Bounces

Learn about managing email bounces, including types of bounces, handling hard and soft bounces, and strategies for better email deliverability.

When you send an email campaign, some emails might not be delivered successfully. These undelivered emails are known as bounces. In our Email App, the Bounces feature helps you manage these undeliverable emails by tracking and handling them efficiently. Effective bounce management improves your email deliverability and sender reputation over time.

Types of Bounces

Bounces are categorized to help you understand the nature of each undelivered email. Proper categorization enables you to take the necessary actions for each type. The main types of bounces are Hard Bounces, Soft Bounces, and Internal Bounces.

1. Hard Bounces

A hard bounce indicates a permanent delivery failure, meaning the email cannot reach the recipient due to issues like:

• The email address is invalid or does not exist.

• The domain is incorrect or unresolvable.

• The recipient’s server is configured to reject messages from your address.

Hard bounces are automatically marked, ensuring that future emails are not sent to these addresses.

2. Soft Bounces

Soft bounces represent temporary delivery issues, and the email may be delivered if retried. Common reasons for soft bounces include:

• The recipient's mailbox is full (over quota).

• The recipient’s server is temporarily down.

• The message exceeds the allowable size.

Our Email App automatically retries emails to addresses with soft bounces based on your configured retry settings. If delivery fails after the maximum number of retries, our Email App flags the email as undeliverable.

3. Internal Bounces

Internal bounces occur due to issues within your own email sending infrastructure. This may include:

• Misconfigured sender addresses, leading to failed email routing.

• Restrictions imposed by your sending IP, such as blocks from certain ISPs or firewalls.

• Server overloads or downtime, causing interruptions during sending.

Internal bounces highlight potential issues within your system rather than with the recipient’s address. Monitoring and resolving internal bounces promptly can improve your delivery rates and maintain server performance.

Configuring Bounce Settings

The Bounce Settings section allows you to manage how bounce handling is configured. Here’s an overview of each option:

Bounce Server

In this section, you specify the server details that our Email App will use to track bounced emails. Setting up a bounce server is essential to handle bounce notifications and ensure accurate tracking. The options include:

• Server Name: A unique identifier for your bounce server.

• Hostname/IP: The server’s hostname or IP address where bounced emails will be tracked.

• Username & Password: Credentials used to access the bounce server.

• Port: The port through which the bounce server can be accessed.

Bounce Protocol

Our Email App supports protocols like POP3 and IMAP to retrieve bounce notifications. Select the appropriate protocol based on your server configuration:

• POP3: Recommended for basic bounce processing needs.

• IMAP: Useful if you need more advanced filtering and email folder management.

A Bounce Server is required only when using SMTP, as it processes and tracks bounces. For API-based sending, bounces are handled automatically by the API provider, removing the need for a separate bounce server.

Bounce Retries

This option determines the number of times our Email App will attempt to deliver an email before flagging it as a bounce. Setting the retries to an optimal level prevents frequent resending attempts, which can affect your sender reputation.

Bounce Logs

In the Bounce Logs section, you can review detailed logs of bounced emails. Each log entry includes:

• Recipient Address: The email address that caused the bounce.

• Bounce Type: Specifies whether the bounce is a hard or soft bounce.

• Bounce Reason: A brief explanation for the bounce, such as “Invalid Email” or “Mailbox Full.”

• Timestamp: Date and time when the bounce was detected.

Bounce logs help you analyze trends in your email campaigns and identify any recurring issues with certain email addresses or domains.

Automatic Bounce Management

Our Email App includes automatic bounce management options to streamline the bounce handling process. When enabled, our Email App will:

• The hard bounce status has been changed from Confirmed to Blacklisted.

• Automatically remove hard bounce addresses from future campaigns.

• Retry soft bounces according to the configured settings before flagging them as undeliverable.

Benefits of Effective Bounce Management

Proper bounce management ensures:

• Better Sender Reputation: Lower bounce rates signal good list hygiene and help maintain a high sender score.

• Improved Deliverability: Managing bounces effectively reduces the risk of being flagged as spam by email providers.

• Cost Savings: Minimizing undeliverable emails helps reduce unnecessary sending costs.

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Managing bounces is an essential step for successful email campaigns. By setting up and monitoring bounce management settings, you can ensure your email lists remain clean, reducing bounce rates and enhancing deliverability.