Investigate bounce reports
Classify bounce DSNs, find root causes, and feed suppressions or infrastructure fixes.
Objective
Monitor deliverability
Operate ongoing signals for acceptance, placement, and reputation.
Starting state
Bounce volume or rate is elevated
Prerequisites
- Raw DSN or ESP bounce export
Estimated time
1–2 hours
Difficulty
intermediate
Required access
- ESP logs
- CRM
Inputs
- Bounce samples
- Campaign/IP mapping
Step-by-step instructions
- ClassifyBucket hard vs soft vs block/deferral responses.
- CorrelateMap spikes to lists, providers, IPs, or recent DNS/auth changes.
- RemediateSuppress invalids or open the matching Solve/Workflow playbook.
Verification
- Bounce rate returns toward baseline after actions
Common mistakes
- Treating all 4xx as hard bounces
- Infrastructure block vs list quality as primary cause?
Rollback / recovery
- Restore senders only after root cause is cleared
Expected outcome
Bounce spikes convert into concrete suppressions or fixes.
When to escalate
- Provider-wide blocks dominate the bounce mix