Bounce protection: auto-pause a campaign at a bounce-rate threshold

Bounce protection pauses a campaign automatically when its bounce rate reaches a threshold you set. A campaign that keeps sending into a bad list can get every attached mailbox flagged within a day; this setting stops the damage while you fix the list. It works the same way for a new campaign and for one that is already running.

Steps

1. Open the campaign you want to protect, or create a new one.

1. Click Edit Campaign.

1. Go to Settings.

1. Scroll down and click Show Advanced Configurations.

1. Find Pause Campaign when bounce rate reaches.

1. Enter the maximum bounce rate as a percentage. When the campaign's bounce rate reaches this value it is paused automatically.

1. Click Save.

1. Click Resume Campaign (existing campaign) or Launch Campaign (new campaign).

If the threshold is hit, the campaign status changes to paused and no further emails are sent until you resume it.

What threshold to set

• 3% is the standard ceiling. Above this, Google and Microsoft start to throttle or spam-folder the sending mailboxes.
• 2% for new domains or mailboxes still building reputation.
• 5% only for a deliberately risky list (for example catch-all addresses) that you have isolated in its own campaign with its own mailboxes.

What to do when it triggers

1. Open the campaign → Contacts → Status: Bounced and export the list.
2. Remove the bounced addresses from your source list.
3. Verify the remaining Not contacted leads.
4. Check Mailbox → Warm up for the attached mailboxes; if one mailbox carries most of the bounces, the problem is that mailbox, not the list.
5. Resume Campaign.

Tips

• Bounce rate is calculated over the campaign's sends so far; early in a campaign a handful of bounces can exceed the threshold. Start with a small daily new-contacts limit so a bad list is caught after 50 sends, not 500.
• Bounce protection is per campaign. Set it on every campaign, including ones you clone.
• Pair it with a bounce-rate check on the Mailbox → Warm up tab, which tracks the mailbox rather than the campaign.

Related articles

• Managing bounced leads and cleaning your lists
• Why did my campaign pause or stop sending?
• Email verification: how it works and what each status means
• Set the daily new-contacts