Bounce Definitions, Reporting, and Segmentation

This article describes soft and hard email bounces, which occur when an email can't be delivered.

# In this article

# Soft bounces

A soft bounce occurs when an email can't be delivered for a temporary reason, such as a full mailbox.

• SoftBounceGeneral, SoftBounceUndetermined MailBlockGeneral

  Iterable can't determine the reason for the delivery failure, possibly because of a non-standard error message from the server.

• SoftBounceTimeOut

  The connection timed out while trying to deliver the message.

• SoftBounceMailboxFull

  The recipient's mailbox is full.

• SoftBounceContentRejected

  Based on the message's content, the server thinks it is spam.

• SoftBounceSpamDetected or MailBlockSpamDetected

  The mailbox provider classified your email as spam (for content reasons, IP address, or a sending domain that has a poor reputation).

# Hard bounces

A hard bounce occurs when an email can't be delivered for a permanent reason, such as an invalid email address.

In response to a hard bounce, Iterable automatically unsubscribes the user from the message channel associated with the campaign (regardless of whether it's a marketing or transactional channel) and from all the other marketing email message channels in your Iterable project.

For example, consider the following message channel and type setup:

For a hard bounce that results from a campaign sent on message channel #1:

• Iterable unsubscribes the user from channel #1 (the sending channel) and also from channel #2 (the project's other marketing email channel).

• The user stays subscribed to channel #3 (a push notification channel) and channel #4 (a transactional channel not used for the send).

For a hard bounce that results from a campaign sent on message channel #4:

• Iterable unsubscribes the user from channel #4 (the sending channel), and also from channel #1 and channel #2 (the project's other marketing email channels).

• The user stays subscribed to channel #3 (a push notification channel).

# Exporting bounce reports

Use the Campaign Analytics view to export detailed bounce reports:

1. Click Export Events.

2. In the Export Events menu that opens, click into the Select Event drop-down and choose the bounce event you’d like to export. Click Export.

   

3. This downloads a CSV file that lists all bounced emails and their bounce types.

   

# Bounces in segmentation

Iterable's segmentation tool makes it possible to segment for users who have email bounces of various types.

# Additional resources

• For more information about bounce types, as determined by Amazon SES, see Bounce Types.
• For descriptions of SparkPost bounce codes, see Bounce Classification Codes.