Gmail’s Promotions tab annotation in 2025: Outdated relic or untapped opportunity?

Once dismissed as a spam-lite folder, Gmail’s Promotions tab has evolved into a dynamic AI-powered showcase, reshaping how brands appear in inboxes in 2025. Back in the day, marketers saw it as a barrier between their carefully crafted campaigns and the primary inbox. But things have changed. Today, the Promotions tab is a curated space where Google surfaces deals, highlights products, and displays offers in visually rich ways that weren’t possible just a few years ago.

(Source: developers.google)

Here’s what we’ll cover:

how Gmail’s Promotions tab has shifted from traditional schema annotations to AI-driven extraction;
the pros and cons of this shift for marketers;
expert perspectives on the value of the Promotions tab today;
practical tips to keep your campaigns visible and effective.

Table of Contents

Gmail Promotions tab: From launch to AI era

What is the Promotions tab?

If you’ve ever wondered where all those discount emails and flash sale alerts end up in Gmail, the answer is simple: the Promotions tab. This is Gmail’s dedicated space for marketing emails, special offers, and newsletters.

The Promotions tab was first launched back in 2013 as part of Google’s plan to declutter recipient inboxes. According to Sella Yoffe, an email deliverability and strategy expert at DATAMEDIA and CRM.BUZZ, the idea behind Promotions was to give recipients a more organized experience. Instead of sifting through endless marketing emails in their primary inbox, they could find all promotions neatly grouped in one tab.

And here are some key stats to understand its relevance today:

about 68% of Gmail users actively use the Promotions tab to manage their marketing emails;
around 45% check it daily, making it far from a dead zone for your campaigns;
however, approximately 20% of recipients never check their Promotions tab, meaning you might miss a segment of your audience.

So while it’s true that not everyone looks at their Promotions tab regularly, for those who do, it remains a curated space where they’re open to discovering deals and brand updates.

Common misconceptions

One of the biggest misunderstandings about Gmail’s Promotions tab is that it’s the same as the spam folder. That’s simply not true.

Emails that land in Promotions are still part of the inbox. They’re not marked as spam, and they don’t carry any negative sender reputation signals. Instead, Gmail uses the Promotions tab to organize marketing emails, offers, and newsletters into a space where subscribers expect to see them.

A common misconception is that Gmail’s Promotions tab is the same as the spam folder. In reality, all tabs — including Promotions — are part of the primary inbox, just organized by category.

Sella Yoffe,

Email Deliverability & Email Marketing Expert | Podcaster & Blogger in DATAMEDIA | CRM.BUZZ | EmailGeeks.Show.

A helpful analogy

Chad S. White, Head of Research at Oracle Digital Experience Agency, puts it perfectly. He says:

“Getting into the Primary tab is like knocking on someone’s front door, while the Promotions tab is more like setting up shop in a mall.”

In other words, while the Primary tab might get you direct attention, it’s also more personal and can feel intrusive if your email isn’t expected. The Promotions tab, on the other hand, is a place where people go specifically to browse offers and deals, much like shoppers looking for what’s new in their favorite stores.

Evolution of Gmail annotations: Then vs. now

Traditional annotations (2013–2023)

For almost a decade, Gmail annotations were a powerful tool for email marketers looking to stand out in the Promotions tab. These annotations worked by adding special code snippets — either JSON-LD in the <head> of the email or Microdata within the email body.

Here are the key features that traditional annotations enabled:

deal badges: Small visual labels that highlighted special offers, such as “20% off” or “Free Shipping.” They helped catch a subscriber’s eye right in the inbox preview;
promo images: Marketers could set a featured promotional image, making the email visually pop before it was even opened;
expiration dates: Adding an end date for a sale or promo created urgency, encouraging recipients to click before the deal expired;
product carousels: In 2023, for some senders, annotations allowed multiple product images to appear in a scrollable carousel format directly in the Gmail preview (though this feature was initially limited in rollout);
brand logos: Displaying a recognizable logo next to the email in the Promotions tab helped build trust and brand recognition.

Changes in 2024–2025

Gmail's handling of annotations has changed significantly over the past year. In 2024, Gmail introduced Automatic Extraction, which is reshaping how promotional emails appear in recipients' inboxes.

Introduction of automatic extraction

Instead of relying only on the structured markup that marketers add to their emails, Gmail’s AI — likely powered by Gemini — now automatically scans email content to extract:

deal information;
expiration dates;
brand logos;
promo images (single image or carousel).

This means that even if you don’t include annotation code, Gmail can still create a rich promotional preview based on what it reads from your email content.

Impact on manual annotations

With this shift to AI-driven extraction, marketers have noticed:

stricter guidelines and filters: These include density limits (how many annotations appear in a single inbox view), strict image specifications, and domain whitelisting requirements (Klaviyo). While Google’s documentation now allows images with slightly different ratios by auto-centering them, industry reports note that Gmail’s annotation filters have become stricter overall in how and when these features render;
inconsistent rendering, even when the schema is correctly implemented. According to Sella Yoffe, an email deliverability and strategy expert, manual setups may not always render as expected due to Gmail’s prioritization algorithms. Gmail decides when and how to display annotations, prioritizing what it thinks is most relevant to the recipient.

Desktop annotation support

For years, Gmail’s rich annotations were primarily a mobile-only feature, limiting their full visual impact on desktop users. That changed in late 2024 when Google rolled out support for annotations in Gmail’s desktop inbox previews.

Now, promo images, deal badges, and expiration tags display directly in desktop views, giving marketers a bigger canvas to grab attention across devices. If you haven’t optimized your annotations for desktop dimensions yet, this is the time to do it to ensure consistent brand presentation everywhere your subscribers read their emails.

Promotions tab impact over time

Year	Key change	Promotions tab read rate	Annotation CTR Lift	AI influence
2018	Annotations introduced	~22%	+20%	None
2022	Mobile annotations expand	~21%	+18%	Low
2024	Automatic extraction launched	~20%	+15–25%	High (Gemini begins)
2025	Deal cards	~20%	TBD	Very high

Clarification: Do manual markup and automatic extraction conflict?

If your annotations meet Gmail’s updated requirements, they may display as intended. However, Gmail’s AI extraction can override or replace manual markup, and it is not yet fully clear which annotation version will be prioritized in every case.

Why are annotations appearing without markup?

If you’ve noticed that some promotional emails show rich deal previews even though you didn’t add any annotation code, you’re not imagining things. This is part of Gmail’s shift toward AI-driven automatic extraction, powered by the same AI systems we discussed earlier.

Here, we’ll take a closer look at how this AI works specifically for promotional annotations, and what it means for your email strategy.

Gmail’s AI automatic extraction

In 2024, Gmail rolled out an AI-based system that scans the content of promotional emails to detect:

promotional language: Keywords that signal deals, sales, or limited-time offers;
structured offers: Details like percentage discounts or promo codes;
images: Promotional banners or product photos;
expiration dates: Deadlines that create urgency.

By analyzing these elements, Gmail’s AI automatically generates annotations, even if your team hasn’t implemented the traditional JSON-LD or Microdata markup. This means Gmail is taking a more active role in shaping how your promotional emails appear to recipients, aiming to surface the most relevant offers in a visually engaging way.

The Gemini AI connection

Behind this new automatic extraction is Google’s advanced AI infrastructure, likely powered in part by Gemini. In Gmail, AI systems now handle:

summarization: Creating quick summaries of long emails for easier reading;
classification: Sorting emails into the correct tabs and categories;
annotation pipelines: Detecting and generating promotional annotations automatically.

While Google has not officially confirmed that Gemini specifically powers these annotation features, their support documentation indicates that AI models are used to enhance recipient experience by ensuring that only the most relevant and structured promotional content gets highlighted.

Implications for marketers

This shift to AI-generated annotations has some clear implications:

less direct control over rendering: Even if you add manual markup, Gmail may prioritize what its AI believes is most relevant to the recipient. Your annotation might not display exactly as you intended every time.

However, this doesn’t mean you should abandon annotations altogether.

Sella Yoffe emphasizes that brands should adapt to a dual strategy:

continue implementing structured annotation markup to maintain branding consistency and accuracy;
optimize email content with clear, structured promotional information that Gmail’s AI can easily detect and extract.

What’s new in Gmail Promotions (2025)?

Gmail’s Promotions tab isn’t just about organizing emails anymore. Over the past year, Google has rolled out new features that expand how promotional content is displayed both inside Gmail and beyond it. Here’s what you need to know.

Deal Cards post-open

One of the most impactful updates is the Deal Cards post-open. This feature displays discounts and expiration dates right above the opened email content, giving recipients a quick summary of the deal before reading the full email.

For example, if your email includes a “25% off summer sale until July 31”, Gmail will show a small card at the top of the opened email with:

“25% off summer sale” as the main offer;
“Ends July 31” highlighted below.
This makes your promotion immediately visible and encourages recipients to take action faster.

For subscribers, it means quick access to deal information without scrolling through the entire email. For marketers, it creates an additional, prominent touchpoint to drive urgency and clicks.

Note: Google updated its developer documentation to include guidelines on structuring emails to ensure compatibility with these new Deal Cards.

Expansion beyond Gmail

Gmail’s influence doesn’t stop at the inbox anymore. Google now uses email marketing content in other services to enhance recipient experiences, including:

Google Search: Displaying AI-extracted promotional snippets directly in search results;
Google Shopping: Showing promotional offers alongside product listings;
Google Maps: Surfacing store deals in location-based searches.

This content expansion is managed through Merchant Center settings, where brands can choose to opt out if they don’t want their promotional content used in these wider contexts (CMSWire).

These changes show that Gmail’s Promotions tab is becoming part of a broader AI-driven ecosystem, giving marketers new opportunities to reach users across multiple Google platforms.

Deliverability and compliance updates

Alongside feature expansions, Google tightened its email sender requirements in February 2024.

Here’s what you must have in place to ensure your emails — including annotated promotions — land in inboxes without issues:

SPF and DKIM authentication are mandatory: These protocols prove that your emails are genuinely from your domain and not spoofed;
DMARC is strongly recommended: While not mandatory yet, DMARC helps prevent phishing using your domain and builds sender trust;
keep your complaint rate below 0.3%: High spam complaint rates can damage your sender reputation, risking deliverability and inbox placement.

Diverging industry perspectives: Are Promo tabs and annotations obsolete?

Not everyone in the email marketing world agrees on the value of Gmail’s Promotions tab and annotations today. As AI takes a bigger role in shaping what recipients see, some experts believe annotations no longer deliver the same impact. Let’s look at these differing views.

Chad S. White’s stance is clear:

annotations have outlived their usefulness.

He argues that Gmail’s AI overrides manual markup, deciding on its own what annotations to show, making structured markup less reliable as a tool for marketers. Another concern he raises is inconsistent rendering — even perfectly coded annotations might not display as intended, reducing their strategic value.

While some experts are skeptical about the future of annotations, many in the industry — including us — see them as an evolving, not obsolete, tool. Here’s why:

1. Sella Yoffe's insights

Sella Yoffe, an email deliverability and strategy expert, emphasizes that Promo tabs remain strategically valuable, especially for marketers who focus on relevance over raw inbox placement.

When used correctly, annotations don’t compete with Gmail’s AI extraction — they complement it. Adding structured markup ensures your deal information is accurate, branded, and presented exactly how you want it, while AI extraction alone may miss context or branding consistency.

2. Data and performance

Annotations aren’t just about aesthetics — they drive results:

emails with visual annotations see click-through rates increase by approximately 15–25%;
recipients who actively check their Promotions tab are often in a shopping mindset, with a read rate of around 20%, nearly as high as the Primary tab.

3. Strategic opportunity

Finally, brands that continue investing in annotations position themselves to benefit from:

Deal Cards: Giving your offers a prominent display above opened emails;
AI extraction: Ensuring your promos are highlighted even without markup;
Cross-Google integration: Appearing in Google Search, Shopping, and Maps as Gmail expands its promotional ecosystem.

Annotations aren’t dying; they’re adapting to work alongside Gmail’s AI, and marketers who embrace this dual strategy will stay ahead.

Best practices for 2025 Gmail Promotions strategy

The way Gmail displays promotional emails continues to evolve, but the fundamentals of good annotation and content strategy remain the same. Here’s how to make sure your emails stand out in the Promotions tab today.

Technical implementation

To give your emails the best chance of displaying rich annotations:

validate annotations via live inbox tests and structured data validators: Google previously offered a standalone annotation preview tool, but it has been deprecated and is no longer available in their current documentation. The most reliable way to test your annotations now is to send them to controlled Gmail accounts and check how they render in real inboxes;
follow updated image specs: For promo cards, use images sized 538×138px for optimal display, but note that Gmail now center-crops images automatically if they have slightly different dimensions or ratios;
use HTTPS URLs only: Gmail requires all annotation resources (images, logos, etc.) to be served over secure HTTPS connections to render properly.

Content optimization

Beyond the technical setup, make sure your content is optimized to catch recipient attention:

include actionable offers with clear expiry dates: This creates urgency and signals to Gmail that your email includes time-sensitive promotions worth highlighting;
use clear, branded images and logos: Consistent branding builds trust and makes your promotions instantly recognizable in a crowded inbox.

Deliverability and compliance

Before worrying about annotations, make sure your emails are actually reaching the inbox. Here are Gmail’s current standards:

authentication: Implement SPF and DKIM as mandatory protocols. DMARC is strongly recommended to further protect your domain and build sender reputation;
complaint rate: Keep your spam complaint rate below 0.3%. High complaint rates damage your reputation and can prevent your emails from being displayed with annotations or even reaching the inbox.

AI + schema Integration

Finally, the smartest approach for 2025 is to combine manual annotations with AI-optimized content:

continue using structured schema markup to maintain accuracy and branding consistency;
write your email content clearly, using structured promotional language that Gmail’s Gemini AI can easily detect and extract.

Future outlook

Here’s a detailed view of verified, reliable updates shaping the future of Gmail’s Promotions tab in 2025:

AI‑personalized Promotions

Google is building user-specific personalization into Gemini AI, meaning promotional previews may start reflecting individual interests and past engagement. According to the Gemini Overview, personalization features enable Gemini to “understand you” better by leveraging search history and prior behavior. This suggests that Gmail could soon tailor annotation displays to each recipient, showing deals most likely to interest them.

Deeper integration with the Gemini workspace

At Google I/O 2025, updates revealed Gemini’s expansion into Workspace apps like Gmail. These enhancements — summarizing threads, suggesting replies, and cleaning up the inbox — are already in place. While these tools currently focus on productivity, the underlying integration paves the way for smarter, dynamic inbox views and predictive deal suggestions, which could impact how promotions are surfaced and engaged with.

Evolving annotations framework

Google is continually evolving its schema ecosystem. Gemini’s broader integration with Workspace and its increasing use within Gmail highlight that annotations will remain technically relevant. Support documentation shows ongoing updates to annotation capabilities, particularly for post-send features like Deal Cards. Moreover, the expansion of email content into Google Search, Shopping, and Maps underlines merchant-focused annotation enhancement. Brands should monitor Google’s developer announcements for new schema properties and merchant integration standards.

Wrapping up

The Gmail Promotions tab has come a long way since its launch in 2013. What started as a simple way to organize marketing emails has evolved into a dynamic, AI-powered showcase that surfaces the most relevant deals and offers to recipients.

Here’s what we’ve covered:

annotations have changed. Manual JSON-LD and Microdata markup still matter for accuracy and branding consistency, but Gmail’s Gemini AI now extracts deal data automatically, meaning your content strategy must work alongside AI, not against it;
new features like Deal Cards and desktop annotation support make it even more important to optimize your promotions for visibility across devices;
stats show the Promotions tab isn’t spam — it’s a curated space where recipients expect to see your deals, and visual annotations can boost click-through rates by up to 25%;
deliverability standards are stricter than ever. SPF and DKIM are mandatory, DMARC is recommended, and complaint rates must remain below 0.3% to maintain inbox placement;
the future is AI-personalized. With Gemini integrating deeper into Gmail, promotions will likely become more tailored to recipient intent and behavior, making relevance your strongest tool.

Gmail’s Promotions tab is neither dead nor obsolete. It is evolving. Brands that understand its AI shifts, adapt their annotation strategies, and focus on relevance will continue to thrive in this dynamic inbox ecosystem.

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