Deliverability Assistant
The Deliverability Assistant brings email send, delivery, spam, and bounce metrics together with Google Postmaster and Microsoft Smart Network Data Services (SNDS) data in one place. Use Soft Bounce Suppression to automatically stop emailing addresses that soft bounce repeatedly.
The Deliverability Assistant is currently in beta and only available for the email channel. Contact your Braze account manager if you’re interested in participating in this beta.
About Deliverability Assistant
Checking deliverability often means comparing campaign-level analytics, Google Postmaster, and bounce details across tools. Deliverability Assistant consolidates that view so you can see whether email is delivered, where issues concentrate, and which soft bounce patterns need attention.
Go to Analytics > Deliverability to open the Deliverability Assistant. The page has two tabs:
| Tab | What it shows | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Health Reporting | Braze send, delivery, spam, and bounce metrics, including bounce themes and breakdowns by inbox provider, IP pool, sending domain, or campaign or Canvas step. | Use Health Reporting for what Braze sent and what bounced. |
| Mailbox Providers | Google Postmaster and Microsoft SNDS data for how eligible mailbox providers rate your sending. This is the former Deliverability Center experience. | Use Mailbox Providers for how Gmail and Microsoft rate your domains and IPs. |
Benefits
- See Send Volume, Delivery Rate, Spam Complaints, Hard Bounce Rate, and Soft Bounce Rate on one page, compared to the previous period of the same length.
- Spot when metrics change with deliverability over time, including sends by IP pool for warming and pool mix.
- Review soft bounces grouped into plain-language bounce themes (for example, Authentication / DNS Failure, Low Reputation / Throttling, and Invalid Recipient), tagged Severe, Moderate, or Low.
- Break metrics down by inbox provider, IP pool, sending domain, or campaign or Canvas step, then download the breakdown as CSV.
- Ask BrazeAI Operator to summarize the Health Reporting dashboard and flag what needs attention.
- Create soft bounce rules under Audience > Suppressions that convert repeated soft bounces into a hard bounce status so those addresses stop receiving email.
Soft bounce suppression
Addresses that soft bounce repeatedly (for example, full mailboxes, invalid domains, or mistyped recipients) waste send volume and can hurt reputation with inbox providers. Soft Bounce Suppression is a soft bounce rule type on the Suppressions page. When an address hits an unbroken streak of soft bounces in the categories you select (defaults focus on list quality), Braze marks it as hard bounced. A successful delivery resets the count. For setup steps, presets, and bounce categories, see Soft bounce rules.
When an address meets the rule criteria, Braze converts it to hard bounce status and stops emailing that address. Converted addresses remain on your Braze bounce list even if you later deactivate the rule. Remove them with the Remove hard bounces endpoint.
How soft bounce suppression works
- Each soft bounce suppression rule applies to one or more sending domains. A workspace can have only one active soft bounce suppression rule per sending domain.
- Braze counts an email address’s consecutive soft bounces in the selected bounce categories. By default, the rule counts Invalid Domain, Invalid Recipient, Mailbox Unavailable, and Undetermined—list-quality themes from Health Reporting. Use Advanced configurations to change which of these categories count.
- When an address reaches the soft bounce threshold within the evaluation window, Braze records a hard bounce and stops emailing that address.
- A successful delivery resets the count. Only an unbroken streak of soft bounces triggers suppression, so a short mailbox outage doesn’t suppress a healthy recipient.
Health Reporting
Health Reporting works as soon as the feature is enabled for your workspace. SparkPost, SendGrid, and Amazon SES return different soft bounce codes. Health Reporting maps those codes into one set of Braze bounce categories so soft bounce themes stay consistent regardless of which email service provider (ESP) you use.
Create a soft bounce suppression rule for each sending domain you send from. Health Reporting can show which domain has elevated Invalid Recipient or Mailbox Unavailable soft bounces so you know where a rule helps most.
How Health Reporting and Soft Bounce Suppression work together
Health Reporting helps you diagnose the problem. Soft Bounce Rate is up, bounce themes point to Invalid Recipient and Mailbox Unavailable, and the breakdown shows concentration on one sending domain. Soft Bounce Suppression addresses that pattern by pruning failing addresses on that domain automatically.
Summary tiles
Health Reporting shows five summary tiles. Each tile compares the selected range to the previous period of the same length. The date range ends yesterday because deliveries and bounces can arrive minutes to hours after a send, and spam complaints can take longer. Today is excluded so the dashboard doesn’t include incomplete current-day data.
| Tile | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Send Volume | Total messages sent in the selected date range. |
| Delivery Rate | Percentage of sent messages accepted by the recipient’s mail server (Deliveries ÷ Sends). |
| Spam Complaints | Percentage of sent messages that recipients marked as spam (Marked as Spam ÷ Sent). |
| Hard bounce rate | Percentage of sent messages that permanently failed delivery (Hard Bounced ÷ Sends). |
| Soft bounce rate | Percentage of sent messages that temporarily failed delivery (Soft Bounced ÷ Sends). |
Deliverability over time
The Deliverability over time chart shows hourly rates for deliveries, spam complaints, hard bounces, and soft bounces. Switch to Sends by IP pool to review volume by IP pool.
Bounce themes
Use Bounce themes to review soft bounces grouped into categories such as:
- Authentication / DNS Failure
- Block
- Low Reputation / Throttling
- Spam / Content
- Invalid Domain
- Invalid Recipient
- Mailbox Unavailable
- Undetermined
Themes are labeled Severe, Moderate, or Low so you can prioritize what to investigate first.
Deliverability breakdown
Use Deliverability breakdown to view the same metrics by:
- Inbox provider
- IP pool
- Sending domain
- Campaign or Canvas step
Download the table as a CSV file. Select an inbox provider to open its domain breakdown, or select a soft bounce count to see bounce themes for that row.
Review deliverability health
On the Health Reporting tab, select Review deliverability health to ask BrazeAI OperatorTM to summarize the dashboard and call out what needs attention.
Mailbox Providers
The Mailbox Providers tab shows Google Postmaster (domain and IP reputation, authentication, and user-reported spam) and Microsoft SNDS for eligible dedicated IPs.
Prerequisites
- Health Reporting: No additional setup after the beta is enabled.
- Google Postmaster: Connect Google Postmaster under Partner Integrations > Technology Partners. Existing connections carry over. For setup steps, see Deliverability Center.
- Microsoft SNDS: Available for eligible dedicated IPs on Amazon SES, SendGrid, and SparkPost. No customer setup is required for SNDS display in Braze.
Frequently asked questions
Why don’t the numbers match campaign, Canvas, or Looker reports?
Deliverability Assistant aggregates deliverability metrics for this dashboard. Other Braze reports can use different event timing or counting logic, so totals may not match exactly. Spam complaint counts can differ more when the same recipient reports the same message more than once.
Why does the date range end yesterday?
Deliveries and bounces can arrive after a send, and spam complaints can take longer. The date picker excludes today so the dashboard doesn’t include incomplete current-day data.
Do I need to set anything up?
Health Reporting works after the beta is enabled. The Mailbox Providers tab needs Google Postmaster connected for its metrics, and Microsoft SNDS for eligible dedicated IPs. Review deliverability health is available on the Health Reporting tab by default.
Which ESPs does Health Reporting support?
Health Reporting supports SparkPost, SendGrid, and Amazon SES. Soft bounce codes from each ESP map into the same Braze bounce categories.
Can Soft Bounce Suppression suppress a good recipient?
The rule is designed to fire only on an unbroken streak of soft bounces in the selected categories. A successful delivery resets the count. Defaults count list-quality categories (Invalid Domain, Invalid Recipient, Mailbox Unavailable, and Undetermined). Rules are scoped by sending domain, so create coverage for each domain you send from.
How does Braze decide which mailbox provider a recipient belongs to?
Braze maps recipient domains to mailbox providers (including Gmail, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple, and major US and EU ISPs). Domains that aren’t yet mapped appear as Other.
Can I export the data?
Yes. Download the deliverability breakdown table as a CSV file.