Changes in ZeroBounce Validation Results: Need Insights and Recommendations | Clay

Changes in ZeroBounce Validation Results: Need Insights and Recommendations

ZEROBOUNCE Question: There seems to be a change in the ZeroBounce validation results. Providers are finding more invalid email addresses than before. We always search for email addresses with the ZeroBounce integration enabled. Previously, we found 70% valid email addresses, but lately, it's often just slightly over 50% due to much invalid emails.

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Does anybody know if the validation providers are applying stricter checks?
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Would you recommend using invalid email addresses in campaigns anyway? Or will this inevitably result in a high bounce rate?

2 comments

Channeled
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Regarding email validation results, by default, Clay uses ZeroBounce with a setting that includes "catch-all" emails as valid. While these are often real emails, there's some uncertainty about whether they belong to the specific individual or if they're aliases.For a more conservative approach that could explain the lower valid email rate you're seeing, you can enable the "only mark safe to send" option. This will exclude catch-all emails from your valid email list, resulting in a smaller but more reliable set of validated emails.As for using invalid emails in campaigns, this is not recommended. Using invalid emails can: ** Negatively impact your sender reputation ** Harm email deliverability ** Lead to high bounce ratesBest practices include: ** Regularly cleaning your email lists ** Using reliable email verification services ** Monitoring bounce rates * Avoiding the use of potentially invalid emails Sources: Enrich People (Waterfalls) [Automated Outbound] - Clay University Enrich People (Waterfalls) [Clay 101] - Clay University What is Email Verification? | Clay
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