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Version: 8.1Marketing

Analyze high bounce rates

This article covers the bounce rates of emails, and how to analyze them. Bounced emails occur when a message is undeliverable. Understanding the reasons behind these bounces is crucial for a successful email marketing campaign.

Analyze bounce metrics

Open the Marketing homepage section. Creatio Marketing provides detailed information on different types of bounces in the Bounce Monitoring tab (Fig 1).

Fig. 1 Bounce monitoring page
Fig. 1 Bounce monitoring page

Creatio categorizes bounces as either soft or hard. Soft bounces are usually temporary issues, while hard bounces indicate permanent delivery failures. Review these metrics to understand the nature of the bounces.

The best way to identify what causes a high bounce rate is to carefully look in the Undelivered mails metric (Fig. 2). Take note of the timestamp associated with the bounce. This will help you identify the specific email campaign that triggered the bounce.

Fig. 2 Undelivered Mails metric
Fig. 2 Undelivered Mails metric

Review email campaign metrics

  1. Identify the bulk emails with the high bounce rate by looking through the below metric (Fig. 3).

    Fig. 3 Bounce percentages
    Fig. 3 Bounce percentages
  2. Use the date filter to narrow down the campaigns around the time of the bounce.

  3. Look for the emails that correspond to the timestamp.

  4. Isolate the emails with the highest bounce rate.

Review detailed bounce reports

  1. Open the email with the highest bounce rate.

  2. Look for the Audience tab and ensure that the audience detail view includes the fields Response Reason and Reason details.

  3. Filter the responses by "Response = HardBounce".

    • Response reason: A short reason for the bounce.
    • Reason details: A detailed response from the recipient's server as to why the email was not delivered. The information contained in reason details is the best way to inspect not only the reason, but also sometimes the recommendations on how to fix this type of bounce (Fig. 4).
    Fig. 4 Reason details
    Fig. 4 Reason details

Creatio only provides recommendations on how to resolve bounce types. The exact procedure depends on each individual case.

Learn more about most common bounce reasons: Reasons for email delivery failure.

Check bounce persistence

  1. Return to the Bounce Monitoring tab by opening the Marketing homepage and check if the specific bounce is still listed.
  2. Look for any indication of persistent issues related to the same email campaign.
  3. Explore the email campaigns sent after the initial bounce-triggering campaign. Check if the bounce issue persists in subsequent campaigns, as this could indicate an ongoing problem.
  4. Investigate the root. In the bounce details, investigate the recipient details associated with the bounce. Check if the same email addresses consistently experience bounces across multiple campaigns.

Take corrective actions

If you identify specific issues in the campaign content that may have triggered bounces, modify the content accordingly. Ensure compliance with best practices to reduce the risk of future bounces. If certain email addresses consistently result in bounces, try to update your contact lists by removing invalid or inactive addresses. This helps improve overall deliverability. If the problem is caused by poor IP reputation, resolve that first.

Monitor changes and iterate

After implementing corrective actions, closely monitor the bounce rates in subsequent campaigns. Check if the changes have had a positive impact on deliverability by analyzing Creatio Marketing metrics.

Continuously iterate and optimize your email marketing strategy based on the insights gained from investigating bounces. Make adjustments to prevent identical issues from popping up in the future.


See also

Send a test email

Guidelines for increasing deliverability