Message Bounce Details

Learn about the different reasons messages can bounce.

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Written by Support
Updated over a week ago

The Message Bounce Details report allows you to gather additional details on what emails were bounced and why. Internet service providers (ISPs) base a large percentage of your reputation on the number of bounces your messages incur, so it is important that you take the time to monitor them. 


Accessing Bounce Details

Bounce details can be viewed as an aggregate view for your entire list or at an individual message level for your broadcast messages.

Accessing List-Level Bounce Details

List level analytics are availably by navigating to Analytics > Contact Analytics Bounced Contacts.

📌 You can then use the date options to view in-depth details on bounces during a specific timeframe.

Accessing Message-Level Bounce Details

First, navigate to the Message Activity report to view high-level metrics of your message. Navigate to Analytics > Message Analytics Message Activity. On the Message Activity Dashboard, scroll to the list of messages and select the number in the bounce column for the email you would like to analyze.

For messages in an automated campaign built in Listrak Conductor, bounces can also be viewed at the message level. Navigate to Analytics > General Analytics Conversation Analytics. Next, locate the specific conversation you would like to analyze and click on the underlined number in the bounce column.

⚠️ Conversations will only appear if saved on the list you are viewing.

Then, locate a particular message and again click on the number in the bounce column to review reporting for a specific message.

💡 If multiple versions of a message are available, Version 1 is the version contacts are currently receiving. Other versions are older versions where creative, subject lines, or other properties have been changed.


Date Options

When navigating the dashboard you can update the scope of data by adjusting the date range for the data. By default the last four days of data is shown. Update the date range to one of the default values or use the calendar icons to adjust based on when the message was sent.


Bounce Details Pie Chart

At the top of the report, view a pie chart of the most common bounce reasons for messages in the specified timeframe.

Bounce Details Chart

In the chart section you will see the specific details associated with each bounce. You can use the sort and filter section to limit the data displayed based on email address, bounce reason, and more.

Data Available

  • Email: The email address of the bounced contact. Click on the email address to view the email addresses' profile fields

  • Bounce Reason: The specific reason a message was bounced, if determined.

  • Bounce Details: Additional information, such as bounce code, about why a message bounced, if available.

  • Bounce Date: The specific day and time the selected message bounced.

  • Bounce Count: The total number of times a message on the specific list was bounced for a contact. Click on the underlined number for additional information on the bounces that occurred within the last 15 months.

⚠️ You can us the trash can icon to unsubscribe a contact from the list. Please consult your Account Manager for list hygiene practices.


Bounce Reasons

In the bounce report the following types of bounce reasons may appear:

  • Attachment Detected: The recipient’s mail server does not accept attachments.

  • Auto Reply: This is typically an out-of-office reply that was successfully delivered.

  • Challenge-Response: The recipient’s mail server requires a reply from you in order to deliver the message.

  • DNS Failure: The recipient’s domain name is either not configured correctly or could not be resolved.

  • General Bounce: The message bounced, but the exact reason cannot be determined.

  • General Hard Bounce: The target mail server could not find the recipient.

  • General Mail Block: The message was blocked by the target mail server and the exact reason cannot be determined.

  • General Soft Bounce: The recipient’s mailbox is either full, disabled or being queued for delivery at the target mail server.

  • Invalid Address: The email address was returned a specific simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) code.

  • Mailbox Full: The recipient’s mailbox is over quota. 

  • Message Too Large: The size of your message was bigger than allowed by the recipient.

  • Relay Denied: The target mail server was unable to relay your message to another mail server. This typically happens when a recipient’s email is being forward to another email address.

  • Spam Detected: The message contained a text or attachment that had filtered items contained therein.

  • Transient Failure: The message could not be delivered due to routing or networking issues on the internet or the target mail server’s internal network.

  • Unsubscribe Request: Listrak has removed the recipient that replied to your message wanting to be removed from your list.

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