Manage Email Bounces in Bullhorn Automation

Managing email bounces in Bullhorn Automation helps you maintain healthy deliverability for your automated workflows. When emails sent through Automation bounce, Bullhorn tracks that activity against the associated candidate and contact records in your ATS so you can take action before it affects your sender reputation.

Common Reasons You Might Need This Article

• An automated email send is bouncing and you need to identify the cause.

• Your bounce rate is above 2.5% and automated emails are starting to fail.

• You need to identify which candidate or contact records have invalid email addresses.

• An email address was corrected on a record and you want to confirm future automated delivery will resume.

• You are building a workflow that includes email sends and want to avoid false positives from bounce handling.

• A record is being excluded from automated emails and you are not sure why.

• You received a bounce notification tied to a shared email address across multiple records.

Understand Hard Bounces

A hard bounce means an email sent through Automation could not be delivered for a permanent reason. Bullhorn will not retry these emails. Reviewing hard-bounced email addresses on your ATS records helps you identify data integrity issues and understand where deliverability is breaking down.

Common reasons for a hard bounce include:

• The recipient's email address does not exist.
• The domain name does not exist.
• The recipient's email server has completely blocked delivery.

Bullhorn automatically flags hard-bounced emails, making it easier to identify affected ATS records for review.

Understand Soft Bounces

A soft bounce means an email sent through Automation could not be delivered due to a temporary issue. Most email providers attempt delivery multiple times before treating it as a failure. In Bullhorn Automation, an email that soft-bounces three times is treated as a hard bounce.

Common reasons for a soft bounce include:

• The recipient's mailbox is full (over quota).
• The recipient's email server is down or offline.
• The email message is too large.

Ideally your bounce rate will be under 2.5%. If it goes higher than that, you may start to have issues with delivery. 

Track Bounce Activity

Use the Contacts list in your ATS to search for and review bounce activity across your candidate and contact records. Monitoring this regularly helps you identify deliverability issues before your bounce rate climbs above the recommended 2.5% threshold.

How to Search for Bounce Activity

To search for the bounce activity follow these instructions:

1. Navigate to the Contacts list.
2. Click Advanced Search.
3. Choose the record type: Candidates or Sales Contacts

4. Under Conditions, select Has Activity and then Bounce.

5. Add details for From, Bounce Type, and Within Last Days (optional).

6. Click Save to view the list of matching records.

 

 

Additional Notes on Email Bounces

Email Deliverability Checks

Bullhorn runs an email deliverability check before sending to a new email address. If the email fails this check, it will not be sent. This proactive measure protects your domain reputation by preventing unnecessary bounces.

Unsubscribed by Bounce of Contact With Same Email

If a candidate or contact is marked as "Unsubscribed by Bounce of Contact With Same Email," it means another record with the same email address opted out. When this occurs, all records with that email address will also be marked as opted out. If you cannot find another record with the same email, it may have been deleted or edited.

Updating Contact Information

Soft Bounce

If a contact’s email address is corrected after a soft bounce, Bullhorn will continue attempting to deliver the communication.

Hard Bounce

If a contact’s email address is corrected after a hard bounce, Bullhorn will only attempt to deliver new emails. If the contact has already completed an automation, they will need to be sent through the automation again to ensure they receive the email.

When an email address is updated, the record's mailable status will be set to Mailable.

Troubleshooting

If a Record Is Excluded from Automated Emails After a Hard Bounce

A hard bounce permanently excludes the record from future automated emails. If you believe the bounce was a false positive, contact Bullhorn Support to request a manual reset of the record's mailable status.

If a Record Is Marked "Unsubscribed by Bounce of Contact With Same Email"

This means another ATS record sharing the same email address opted out. When this occurs, all records with that email address are also marked as opted out. If you cannot locate another record with the same email, it may have been deleted or edited.

FAQ

What is the recommended bounce rate threshold for Bullhorn Automation?

Keep your bounce rate below 2.5%. Above that threshold, you may start to experience deliverability issues that affect your automated workflows.

What happens when an automated email soft-bounces multiple times?

After three soft bounces, Bullhorn Automation treats the email as a hard bounce and stops retrying delivery.

Can I reset a record's mailable status after a hard bounce?

Yes. Contact Bullhorn Support to request a manual reset of the record's mailable status.

Will correcting an email address on an ATS record automatically re-enroll a contact in an automation?

No. If a contact has already completed an automation and their email was corrected after a hard bounce, you will need to manually send them through the automation again.

Can I track soft bounce volume over time for a specific record?

No. There is currently no way to determine how many emails are sent to a candidate or contact at a given time to capture soft bounce history.