Bounce Rate
Bounce rate in email is the percentage of sends that don't reach the inbox; on a website, it's the percentage of visitors who leave after viewing only one page.
What is bounce rate?
Bounce rate has two distinct meanings:
- Email: the percentage of sent messages that the receiving server rejects. Hard bounces are permanent (bad address, domain doesn't exist); soft bounces are temporary (mailbox full, server down).
- Web analytics: the percentage of single-page sessions — visitors who landed and left without interacting.
In 2026 GA4 and most modern analytics tools have largely replaced "bounce rate" with "engagement rate," but the term is still used heavily in outbound and demand-gen reporting.
Why it matters in cold email
- Sending to bounced addresses tanks sender reputation and inbox placement
- A bounce rate above ~3–5% on a cold campaign is a five-alarm fire — pause and re-verify the list
- Mailbox providers track bounce patterns over weeks; one bad blast hurts deliverability for the next several
How to keep bounces low
- Verify every email before sending, not just at list import
- Re-verify lists older than 60 days
- Remove role addresses (info@, sales@) from cold campaigns — they bounce more often and complain more
How TexAu helps
Pair waterfall enrichment with built-in email verification so addresses are validated before they hit the sequencer, keeping bounce rate well under the 3% danger threshold.
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