Email Bounce Rate Calculator

Analyze your email campaign performance, align expectations with stakeholders, and set goals around deliverability and engagement with this Email Bounce Rate Calculator.

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Bounce Rate: 5%
Your bounce rate is 5%. Aim to keep it below 2% to maintain a healthy sender reputation.

What is the Email Bounce Rate

Email Bounce Rate is the percentage of email messages that cannot be delivered to recipients' inboxes. It is a metric used to assess the effectiveness of an email campaign. Bounces are categorized into two types:

  • Hard Bounces: Permanent delivery failures due to invalid email addresses or non-existent domains.
  • Soft Bounces: Temporary issues like a full inbox or server problems.

Interpreting bounce rate helps marketers understand the quality of their email list and the deliverability of their campaigns. A high bounce rate may indicate issues with list hygiene or targeting. It is a visibility metric, reflecting how well emails reach intended recipients. Monitoring and optimizing bounce rate can improve email campaign performance and maintain sender reputation.

How to calculate and analyze the Email Bounce Rate?

Calculating and Analyzing Email Bounce Rate

Email bounce rate is calculated by dividing the number of bounced emails by the total number of emails sent, then multiplying by 100 to get a percentage. The formula is:

Bounce Rate (%) = (Bounced Emails / Total Emails Sent) x 100

Metrics Influencing Email Bounce Rate:

  • Hard Bounces: Permanent delivery failures due to invalid email addresses. High hard bounce rates can indicate poor list quality.
  • Soft Bounces: Temporary issues like a full inbox or server problems. Monitoring soft bounces helps identify transient issues.

Type of Metric:

Email bounce rate is an efficiency metric as it reflects the effectiveness of email delivery. Related metrics include:

  • Open Rate: An engagement metric showing how many recipients open the email.
  • Click-Through Rate (CTR): An engagement metric indicating how many recipients clicked on links within the email.
  • Conversion Rate: A conversion metric measuring how many recipients completed a desired action.

Data Sources:

Businesses can find bounce rate data in email marketing platforms like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or SendGrid. These platforms provide detailed reports on email performance, including bounce rates.

Analysis Process:

To analyze bounce rate, segment data by:

  • Time: Compare bounce rates over different periods to identify trends.
  • Campaign: Evaluate bounce rates across various campaigns to assess performance.
  • Audience: Analyze bounce rates by audience segments to tailor strategies.
  • Objective: Align bounce rate analysis with campaign objectives to measure success.
  • Creative: Test different email designs to see their impact on bounce rates.
  • Channel: Compare bounce rates across different channels to optimize delivery.
  • Product: Assess how different products affect bounce rates.

By segmenting and analyzing these factors, businesses can identify patterns and make informed decisions to improve email delivery efficiency.

What would be considered a 'good' Email Bounce Rate?

Understanding a 'Good' Email Bounce Rate

  • Benchmarking: A bounce rate below 2% is generally considered good across most industries. However, this can vary based on your specific business model and market.
  • Industry Variations: According to Mailchimp, average bounce rates can range from 0.2% to 0.7% depending on the industry. For example, e-commerce tends to have lower bounce rates compared to non-profit organizations.
  • Contextual Performance: Focus on improving your own bounce rate over time rather than solely comparing to industry benchmarks. A lower bounce rate indicates better list quality and deliverability.
  • Impact on Business: While a low bounce rate is beneficial, ensure it aligns with your overall business goals and revenue. If bounce rate improvements don't translate to better performance, prioritize other metrics.
  • Continuous Improvement: Regularly clean your email list and verify addresses to maintain a healthy bounce rate. Use bounce data to refine your email strategy and enhance deliverability.

How to optimize your Email Bounce Rate?

Optimizing Email Bounce Rate

  • Regularly Clean Your Email List: Remove invalid or inactive email addresses to reduce hard bounces.
  • Use Double Opt-In: Ensure subscribers confirm their email addresses to improve list quality.
  • Monitor and Remove Hard Bounces: Continuously update your list by removing addresses that result in hard bounces.
  • Check for Typos: Validate email addresses at the point of entry to catch common errors.
  • Authenticate Your Emails: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to improve deliverability and reduce soft bounces.
  • Segment Your Audience: Send targeted emails to relevant segments to increase engagement and reduce bounces.
  • Test Email Content: Ensure your emails are not flagged as spam by testing different subject lines and content.
  • Monitor Sending Frequency: Avoid sending too many emails in a short period to prevent being marked as spam.