SFMC Email Specialist Certification Practice Exam 2026 – Complete Preparation Guide

Monitoring bounce rates is essential for maintaining the health of an email list and ensuring high deliverability rates. A bounce rate signifies issues with email delivery, which can stem from either temporary conditions (soft bounces) or permanent problems (hard bounces).

A bounce rate of 20% is indicative of a significant issue that should prompt further action. At this level, it suggests that a substantial portion of your email recipients are not receiving your communications. This can negatively impact sender reputation and deliverability. It’s crucial to evaluate the reasons behind this bounce rate, such as verifying email addresses, handling invalid addresses, and ensuring that subscribers genuinely want to receive your emails.

At this threshold, it’s prudent to consider removing or verifying subscribers in order to clean the list, maintain effective engagement, and optimize future sending practices. Lower bounce rates represent better email list hygiene and higher chances for successful delivery, engagement, and overall campaign performance. Thus, monitoring a 20% bounce rate could signal a need for subscriber removal from future sends.