You can create email annotations that allow Gmail recipients to view and interact with your emails in their inbox without opening the email. Annotations appear as cards in recipients’ Promotions tab in their Gmail inbox. Annotations are a great way to highlight offers.
Notes:
- Creating email annotations in Attentive doesn’t guarantee that those annotations will appear in every subscriber’s inbox. Gmail determines when to show annotations based on a number of factors, including recipient settings and inbox density.
- Google sometimes automatically creates annotations, even when you haven’t created an annotation in Attentive. This isn’t something Attentive can prevent or disable.
- Annotations are designed for bulk sends, so they’re likely to appear when you’re sending to at least 100 recipients.
- Annotations only appear in the Promotions tab in Gmail mobile app inboxes. They don’t appear in other Gmail inboxes, including in browsers (desktop or mobile), any tabs other than Promotions, or in inboxes for recipients who don’t have the Promotions tab turned on.
Prerequisites
Before you get started, send an email to p-Promo-Outreach@google.com and request that your domains and subdomains be added to Gmail’s allowlist.
Note: Attentive isn’t involved in this process and can’t expedite your request. Please reach out to p-Promo-Outreach@google.com for status updates and other questions about your request.
Include an offer in an annotation
- Create or edit a campaign or journey email message.
- Click Add or edit in the Email Subject & Preview Text panel.
- Click Gmail offer annotation.
- Customize the offer annotation:
-
Description: A brief description of the offer. This appears as a badge (e.g.,
20% off
), so we recommend keeping this to just a few words. -
Offer code: The offer’s shared discount code (e.g.,
SAVE10
) or the{{offer.code}}
variable for unique discount codes. - Availability Starts: When the offer starts. This controls when the annotation begins appearing in recipient Promotions tabs in Gmail.
- Availability Ends: When the offer ends. This controls when the annotation stops appearing in recipient Promotions tabs in Gmail.
-
Description: A brief description of the offer. This appears as a badge (e.g.,
- Click Save.
You won’t be able to preview annotations in Attentive. Instead, we recommend using Google’s preview tool for developers to see what your annotation will look like to subscribers.
Best practices for Gmail annotations
Here are some best practices for enhancing your email marketing program with email annotations in Gmail:
- Highlight promotional details, like “20% off” or “free shipping” in the deal badge. Be specific and keep text clear and concise. Avoid using full sentences or more than four words.
- Include a discount code only if it’s included in the email itself. Don’t repurpose the Offer code space for discount codes, as it always includes the word
CODE
. - Use expiration dates to feature an email when it’s first sent and again within three days of the annotation’s expiration. Specify the time and time zone in expiration dates (e.g.,
2024-12-30T23:59:59-0700
), and don’t include expired dates in the annotation. See Format date and time - Google Merchant Center Help for more about formatting dates and times.
See Best Practices | Gmail | Google for Developers for more information.