Why am I seeing bounce rate spikes on campaigns attributed to Verizon Media Group?

Email marketer from EmailOversight Blog explains that Verizon Media Group (Yahoo/AOL) can be tricky. Temporary issues like overloaded servers or maintenance can cause spikes. Also, stricter filtering or reputation changes can lead to increased bounces.

Email marketer from Mailgun shares that high bounce rates will cause email providers like Verizon Media Group to throttle or block emails. Low engagement signals could be the cause, meaning you need to be sending emails that people want to receive.

Email marketer from Litmus suggests that poor list hygiene can significantly impact deliverability. Sending to outdated or unengaged email addresses can result in a high bounce rate and negatively affect your sender reputation, especially with providers like Verizon Media Group.

Email marketer from Mailjet Blog shares that high bounce rates on older lists can occur because many addresses become inactive or abandoned over time, leading to hard bounces when these emails are sent to those outdated addresses. This can be further exacerbated if these addresses are now recycled as spam traps.

Email marketer from Reddit shares that AOL (part of Verizon Media Group) has become stricter with its spam filtering. If your sending IP has a poor reputation, or your content is flagged as spam, AOL may block your emails, leading to bounces.

Email marketer from IPWarmup Blog explains that Verizon Media Group takes IP reputation seriously. If your sending IP has been associated with spam activity, it can lead to a higher bounce rate. Use tools to check your IP reputation and take steps to improve it.

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum theorizes that Verizon Media Group may have recently implemented stricter filtering rules or updated their spam detection algorithms, causing a sudden increase in bounce rates for senders who were previously compliant. Could also be related to new DMARC requirements.

Email marketer from SendGrid Help Center responds that a sudden increase in bounce rate can be due to a number of things, like a change in sending practices, or the recipient server implementing a new policy.

Email marketer from StackOverflow suggests ensuring SPF and DKIM records are correctly configured. Incorrect or missing authentication can cause Verizon Media Group to reject emails, resulting in bounces.

Expert from SpamResource explains that blocklisting can result in bounce rate spikes if Verizon Media Group starts using a particular blocklist more aggressively. Checking your IP and domain against common blocklists is advisable.

Expert from Email Geeks emphasizes the importance of reading bounce messages, highlighting that ISPs craft them to communicate specific information to senders.

Expert from Email Geeks advises to reach out to the address provided in the bounce message. If there is no response, escalate through the Yahoo postmaster page.

Expert from Email Geeks explains ATT is partially Verizon, where they have their own SMTP service, but then it's handed off to Verizon for mailbox delivery and some ATT problems can be solved by contacting Yahoo.

Expert from Word to the Wise responds that the causes may be a shift in algorithms used to detect spam or marketing email, a shift in what users are doing (reporting spam, trashing instead of unsubscribing), or an infrastructure issue. Often sudden changes are related to the reputation of sending IPs.

Expert from SpamResource responds that a key reason for deliverability issues is the failure to properly authenticate email using SPF, DKIM and DMARC standards. A lack of or misconfigured email authentication can lead to higher bounce rates as Verizon Media Group becomes increasingly strict about verifying sender identity.

Expert from Email Geeks identifies Verizon Media Group as Yahoo and AOL, suggesting the bounce rate spikes are likely due to reputation issues. She advises examining audience segmentation, targeting changes, and address purging practices. Laura also mentions the possibility of VMG decommissioning unused addresses leading to hard bounces.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that incorrect handling of bounces can cause problems. You need to handle the various bounce codes and act on them, so you are not repeatedly mailing to invalid addresses.

Documentation from SparkPost Documentation outlines common bounce codes and their meanings. Analyze bounce codes from Verizon Media Group to understand the specific reasons for delivery failures and identify patterns.

Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help explains that bounce messages contain valuable information about why an email couldn't be delivered, and they should be analyzed to understand the cause of increased bounce rates. Common reasons include invalid recipient addresses, blocked senders, or policy violations.

Documentation from Verizon Media Postmaster Tools explains that it provides a way to monitor your sending reputation and diagnose deliverability issues with Yahoo and AOL domains. This includes monitoring bounce rates and identifying potential problems.

Documentation from Microsoft Learn outlines the sending limits and policies in Exchange Online. Exceeding these limits or violating policies can result in temporary or permanent bouncebacks, and can affect deliverability and bounce rates.

Documentation from RFC 5321 explains that SMTP servers use reply codes to indicate the outcome of a mail transfer attempt. A 5xx code indicates a permanent failure (hard bounce), and a 4xx code indicates a temporary failure (soft bounce). Changes in these codes can indicate why there are increases in bounces.