Understanding Bounce Rates with LeadMagic: Complete Guide

If you're experiencing a higher than normal bounce rate with LeadMagic, this is likely due to the composition of your email list—specifically, the presence of valid_catch_all emails, which have an expected bounce rate of 3-5%, or catch-all emails which have an anticipated bounce rate of 10-30%+. This article will help you understand why bounces happen, what's considered normal, and how to optimize your results.

Understanding Bounce Rate Benchmarks

What's a Normal Bounce Rate?

Industry benchmarks vary based on your email type and quality standards:

• Below 2%: Excellent - ideal for permission-based marketing lists

• 2-5%: Acceptable - normal for B2B cold outreach

• 5-7.5%: Average - typical for mixed-quality cold email campaigns

• Above 7.5%: High - requires immediate attention

Important Context: The average cold email bounce rate across all industries is approximately 7.5% according to 2025 data. If you're seeing a 5% bounce rate, you're actually performing better than average for cold outreach.

Hard Bounces vs. Soft Bounces

• Hard Bounces (permanent failures): Invalid email addresses, non-existent domains, blocked servers

• Soft Bounces (temporary failures): Full mailboxes, temporary server issues, message size limits

A healthy email program should have:

• Hard bounce rate: Below 0.5-2%

• Soft bounce rate: Below 0.7-1%

LeadMagic's Email Validation Statuses

LeadMagic returns emails with three distinct validation statuses, each with different expected bounce rates:

1. Valid (Priority #1) - High Quality

• Status: valid

• Description: Email response was given and is 100% valid, confirmed by mail-server validation

• Expected Bounce Rate: <1%

• Action: Always email these first

• Quality: Highest - always tested and verified

2. Valid Catch All (Priority #2) - Lower Quality

• Status: valid_catch_all

• Description: Email has a Valid Catch All (Accept All) status but we've discovered engagement information on it

• Expected Bounce Rate: 3-5%

• Action: Send as a second priority or at lower volume

• Quality: Medium - safer than standard catch-all, but not as reliable as valid

• Warning: Do not email these with newer domains or without warm-up or prior campaigns

3. Catch All (Risky) - Avoid

• Status: catch_all

• Description: Domain sends only Catch All (Accept All) emails and requires further validation

• Expected Bounce Rate: Very High (unpredictable)

• Action: Validate with CatchAll Verification or avoid completely

• Quality: Lowest - no guarantee of response or delivery

Why Am I Experiencing High Bounce Rates?

1. Email Status Composition (Most Common Reason)

If you're seeing a higher than usual bounce rate, your list likely contains a significant proportion of valid_catch_all or catch-all emails.

Understanding Catch-All Emails

• Approximately 30-38% of B2B domains are configured as catch-all/accept-all

• Catch-all emails are 27x more likely to bounce than verified valid emails

• Catch-all domains accept all emails initially, but may reject them later

• They're designed to catch misspelled emails, but many don't have actual recipients

Why This Happens:

• Your target ICP may include industries with more catch-all configurations (government, healthcare, education, enterprise companies)

• Different lists have varying catch-all percentages based on company characteristics

• Some domains use catch-all as a security feature to prevent email harvesting

Solution: Filter your Clay enrichment results by email status to prioritize valid emails first.

2. Domain Reputation & Warm-Up Issues

New or Unwarmed Domains

Symptoms:

• Recently started using a new sending domain (less than 3 months old)

• Suddenly increased email volume

• First time doing cold outreach from this domain

Why This Causes Bounces:

• Email Service Providers (ESPs) automatically treat new domains as suspicious

• Domains need 15-60 days of gradual warm-up (some sources recommend 3 months)

• Sudden high volume from a new domain triggers spam filters

• ESPs monitor bounce rates as a quality signal

Impact:

• Without proper warm-up, even valid emails may bounce or go to spam

• Bounce rates compound the problem by damaging sender reputation

• Your overall bounce rate should stay below 1% during warm-up to avoid flags

Solution:

• Implement a gradual domain warm-up strategy (start with 50 emails/day, increase slowly)

• Use email warm-up tools like Instantly, Smartlead, or Lemwarm

• Never send large cold campaigns from brand new domains

• Consider using a dedicated cold outreach domain separate from your main company domain

3. List Quality & Data Hygiene

List Decay

• Email lists naturally decay at ~25% per year

• People change jobs, companies close email accounts, domains expire

• Even the best data becomes stale over time

Signs of Poor List Quality:

• Purchased or scraped email lists

• Lists that haven't been cleaned in 6+ months

• High percentage of role-based emails (info@, support@, sales@)

• Duplicate or obviously invalid formats

Solution:

• Verify emails are from recent data (preferably within last 6-12 months)

• Avoid purchased lists entirely

• Implement regular list cleaning (quarterly minimum)

• Use LeadMagic's validation statuses to filter before sending

4. Insufficient Email Authentication

Required Authentication Protocols:

• SPF (Sender Policy Framework): Verifies sending server is authorized

• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): Adds digital signature to emails

• DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication): Tells servers how to handle failed checks

• Custom Tracking Domain: Properly configured forwarding

Why This Matters:

• Approximately 17% of cold emails never reach the inbox due to poor authentication

• ISPs are increasingly strict about authentication (especially Gmail and Yahoo in 2025)

• Unauthenticated emails are more likely to bounce or go to spam

Solution: Verify all authentication records are properly configured in your DNS settings.

5. Content & Sending Patterns

Content Issues

• Spam-trigger words and phrases

• Excessive links or attachments

• Poor formatting or large image files

• Missing unsubscribe links

Volume Issues

• Sending too many emails too quickly

• Inconsistent sending patterns

• Exceeding ESP sending limits (typically 500/day for new domains)

Impact: Even valid emails may soft bounce due to content filtering or throttling.

6. Target Market Characteristics

Certain industries and company types have inherently higher catch-all rates:

Higher Catch-All Rates:

• Government organizations

• Healthcare institutions

• Educational institutions (.edu domains)

• Large enterprise companies

• Financial services

Lower Catch-All Rates:

• Startups and SMBs

• Technology companies

• E-commerce businesses

Reality: Your 5% bounce rate might simply reflect your target market's characteristics, not a problem with data quality.

How to Reduce Your Bounce Rate

Immediate Actions (Do Today)

1. Filter by Email Status in Clay

Step-by-step:

1. In your Clay table, locate the LeadMagic email status column

2. Filter to show only "valid" status emails

3. Create a separate campaign/sequence for these high-quality emails

4. Send to valid_catch_all addresses separately at lower volume

Expected Result: Bounce rate should drop to <1% for valid emails only.

2. Segment Your Lists

Create three separate sending groups:

• Group A (Priority 1): valid status only → Expected <1% bounce rate

• Group B (Priority 2): valid_catch_all status → Expected 3-5% bounce rate

• Group C (Avoid): catch_all status → Don't send or verify separately

3. Remove Previous Bounces

If you have historical bounce data:

• Immediately suppress all hard-bounced emails

• Remove addresses that soft bounced 3+ times

• Never send to the same bounced address again (damages reputation)

Medium-Term Actions (This Week)

4. Verify Domain Authentication

Check your current setup:

• SPF record: v=spf1 include:sendgrid.net ~all (or your ESP's record)

• DKIM record: Properly configured with your ESP

• DMARC record: At minimum v=DMARC1; p=none;

• Custom tracking domain: Properly forwarded

Tools to Check:

• MXToolbox.com

• mail-tester.com

• Your ESP's authentication checker

5. Implement Double Verification

For critical campaigns:

1. Enrich with LeadMagic to get email + status

2. Filter to valid and valid_catch_all only

3. Optionally run a second verification service for high-value prospects

4. Cross-reference against your historical bounce data

6. Optimize Sending Infrastructure

Email Warm-up:

• Enable automatic warm-up if available

• Start with 10-20 emails/day, increase by 10-20% weekly

• Maintain warm-up even while sending campaigns

Volume Control:

• Stay under 50 emails/day for new domains

• Gradually increase to 100-200/day over 60 days

• Never spike suddenly (e.g., 100 to 1,000 overnight)

Long-Term Best Practices (Ongoing)

7. Monitor Key Metrics

Track these metrics weekly:

• Bounce rate: Should stay below 2% overall

• Hard bounce rate: Should stay below 0.5%

• Soft bounce rate: Should stay below 1%

• Sender Score: Check at senderscore.org (keep above 80)

• Blacklist status: Check at mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx

8. Maintain List Hygiene

Quarterly Actions:

• Remove all hard bounces immediately

• Suppress addresses that soft bounced 3+ times

• Remove unengaged addresses (no opens/clicks in 6 months)

• Re-verify your entire list with fresh enrichment

Before Each Campaign:

• Verify data is recent (enriched within last 6 months)

• Check for obvious duplicates or malformed addresses

• Review catch-all percentage (high % = expect higher bounces)

9. Improve Engagement

Higher engagement improves sender reputation and reduces future bounces:

• Personalize beyond just first name

• Send value-first content, not just sales pitches

• Test send times and subject lines

• Respond to replies promptly to maintain positive signals

10. Use Dedicated Sending Infrastructure

Best Practice Setup:

• Main domain: company.com (never use for cold outreach)

• Outreach domain: mail.company.com or company.io

• Multiple sender accounts: 3-5 accounts per domain, rotate sending

• Separate IPs: Consider dedicated IPs if sending 100k+/month

Advanced Troubleshooting

My bounce rate is still high after filtering to "valid" only

Possible causes:

1. Domain reputation is damaged

   • Check sender score (should be 80+)

   • Verify you're not blacklisted

   • You may need to switch to a fresh domain

2. Authentication issues

   • Re-verify SPF, DKIM, DMARC records

   • Check custom tracking domain configuration

   • Test with mail-tester.com (should score 8+/10)

3. ESP throttling or blocking

   • Check for "soft bounce" error messages

   • Reduce sending volume by 50%

   • Space out sends over longer time periods

4. Content triggering spam filters

   • Remove spam trigger words ("free", "guarantee", excessive caps)

   • Reduce number of links (keep to 1-2 max)

   • Improve text-to-image ratio

   • Remove large attachments

I'm targeting a specific industry with many catch-all domains

Options:

1. Accept the higher bounce rate

   • 5-7% is normal for industries with high catch-all prevalence

   • Focus on other metrics (open rate, reply rate, conversions)

   • The valid contacts you reach still make it worthwhile

2. Use catch-all verification services

   • Additional tools like ZeroBounce can further verify catch-all emails

   • This adds another layer of validation beyond standard SMTP checks

   • Cost vs. benefit depends on your list size and target value

3. Adjust your ICP

   • If possible, target company sizes/types with fewer catch-all domains

   • SMBs and startups typically have lower catch-all rates

   • Technology and e-commerce sectors have better email infrastructure

My bounce rate was fine before, but suddenly increased

Common causes of sudden bounce rate spikes:

1. Your data source changed

   • Different enrichment provider with different validation standards

   • Older data being used

   • Scraping instead of verified sources

2. Target list changed

   • Shifted to new industry/segment with more catch-all domains

   • Targeting more enterprise vs. SMB companies

   • Different geographical regions (EU, APAC have different patterns)

3. Sending infrastructure issues

   • Domain reputation declined due to previous campaigns

   • ESP made changes to your account

   • Reached a spam trap without realizing it

4. ESP/ISP changes

   • Gmail, Outlook, or other major providers updated filtering

   • Industry-wide changes to authentication requirements

   • Mass deletion of inactive accounts (Yahoo did this recently)

Action plan:

• Compare current list characteristics to previous campaigns

• Check if domain reputation score decreased

• Review any recent ESP notifications or warnings

• Test with a small batch to a known-good subset of your list

Best Practices for Clay Users

Optimal Clay Workflow for LeadMagic

Recommended Column Setup:

1. Enrichment Column: LeadMagic Email Finder

   • Input: Company domain (preferred) or Company name

   • Output: Work email, email status, confidence score

2. Filter Column: Formula to classify emails

   IF([Email Status] = "valid", "Priority 1",
      IF([Email Status] = "valid_catch_all", "Priority 2",
         "Do Not Send"))
   

3. Action Columns:

   • Priority 1 → Send to primary campaign

   • Priority 2 → Send to secondary campaign (lower volume)

   • Do Not Send → Skip or verify further

Sample Clay Table Structure

| Name | Company | Company Domain | Email (LM) | Email Status (LM) | Send Priority | Send to Campaign? |
|------|---------|----------------|------------|-------------------|---------------|-------------------|
| John | Acme    | acme.com       | john@...   | valid             | Priority 1    | YES - Campaign A  |
| Jane | TechCo  | techco.com     | jane@...   | valid_catch_all   | Priority 2    | YES - Campaign B  |
| Bob  | WidgetInc| widget.com    | bob@...    | catch_all         | Do Not Send   | NO - Skip         |

Clay-Specific Tips

1. Use LeadMagic as your primary enricher in the waterfall (it's the #1 provider in Clay)

2. Enable the "Only keep valid emails" filter in your enrichment settings if available

3. Create separate campaigns for different email statuses

4. Export regularly to your email platform rather than letting stale data accumulate

5. Track bounce rates per enrichment status to validate that filtering is working

Summary: Quick Reference

Expected Bounce Rates by Email Status

Troubleshooting Checklist

• [ ] Filtered emails by status (sending only to valid)?

• [ ] Domain properly warmed up (15-60+ days)?

• [ ] SPF, DKIM, DMARC authentication configured?

• [ ] Sending volume gradual and consistent?

• [ ] List data recent (within 6 months)?

• [ ] Removed previous bounces from list?

• [ ] Sender score above 80?

• [ ] Not on any blacklists?

• [ ] Content doesn't trigger spam filters?

• [ ] Using dedicated cold outreach domain?

When to Contact Support

Contact LeadMagic support if:

• You're seeing >3% bounce rate on valid status emails only

• You suspect a data quality issue with a specific batch

• You need help understanding email statuses in your results

• You're experiencing technical issues with the enrichment

What to include in your support request:

• Sample of emails that bounced (with statuses)

• Your Clay table URL or CSV export

• Approximate percentage of each email status in your list

• Description of your target ICP

• Timeline of when bounce rates increased

Additional Resources

Tools for Monitoring Email Health

• Sender Score: senderscore.org

• Mail Tester: mail-tester.com

• MXToolbox Blacklist Check: mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx

• Google Postmaster Tools: For Gmail delivery monitoring

• Microsoft SNDS: For Outlook delivery monitoring

Still Have Questions?

If you're still experiencing higher bounce rates after following this guide, or if you believe there's a data quality issue with your specific enrichment, please contact our support team in the application.

Include in your message:

• Description of your target ICP

• Sample of bounced emails and their statuses

• Approximate bounce rate percentage

• Steps you've already taken to troubleshoot

Our team will investigate and help you optimize your enrichment strategy!