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Understanding Email Bounces in Engage

Do you get a bounced email notification in Engage? Read this article to understand how to optimize your sequences

Hila avatar
Written by Hila
Updated this week

Overview

Engage uses your business email address to send all outbound sequences. This means that any email bounces can directly impact your domain’s sender reputation.

To help you manage this, Engage:

  • Tracks and displays bounce rates

  • Implements daily safeguards to prevent your domain from exceeding safe bounce thresholds

Types of Email Bounces

There are two types of bounces you might encounter:

  • Soft Bounce

    The email address is valid, but the message is rejected temporarily—usually due to spam filters or domain/content-related issues.

  • Hard Bounce

    The email address is invalid or no longer exists. These messages are permanently undeliverable.

Common Causes of Soft Bounces

  • The sending domain is marked as high-risk or spam

  • The email content is flagged as spammy

  • The recipient’s email server blocks new or unknown senders

Keep in mind that bounce rates are just one part of your domain’s email health. Your sender reputation also depends on the overall volume, engagement (opens, replies), and consistency of your email activity.

If your domain is flagged too often or too many emails go unopened or blocked, your sender reputation may drop and Engage will temporarily restrict email sending to protect your domain.


How Bounces Work in Engage

  • When a contact’s status changes to “Bounced” or “Replied”, they are automatically removed from the sequence.

  • Engage does not differentiate between manual replies and auto-replies; all replies will stop the sequence for that contact.

  • If a sequence hits a high bounce ratio, it will automatically pause to protect your domain reputation. Other sequences may remain active but can also pause if their bounce rates increase.


Reducing Your Bounce Rate

If you experience high bounce rates, here are a few steps you can take:

Extend Your Sending Schedule

Send fewer emails per hour by spacing them out throughout the day. This reduces the risk of getting flagged by email providers.

Reduce the Daily Volume

Limit the number of contacts in each sequence to around 10 emails per day. This helps keep your sending activity low-risk.

To adjust your sequence:

  • Go to the Sequences page

  • Click the relevant sequence

  • Open the Contacts tab

  • Use the trash bin icon to remove contacts from the current batch

You can re-add them later once your bounce rate stabilizes.

Once you’ve made your changes, don’t forget to activate the sequence by toggling the switch next to its name - either on the Sequence page or directly from the Engage dashboard.

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