Sudden Bounce Rate Spike

Question

My SES account's sending privileges got paused for going above 15% bounce rate

- I have a lambda function that runs every month and sends emails to close to 10k emails
- Previous bounce rates have been around 3% at most. 
- I haven't had a significant increase in emails yet the bounce rate went from 3% to 15% in a day.
- I have checked my email list and it doesn't seem to be an issue with my emails.
- The lambda function that sends the email also hasn't changed since the last run.

How can a bounce rate just jump like that? Is my email address getting blocked by email providers out of nowhere? Is SES having a hiccup?

Answer

I've gone through a few sending pauses myself in the past and the support team is really good about listening to your case and providing feedback on how to address it.

A sudden bounce spike makes me think something's up with your list. Are you handling the bounce reports and cleaning your list? Is there any pattern to the bouncing email addresses? (same domain or MX service?)

I wouldn't think it's your email address being blocked. Usually, if you're being blocked or blacklisted, your email will still be delivered, but go into the recipient's Spam folder.

Sudden Bounce Rate Spike

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