Why is Google Postmaster Tools showing no errors, but bounces are still occurring?
Summary
What email marketers say11Marketer opinions
Marketer from Email Geeks shares an experience where a customer seemed to be on a good sender block, except one IP address in the block caused variance, possibly due to a 'rogue IP' from a bad block wandering into the wrong neighborhood.
Email marketer from SendGrid explains that there can be delays in Google Postmaster Tools reporting, so recent sending activity might not immediately reflect. It's important to look at trends over time and compare the data with other monitoring tools to get a clearer picture.
Email marketer from Litmus explains that Poor list hygiene is a major cause of bounces, even if Google Postmaster Tools shows a 'good' reputation. Old, invalid, or inactive email addresses will bounce. Regularly verify your email list to improve deliverability.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign explains that a sudden increase in bounce rates may be caused by a compromised account, which is something to be aware of. Even if Google Postmaster Tools shows 'good' reputation.
Email marketer from EmailOnAcid explains that hitting spam traps can severely damage your sender reputation and increase bounce rates. Google Postmaster Tools may not immediately reflect the impact, especially if the spam trap hits are infrequent. Regularly clean your email list to remove inactive or invalid addresses.
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests it's likely a temporary networking problem and not reputation-driven.
Email marketer from Neil Patel's Blog explains that inbox placement isn't solely determined by reputation. Content, sender authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and engagement all play crucial roles. Even with a good reputation, poor content or authentication issues can lead to bounces or being marked as spam.
Email marketer from StackOverflow explains that your email content might be triggering spam filters, leading to bounces (especially soft bounces) that aren't always immediately apparent in Google Postmaster Tools. Review your content for spam trigger words, excessive links, or poor HTML coding.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum explains that the metrics in Postmaster tools may not be instant - or have a delay. Sending metrics should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Email marketer from Mailjet explains that Google Postmaster Tools might not immediately flag authentication issues, but they can still cause bounces. Double-check SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records to ensure they are correctly configured and properly aligned.
Email marketer from Reddit user explains that sometimes IPs get temporarily blacklisted on smaller, less prominent blocklists that Google Postmaster Tools doesn't actively monitor. Even a short listing can cause bounces. Use external blacklist checkers to verify.
What the experts say5Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise (referring to Laura Atkins' expertise) explains that the information displayed in Google Postmaster Tools is not real-time. There can be significant delays (hours or even days) in the data being reflected. Therefore, bounces happening now may not be visible immediately in the dashboards.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests the issue could be a routing problem.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests checking if the ESP's sending MTAs are under high load, potentially causing delays and connection issues if they are too slow.
Expert from Email Geeks raises the possibility of the IP being on a 'death penalty routing list'.
Expert from Spam Resource (referring to John Levine's expertise) explains that Google Postmaster Tools provides a *view* of Google's perspective but isn't comprehensive. Bounces might be occurring due to issues outside of Google's systems, such as problems at the recipient's mail server or with intermediate hops. Postmaster tools is also based on statistical sampling, it does not see all emails.
What the documentation says3Technical articles
Documentation from DMARC.org explains that if a DMARC policy is set to reject, but the authentication checks are failing sporadically or for certain mail streams, this will result in bounces. However, google postmaster tools may not report the individual issues immediately depending on sampling rates
Documentation from Google Developers explains that 'Transient' or temporary errors (like timeouts or network issues) might not be reflected immediately in Postmaster Tools, especially if they are infrequent. These can still result in bounces, especially if your sending infrastructure isn't robust enough to handle them.
Documentation from RFC Editor explains SMTP timeout errors will cause a bounce to occur. However, the tools are not instant and the logs may not reflect this immediately.