Skip to content
NewSee how

Recover from a bounce spike

Your bounce rate crossed the line and a campaign auto-paused. Diagnose the cause, clean the list, throttle down, and re-warm before you resume.

Tutorials
Deliverability
min read
8 min
steps
8 · Advanced

  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.

    Re-warm any cold mailbox that caused the spike

  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

  • 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.

Deliverability

Outreach that keeps going after you log off.Leads, emails, follow-ups and replies, handled.

Connect unlimited mailboxes and let AI agents find leads, write each email and follow up. Or send your own templates in manual mode. From $29/mo.

Start your $1 trial See pricing

$1 for 3 days · Cancel anytime · No contract

Install with AI

Your coding agent sets up the FirstSales CLI and skills for you.

Prompt for Claude Code

I'm setting up FirstSales (https://firstsales.io), an AI outbound sales platform: campaigns, contacts, a reply inbox, deliverability and lead signals. Help me get my workspace sending real, good emails end to end, from Claude Code.

Read these first so you know how FirstSales works:
- Developer docs and API: https://developer.firstsales.io
- CLI: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@firstsales.io/cli
- Skills for coding agents: https://github.com/firstsalesio/firstsales-skills (read README.md and GUIDE.md)

Setup
1. Install the CLI: npm install -g @firstsales.io/cli
2. Install the FirstSales skills:
   claude plugin marketplace add firstsalesio/firstsales-skills
   claude plugin install firstsales@firstsales
3. Ask me if I already have a FirstSales account. If not, send me to https://app.firstsales.io to sign up.
4. Ask me to create an API key under Settings → API → API Keys, with only the scopes we need.
   Never ask me to paste the key into this chat. Tell me to run this in my own terminal, so the key stays hidden:
   read -rs FS_KEY && firstsales auth login --api-key "$FS_KEY"; unset FS_KEY
5. Run `firstsales whoami` and tell me which workspace and organisation we are connected to.

Then ask me about my business: what I sell, who I sell to (roles, company size, countries), my best customers, and what I use today for outbound (tools, lists, mailboxes). Walk me through:
1. Teaching FirstSales my business: website, offer, proof points and case studies in the knowledge base, so the AI writes like someone who knows the product.
2. Connecting my sending mailboxes and checking my sending domain: SPF, DKIM, DMARC and warm-up. If anything is unhealthy, tell me the exact DNS record to add.
3. Bringing in contacts: import my CSV or CRM export into a clean list, remove duplicates and bad emails, and block domains I must never email (customers, competitors, my own).
4. Building my first campaign: the right list, senders, steps and timing. Write the sequence with me, show me the drafts, and do not launch until I say yes.
5. Setting up Signals if it fits: find people engaging with LinkedIn posts about topics my buyers care about, and turn them into leads.
6. Inviting my team and giving each person the right access.

Once campaigns run, show me how to work the reply inbox from here: which replies need an answer, draft responses in my voice, and move good conversations into deals. If I use Cal.com, connect it so follow-ups can offer my booking link (not the first email).

Throughout, as you learn about my business, proactively suggest and help create:
- Reply templates for the questions and objections my prospects are likely to raise, based on my product, site and codebase if you can see them.
- Campaign ideas and segments worth testing, with the reason for each.

Safety rules:
- Show every change as a dry run (--dry-run) first and wait for my yes. Never send emails, launch campaigns or delete anything without my yes.
- Tell me before anything that spends credits, and how many.

Be opinionated. If the docs give a sensible default, just use it. Don't make me choose between five options.
Developer docs ↗npm: @firstsales.io/cli ↗GitHub: firstsales-skills ↗