What the Engagement Days Metric Measures

The Engagement Days metric tracks two things: which contacts you have emailed within the last 30 days, and the average number of days since those contacts last engaged with one of your emails. Engagement is recorded when a contact opens an email sent through the Keap network or clicks a link in an email sent through the Keap network.

A lower average engagement age indicates an active, responsive audience. A rising average means your list contains a growing proportion of contacts who are not interacting with your emails — which is a deliverability warning sign.

Why Engagement Days Affects Your Deliverability

Mailbox providers — including Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo — track how recipients interact with your emails when deciding whether to deliver them to the inbox or the spam folder. When your contacts consistently do not open or click your emails, providers interpret that as a signal that your content is irrelevant or unwanted. The consequences include:

• Inbox placement issues — emails routed to spam or junk folders instead of the inbox
• Increased spam complaints — uninterested recipients marking your emails as spam
• Negative sender reputation signals — reputation damage that affects all emails you send, not just those to unengaged contacts

Sending to unengaged contacts also increases the risk of hitting spam traps — addresses created specifically to catch senders with poor list hygiene — and generating invalid hard bounces from non-existent addresses.

By contrast, focusing your sending on engaged contacts demonstrates to mailbox providers that you maintain a healthy, well-managed list — which protects and improves your inbox placement over time. For more background on why engagement matters, see Engagement Essentials: Understanding Email Engagement and Why It Matters.

How to Improve Your Engagement Days Score

Step 1: Identify Unengaged Contacts

The location of the engagement report depends on your Keap edition.

• Pro and Max users: Click Reports in the left-hand navigation and select Email Engagement Tracker.
• Classic users: Click Marketing in the navigation, then click Reports, and select Email Status Search.

In the Search Criteria section, configure the following filters:

1. Under the Search tab, set Email Status to contains any and select Unengaged Marketable.
2. Set the Last Engagement Date range — for example, Start: 01/01/2020; End: 6 months before today's date.
3. Click Search to generate the list of unengaged contacts matching the criteria.

Step 2: Segment and Run a Re-Engagement Campaign

1. Apply a tag to the group of unengaged contacts for easy reference and segmentation.
2. Send a re-engagement sequence asking them to confirm their interest in continuing to receive your emails. See how to send a confirmation email with Keap.
3. Allow 7–10 days for contacts to respond before taking further action.

Step 3: Suppress or Opt Out Non-Responders

• If a contact does not respond to the re-engagement sequence within 7–10 days, opt them out of marketing emails.
• If a contact has had no engagement in 6 or more months, suppress or opt them out to protect your deliverability before the re-engagement window closes.

Important: As of January 30, 2026, Keap automatically restricts email sending to contacts who have been inactive for 18 months or longer. This restriction is applied automatically to help protect sender reputation across all Keap accounts.

Best Practices for Maintaining Healthy Engagement

• Set engagement thresholds — Remove or suppress contacts after 90–180 days of no engagement. Proactive removal prevents the 18-month automatic restriction from affecting contacts who could have been re-engaged earlier. See Engagement Essentials for guidance on setting thresholds.
• Use confirmed opt-in — Double opt-in ensures contacts are intentional about subscribing and reduces the likelihood of unengaged contacts entering your list. See how to send a confirmation email with Keap.
• Segment by behavior — Tailor your campaigns based on contact activity such as clicks, opens, and purchase history. Contacts who receive relevant content engage more consistently.
• Monitor the Engagement Days metric regularly — A sudden increase in average engagement age is an early warning sign of deliverability issues. Review the metric after each major campaign send.
• Use Automated List Management — Classic edition users can use Keap's Automated List Management feature to automatically clean your list based on engagement criteria.

Need Additional Help with Email Deliverability?

If you would like professional guidance on email practices or tools to improve your email deliverability, the following trusted partners offer specialized services.

Email Deliverability Training, Consulting, and Software

• EmailSmart — email deliverability specialist training, consulting, and software

List Cleaning

• SpamClean — email list cleaning service
• ListDefender — email list cleaning and form security
• Klean13 — email list cleaning service
• EmailSmart Pro Tools — email list cleaning and deliverability tools

Form Security

• Spamkill — form security to prevent spam contact submissions
• ListDefender — form security and email list protection