The bounce brake: when Vecta pauses a campaign for you
Why a campaign pauses itself when too many emails bounce, what happens to the emails waiting, and how to resume safely.
Every bounce tells Gmail and Outlook that you might be sending to a bought or old list. Too many, and they start sending all your mail to spam, even to people who want it. So when a campaign bounces too much, Vecta pauses it and tells everyone in the workspace by email, before it does real damage.
When it pauses
- Once at least 20 of the campaign's emails have gone in the last 3 days, and more than your limit bounced (5% unless you changed it under Settings, Sending rules), or
- 10 emails bounced in the last 3 days, whatever the share.
- Late bounces (notices that arrive hours later) count too.
Example
A 300-person campaign: after 40 emails, 4 have bounced (10%). The limit is 5%, so the campaign is paused. The other 256 emails wait. You clean the list, take out the dead addresses, and press Resume.
What a pause does
- Nothing more goes out: emails waiting are held, not lost, and follow-ups wait too.
- The campaign page shows why it was paused and when.
- Bounced addresses are already on your do-not-email list, so they won't be emailed again.
Resuming safely
- 1
Clean the list
Open the list and use Clean this list before sending, and if it's switched on, Check that each mailbox exists.
- 2
Resume
Press Resume on the campaign. The brake starts counting again from that moment, so old bounces don't pause it again straight away.
Switching the brake off
Each campaign can turn its brake off under Hours and rules. Only do that for a list you know is clean: a campaign that keeps bouncing can get your mailbox blocked.
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Related articles
Understanding Bounce Handling
What a bounce really is, how Vecta tells a dead address apart from your own broken settings, and why that matters enormously.
Bounces that arrive later
How Vecta reads the "address not found" emails that land in your inbox after sending, and which ones put someone on the do-not-email list.
Cleaning a list before you send
How the list check finds typos, throwaway addresses and domains that can't receive mail, and what it can't tell you.