Hard Bounces vs. Email Invalids

[Meredith_DAmbri]

Can anyone tell me the difference between a hard bounce and an email invalid and which one causes Marketo to not send to that email address again?

I thought that after one hard bouce a record became unsubscribed, but the activity I see is that they change to email invalid. However, I see more hard bounces than email invalids, so I am wondering under what circumstances a hard bouce is changed to an email invalid.

Hopefully this makes sense.

Thanks!

[Meredith_DAmbri]

Thank you!

[Dory_Viscoglio · Accepted solution]

Hi Meredith,

This is something we've been working through recently, so hopefully I can provide some insight to what I've found -- especially since it isn't very clear in Marketo.

There are 3 types of hard bounces that Marketo registers:

• Email Incorrect - this email address doesn't exist - email invalid is set to true
• Anti-Spam Block - Marketo suspends sending of emails to this address for 24 hours - email suspended is set to true
• Technical Issues - email bounced for an unknown reason, can attempt resend immediately

Email Invalid means that the email address doesn't exist (whether due to email, or domain), and Marketo will never attempt to email to that address again.

There's more information in this discussion: Need more detailed information about email bounces which was where I found this information.