Why are so many of my Apollo emails bouncing?
The Apollo help pages give 4 common reasons. The first to rule out: An email can hard bounce because the address is wrong or no longer exists.
Is it broken, or just quiet?
A number can fall because fewer people came, or because something stopped counting them. Below are the causes the Apollo help pages give, and how to check each one yourself.
What causes it?
An email can hard bounce because the address is wrong or no longer exists.
In the Apollo help:
The email address is invalid or non-existent.
Troubleshoot Bounced Emails, read 2026-11-12.A soft bounce comes from a short lived problem on the receiving side, so the email does not arrive that time.
In the Apollo help:
With a soft bounce, a temporary issue prevents your email from arriving in the intended inbox.
Troubleshoot Bounced Emails, read 2026-11-12.If your sending domain's reputation is low, mail servers can block your emails before they reach even the spam folder.
In the Apollo help:
Your domain reputation is so low that your email is blocked before it even reaches the spam folder.
Troubleshoot Bounced Emails, read 2026-11-12.Addresses that came from another source can be out of date or wrong, which can mean more bounces.
In the Apollo help:
If the address came from a third-party source, it may be outdated or inaccurate.
Troubleshoot Bounced Emails, read 2026-11-12.
How do I check it myself?
Look at the contacts whose sequence status is bounced to see which addresses failed.
In the Apollo help:
If a contact doesn't receive your message, Apollo sets their sequence status to bounced.
Troubleshoot Bounced Emails, read 2026-11-12.Check bounced addresses for typos.
In the Apollo help:
Double-check for typos in the email address.
Troubleshoot Bounced Emails, read 2026-11-12.For soft bounces, Apollo notes most clear up on their own, so a short wait and a retry is often enough.
In the Apollo help:
Most soft bounces resolve on their own, so waiting and retrying is often enough.
Troubleshoot Bounced Emails, read 2026-11-12.
How would I know the day it starts?
- Feder reads your outreach emails delivered from Apollo each day and compares each day with your own history.
- It does not check single email addresses. It tells you when delivered outreach emails go quiet or move outside their usual range.
Some numbers are too quiet to judge daily, such as a form filled in a few times a week. Until there is enough of your own history to judge a change, Feder says it is still learning and scores nothing, rather than guessing.
See what Feder reads from Apollo, which feeds Reach. Feder only reads. It never changes anything in Apollo.
What else goes wrong with these numbers?
- Why are my Apollo emails not sending?Apollo
- Why are fewer of my Apollo sequence emails being delivered?Apollo
- Why did Google Analytics stop collecting data?Google Analytics
- Why aren't my key events showing in Google Analytics?Google Analytics
- Why does Google Analytics show (not set)?Google Analytics
See every question.
Where do these answers come from?
Every cause and check on this page comes from the Apollo help pages, quoted above with the date we read them. Last reviewed 2026-11-12. We read them again by 2027-11-12. If one changes, this page changes or comes down.