Postmaster has to be their domain

Answer Postmaster Tools has to be opened on the domain that actually authenticates the solo ad. Google's setup page says the tool monitors outgoing mail to personal Gmail accounts, and that you add the DKIM domain or the return-path domain. A screenshot of a different domain, or of a domain nobody verified, is not evidence about your send.

The note that started this: Set up Postmaster Tools, Google, Postmaster Tools.

Gmail is a large share of almost every consumer list. A seller who mails Gmail and cannot open the tool for their own domain is guessing about spam rate and authentication on the provider your clicks depend on. Best solo ad vendors can open the account while you watch. The others forward a picture.

The page is a setup document, not a press release with a date you should invent. Use it as instructions. You need a Google account. The data covers personal Gmail accounts, the ones that end in gmail.com or googlemail.com. It does not pretend to be a report on every mailbox on earth. Dashboards cover spam rate, reputation, authentication, and delivery errors. Low-volume days may show nothing, because Google withholds thin days for privacy. Absence of a row is not a trophy.

What does Google say Postmaster Tools is for?

Google's setup page says Postmaster Tools monitors outgoing mail to personal Gmail accounts, for the domains and IP addresses you use to send. Dashboards include spam rate, reputation, authentication, and delivery errors.

Read the boundary. Personal Gmail. Your seller's mail to corporate Google Workspace inboxes is a different population, and this tool is not claiming to describe it. If the quote is mostly business addresses, say so, and do not let a Gmail dashboard stand in for those inboxes. If the quote is mostly Gmail, this is the dashboard that matches the quote.

Spam rate here means what Gmail measured for verified domains, not what a third-party tracker guessed from a seed list. Reputation is Gmail's view. Authentication is whether SPF and DKIM are showing up the way the domain thinks. Delivery errors are the failures Gmail is willing to summarize. None of those panes are a click report. Do not let a green reputation replace the refund line.

• The domain on the screen is the domain in the quote.
• The domain is verified, not merely typed in.
• A thin day is not described as a perfect day.
• Clicks stay in the click report.

Which domain should a seller add?

Google says to add the DKIM domain or the SPF return-path domain. Data appears after the domain is verified. A screenshot of an unverified or unrelated domain is not the seller's proof.

If DKIM and the return path are the same domain, Google says the dashboards use messages signed by SPF, DKIM, or both. If they differ, the seller has a choice, and the choice should match the identity you are auditing. Add the domain that signs the message the reader sees, and be honest if the return path is a platform name. A verified platform domain tells you about the platform. It does not automatically tell you about a brand domain that never signed.

Verification is a DNS record. Until it completes, the tool will not show the mail. A seller who says they are in the process has told you they cannot show you data today. You can wait. You should not accept a picture from a different account while you wait. Subdomains are separate if you want separate dashboards. A parent domain's pretty chart is not the subdomain's chart unless they show you that too.

Can a buyer accept a Postmaster screenshot from another domain?

No. People without access are told they are not authorized to view that domain. Ask the seller to open the domain named in your quote. Someone else's dashboard is someone else's mail.

Google's own denial is the sentence to remember. If you are not an owner and an owner has not granted you access, you do not see the data. That is why a forwarded screenshot is weak. You cannot tell access from a collage. A screen-share, on the domain in the quote, with the verification status visible, is the test. If they cannot log in, they are not the operator of that domain's Gmail reputation.

Use the tool as Google describes it. Their domain. Verified. Personal Gmail. Then go back to the list, which the tool will never vouch for. Postmaster tells you how Gmail sees the domain. It does not tell you whether the readers asked for the offer.