Bounces fall into two categories: hard (permanent: address invalid) and soft (temporary: mailbox full, server down). Handle each differently.
Hard bounce: auto-suppress
OMB Cloud automatically marks the contact email as "invalid" after a hard bounce and stops attempting future sends to that address. Continuing to send hurts your domain reputation.
If the contact is otherwise active
A hard bounce doesn't mean the contact left the company — sometimes the email was mistyped or the company changed domains. Ask the contact for their current email (via phone, LinkedIn, or alternate channel) and update the record. The new email re-enables sending.
Soft bounce: retry with backoff
OMB Cloud retries soft bounces on a 1h, 6h, 24h schedule. After 3 failures, escalates to hard-bounce treatment. Common soft-bounce causes: full mailbox, server outage, anti-spam temporary block.
Bulk bounces
If a campaign suddenly shows 30%+ bounces, something's wrong with your sending domain (SPF/DKIM/DMARC misconfigured, or domain on a blocklist). Pause sending immediately and check the deliverability dashboard.
Tips
- Never "fix" a hard bounce by removing the invalid flag and retrying. The address is permanently bad; retrying just compounds the reputation damage.
- Keep a quarterly cleanup: review hard-bounced contacts, mark them "left company" if confirmed, archive after 12 months of inactivity.