What Is Bounce Rate?
Definition
Bounce rate is the percentage of undelivered emails compared to all the emails you sent. Often, it’s caused by list issues or delivery problems, such as invalid addresses. To calculate this metric, divide the number of bounced emails by the total number sent.
Keep in mind that this isn’t the same as email deliverability, which calculates the percentage of emails that make it into the inbox specifically. Bounced emails never make it to the recipient. This is why it’s such an important metric for measuring the efficacy of your email distribution.
Example
High bounce rates signal the need for change. Keeping your bounce rates low helps improve email delivery and campaign performance.
Types of Bounces
Email bounce can be classified into two main types: hard and soft bounce. Both bounce types affect your delivery rate but in different ways.
Hard Bounce
A hard bounce is when your email can’t be delivered because of a permanent reason. This usually happens because of an invalid or non-existent email address. It could also be because the email domain is outdated or inactive.
Hard bounces are a sign of outdated or incorrect information on your list. If an email hard bounces, remove that address immediately to keep your list accurate and avoid future delivery issues.
Soft Bounce
This type of bounce is simply a temporary issue. One of the most common reasons for a soft bounce is that the recipient’s mailbox is full, meaning it can’t receive more emails. Server issues or even large files can also cause an email to bounce.
Unlike with hard bounces, you don’t necessarily have to delete that email address from your list. The email might still go through if you try sending it later. But if an address repeatedly soft bounces, it’s best to monitor those addresses. You may have to remove them if the problem continues.
How Bounce Rate Affects Email Campaigns
Bounce rate directly impacts your email campaigns. High bounce rates damage your sender reputation with email service providers (ESPs). If ESPs detect frequent bounces, they might flag your emails as spam or block them. This affects your overall deliverability and causes you problems down the line. High bounce rates can also mean that your list needs updating. You need to monitor your bounce rate to be able to quickly identify issues and fix them, resulting in better campaign results.
Related terms
Related articles
Verify 500 emails for free. For lists over one-million emails, we will beat the price of any competitor, guaranteed.