Hard Bounce
An email that failed to deliver due to a permanent reason (address doesn't exist). Must be removed immediately — hurts deliverability.
In practice
A hard bounce rate above 2% is a serious problem. Most ESPs remove addresses automatically after one hard bounce.
Common misconception
'A 5% bounce rate is fine.' A hard bounce rate above 2% is a serious problem. A healthy average is under 0.5%.
How to fix it
Rising? (1) stop sending to addresses that bounced, (2) clean the list of suspicious addresses, (3) double opt-in for new subscribers.
Example
A store imported a list from 2018, causing an 8% hard bounce rate and Gmail routing everything to spam. It took 3 months to recover sender reputation.
Priority
Use double opt-in from day one.
Related terms
Keep learning. Metrics that touch the same area:
- DeliverabilityAnalyticsThe ability of emails to reach the main inbox, not spam. Affected by reputation, bounce rate, and list quality.
- Soft BounceAnalyticsA temporary email rejection (full inbox, server unavailable). Can be retried.
- ConversionAnalyticsA desired action a visitor takes — a purchase, sign-up, form submission. The basis for measuring marketing success.
- Conversion Rate (CR)AnalyticsThe percentage of visitors who completed a desired action. Average: 1-4% for purchases, depending on category.
- ATC – Add To CartAnalyticsThe action where a visitor adds an item to the cart. Average ATC rate: 8-10% of product page visits.
- Cart AbandonmentAnalyticsA customer added an item to the cart but didn't complete the purchase. Average: 70-75%. One of the biggest opportunities.
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