Reduce complaint and bounce rates
Improve consent, suppression, and list hygiene to bring rates within provider expectations.
Objective
Protect sender reputation
Keep IP and domain reputation healthy through list hygiene, authentication, and metric control.
Starting state
Complaint or bounce rates above internal thresholds
Prerequisites
- Bounce classification
- Complaint/FBL processing
Estimated time
1–2 hours
Difficulty
intermediate
Required access
- ESP
- list platform
Inputs
- Rate baselines
- Acquisition sources
- Recent campaign samples
Step-by-step instructions
- SuppressRemove hard bounces and complainers before the next send.
- Tighten acquisitionStop risky list sources and prefer confirmed opt-in where needed.
- Re-measureResend to cleaned cohorts and confirm rates fall sustainably.
Verification
- Rates remain below alert thresholds across campaigns
Common mistakes
- Rates spike again from the same acquisition path
- Is engagement-based sunsetting required for inactive addresses?
Rollback / recovery
- Pause acquisition source and broaden suppression
Expected outcome
Complaint and bounce rates within provider expectations.
When to escalate
- Approach to mailbox-provider hard spam-rate ceilings