At a glance
0.42%
Avg Hard Bounce, invalid / non-existent addresses
Unlike unsubscribes (a subscriber's choice), hard bounces indicate a permanently invalid address. Continuing to send to hard bounces is the fastest way to damage sender reputation. Most ESPs suppress hard bounces automatically — but you should also export and blacklist them in your CRM. Never re-import previously bounced addresses.
| Industry | Hard Bounce | Soft Bounce | Total | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Healthcare / Wellness | 0.28% | 0.38% | 0.66% | Good |
| Financial Services | 0.32% | 0.44% | 0.76% | Good |
| Education / Training | 0.38% | 0.48% | 0.86% | Good |
| SaaS / Technology | 0.34% | 0.42% | 0.76% | Good |
| Nonprofit / Government | 0.24% | 0.34% | 0.58% | Excellent |
| B2B Services | 0.44% | 0.58% | 1.02% | Average |
| Real Estate | 0.48% | 0.62% | 1.10% | Average |
| Travel / Hospitality | 0.42% | 0.54% | 0.96% | Average |
| Ecommerce / Retail | 0.52% | 0.68% | 1.20% | Average |
| Restaurant / Food | 0.64% | 0.82% | 1.46% | Watch |
| Fashion / Apparel | 0.58% | 0.74% | 1.32% | Watch |
| Events / Entertainment | 0.74% | 0.94% | 1.68% | Watch |
| Legal Services | 0.38% | 0.48% | 0.86% | Good |
| Automotive | 0.54% | 0.68% | 1.22% | Average |
List acquisition method is the single biggest driver of bounce rate.
| List Source | Hard Bounce | Soft Bounce | Guidance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Organic double opt-in | 0.12% | 0.18% | Best list quality; highest deliverability |
| Organic single opt-in | 0.38% | 0.52% | Good — some typos and fake addresses slip through |
| Point-of-sale / checkout (ecom) | 0.44% | 0.62% | Real customers; some legacy / inactive addresses |
| Webinar / event registrations | 0.48% | 0.64% | Often temporary/work emails that change |
| Trade show / manual entry | 1.24% | 1.44% | High bounce risk; hand-entered typos common |
| Content download / lead magnet | 0.62% | 0.82% | Some "fake" emails to access gated content |
| Third-party list / purchased | 4.84% | 6.24% | Extremely high — almost always deliverability-damaging |
| Scraped / appended contact data | 8.44% | 10.84% | Never use — will destroy sender reputation |
These benchmarks are drawn from a multi-source benchmark cohort aggregated across industries and regions, covering the period Q1 2023 – Q4 2024. Figures on this page come from the Benchmarketing benchmark dataset: thousands of curated benchmark observations spanning channels, industries, and US metro areas, refreshed on a published schedule. Every statistic traces to a named source — no anonymous “studies show.” Data is sourced from:
The Benchmarketing 4-Band Method reads every marketing metric against four percentile bands — P25 (bottom quartile), median, P75 (top quartile), and elite (top ~10%) — for a specific industry and channel, instead of a single cross-industry average. Averages blend brand and non-brand campaigns, $500/month and $500,000/month accounts, and unrelated industries into a number almost nobody actually has.
Benchmarks reflect median values across large sample sets. Your industry, business model, and account maturity will cause variation. Use P25/P75 ranges to understand realistic distribution.
Read full methodologyHard bounce: permanent delivery failure — the address doesn't exist, the domain is invalid, or the server has permanently rejected delivery. Remove immediately. Soft bounce: temporary failure — mailbox full, server temporarily down, message too large. ESPs typically retry soft bounces 3–5 times. If a soft bounce recurs 3+ times, treat it as a hard bounce and suppress the address.
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Every statistic on this page traces to a named source below. Benchmarketing does not publish anonymous "studies show" figures. Rows labeled Benchmarketing are our own aggregated, curated benchmark data.
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Written by
Benchmarketing Research Team
Data & Analytics
Reviewed by
Performance Marketing Editorial
Senior Review
Last updated
Reviewed March 2026
Observation period: Q1 2023 – Q4 2024