latency	Requires public endpoint, security setup
Polling	Periodic checks querying email API for status	Simpler to implement, no public endpoint needed	Latency, API rate limits, resource intensive

Storage Option	Best for	Pros	Cons
Google Sheets	Small to medium logs, visual & accessible	Easy sharing, no infra required	Limited scaling, no complex queries
SQL Database	Large scale, complex analysis	Scalable, powerful queries, indexing	Requires infra and setup

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Conclusion

Monitoring email deliverability in real time is indispensable for modern marketing success. By leveraging automation platforms like n8n, Make, or Zapier integrated with Gmail, Google Sheets, Slack, and HubSpot, teams can gain immediate insights into delivery issues and act swiftly.

Key takeaways include building robust triggers with webhooks, parsing event data accurately, maintaining detailed logs, alerting teams instantly for bounces or complaints, and syncing data across marketing platforms.

Get started today by mapping your email workflow with these steps and elevate your marketing performance with real-time deliverability monitoring!

Ready to automate your email monitoring? Try building your first workflow now with n8n or Zapier and optimize your marketing campaigns today!