- 1
Read the symptom: campaign paused, bounce rate red
Your campaign shows Paused and the bounce metric is flagged. This isn’t a glitch — FirstSales’ Delivery Protection auto-paused the campaign because your bounce or spam rate crossed a threshold you (or the default) set. Every hard bounce chips away at your sending domain’s reputation, so the pause is protecting you, not punishing you. Work the checklist below before you resume.
- 2
Confirm the trigger in Delivery Protection
Open Campaign → Settings → Delivery Protection. Check whether “Auto-pause when delivery health degrades” is on, and read the Bounce rate threshold (%) (default 5) and Spam complaint threshold (%) (default 0.1). Whichever line you crossed tells you what to fix first.
- 3
Stop the bleeding — don’t resume yet
Leave the campaign paused. Resuming into the same bad list or cold mailbox just re-triggers the pause and digs the reputation hole deeper. Fix the underlying cause first, then resume.
- 4
Diagnose the list
Open Contacts and look at the bounce reasons. A pile of hard bounces (invalid mailbox) points to a list-quality problem. A wall of bounces on a mailbox that’s brand new points to a warmup/reputation problem instead. Knowing which one you have decides your next move.
- 5
Verify and re-clean your contacts
Go to Settings → Tools/Verification and confirm Address format, Mail server verification (MX), Disposable addresses, Typo correction, and Role addresses checks are all enabled. Then bulk re-test the list — it costs 0.2 credits per contact, shows your current balance before you confirm, and results land within about 24 hours. Remove or exclude anything that comes back invalid.
- 6
Lower your sending volume
There’s no per-campaign throttle to dial down — volume is controlled per mailbox. Drop the affected mailbox’s daily sending limit (the 20–500 range in its sending config) and, if you can, spread the load across more warm mailboxes instead of pushing one hard.
- 7
Re-warm any cold mailbox that caused the spike
If the spike traces back to a new mailbox, open its Warmup tab, confirm it’s Verified, and let the score climb back to Healthy (80+) before you send heavily from it again. If the score won’t move, see Warm-up score stuck or blocked.
- 8
Resume safely
Once the list is cleaned and the mailbox is warm, resume the campaign. Consider tightening the bounce threshold (e.g. to 3%) so the next spike trips earlier and gives you a smaller mess to clean. Reputation recovers over days, not minutes — don’t rush volume back up.
Pro tips
Hard-won shortcuts that keep warm-up on track.
Keep auto-pause on
A campaign that pauses itself at 5% has already saved your domain. Turning the guardrail off just lets the damage run unbounded.
Clean before you send, not after
Verification costs 0.2 credits per contact either way. Doing it before the first send means zero bounces to recover from.
Spread volume, don’t concentrate it
Five mailboxes sending 100/day recover reputation faster than one mailbox pushing 500/day. Distribute load across warm senders.
Tighten the threshold after a spike
Drop your bounce threshold to around 3% for a few weeks post-recovery. It trips earlier next time, leaving a smaller cleanup.
Frequently asked questions
Why did my campaign pause itself?
Delivery Protection auto-paused it because your bounce or spam rate crossed the threshold set in Campaign → Settings (bounce defaults to 5%). It’s a safety brake, not a bug.
What bounce rate is too high?
The default auto-pause line is 5%. Healthy cold outreach sits well under 2–3%. Anything trending toward 5% signals list or mailbox trouble.
Will re-testing my contacts cost credits?
Yes — 0.2 credits per contact re-cleaned, shown up front with your balance before you confirm. Results land within about 24 hours.
Can I just raise the threshold to stop the pausing?
You can, up to 20%, but that treats the alarm rather than the fire. Fix the list and mailbox first — a high threshold only delays the reputation damage.
Do I need to re-warm after every bounce spike?
Only if the spike came from a cold or new mailbox. If an established mailbox spiked because of a bad list, cleaning the list is enough.
Is there a blacklist or seed test inside FirstSales?
No. FirstSales has no in-app blacklist/RBL lookup or spam-seed test — those are external tools. Focus on what you do control: list quality, verification, warmup, and volume.
How long until I can send normally again?
After cleaning the list and re-warming, ramp volume back up over several days. Domain reputation is earned back gradually, not instantly.
Ready to put this into practice?
Start your FirstSales trial and launch a warmed, authenticated mailbox in minutes.
Start for $1