The Scenario
You are an email deliverability consultant. A new client wants inbox placement tests before they launch their first Instantly campaign. They have 6 subject line and body variants to test across Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo.
The variants are in an Excel workbook on the Variants tab, with columns for test name, subject, and body. The client wants test IDs back so they can track results in Instantly.
Tuesday afternoon, campaign launches Friday morning. 48 hours.
The slow version:
- Log into Instantly
- Open inbox placement tests
- Fill in test name, paste subject, paste body for test 1
- Create it, copy the test ID somewhere
- Repeat for tests 2 through 6
- Mix up the test IDs for variants 4 and 5
- The client's tracking is wrong before the campaign even launches.
The fast version is one prompt.
The Easy Way: One Prompt in SheetXAI
SheetXAI reads your variant workbook and creates each inbox placement test in Instantly, writing the test ID back to the Variants tab.
Open the SheetXAI sidebar and type:
Create an Instantly inbox placement test for each row in the Variants tab (columns: Test Name, Email Subject, Email Body) using the default ESP recipient list, and write the test ID back into column D.
SheetXAI creates each test and writes the test ID into column D. Six rows, six test IDs, no copy-pasting.
What You Get
Six inbox placement tests created and tracked in the workbook:
- Tests created — one per row, with name and content from the Variants tab
- Column D test IDs — the Instantly-assigned ID for each test
- No manual test creation — you never opened the Instantly inbox placement UI
- Source of truth — the workbook maps every variant to its test ID
The column D IDs are what the client needs. They check results in Instantly while you move on.
What If the Data Is Not Quite Ready
Variant workbooks from creative teams need attention before passing to an API.
When the subject lines have unresolved placeholders
The copywriter left {{client_name}} in two subjects as a placeholder.
Check the Email Subject column in the Variants tab for Instantly-incompatible placeholders. Flag those rows in column D as "REVIEW NEEDED". Create tests for all other rows and write the test ID into column D.
When you only want to test the top 3 prioritized variants first
The client ranked variants in column E from 1 to 6.
Filter the Variants tab to rows where Priority column is 1, 2, or 3. Create an Instantly inbox placement test for each using the Test Name, Email Subject, and Email Body columns. Write the test ID into column D.
When the body column has HTML formatting tags
Some bodies were drafted in a rich-text tool.
Strip all HTML tags from the Email Body column of the Variants tab before creating tests. Then create an Instantly inbox placement test for each row and write the test ID into column D.
When you want to create tests and immediately check initial placement results
You want first results without a second prompt.
Create an Instantly inbox placement test for each row in the Variants tab. Write the test ID into column D. Then pull the initial placement results for each test ID and write inbox, spam, and missing percentages into columns E, F, and G.
The pattern: create, track, retrieve — one session, no manual copy-pasting.
Try It
Get the 7-day free trial of SheetXAI and open any subject line variant workbook, then ask it to create the inbox placement tests in Instantly. The Instantly integration is included in every SheetXAI plan. For related workflows, see how to pull campaign analytics for comparison in Excel or the Instantly in Excel overview.