Overview
Sending protection helps safeguard your team's sending reputation by reducing risky email activity. Review protection activity to see how Apollo safeguards your email sending, and manage policies for domain authentication, recipient eligibility, email signatures, sending volume, bounce rates, and blocklists.
To connect, monitor, or update the domains and mailboxes your team sends from, read Manage Mailboxes and Domains on Apollo.
Everyone on your team can review sending policies. Admins can edit most settings, but only a superuser or partner seat can change Restrict catch-all domains.
Check out the following sections to review your protection activity and configure your team's sending policies.
Review Protection Activity
To review protection activity:
- Launch Apollo, then go to Settings > Outbound > Email setup and health > Sending protection.
- Review the metrics under Protection activity.
- Risky sends held back: The number of emails Apollo prevented from sending because of your team's active sending policies.
- Sequences auto-paused: The number of sequences Apollo paused automatically when their bounce rates reached your team's limit.
- Contacts screened: The number of contacts Apollo evaluated using your team's sending policies.
- To investigate bounced emails, click View bounce logs.
You have now reviewed your team's protection activity.
Configure Sending Policies
To review or configure sending policies:
- Launch Apollo, then go to Settings > Outbound > Email setup and health > Sending protection.
- Scroll to Sending policies, then review the policy groups:
- Open a group, then select a policy to review its impact, scope, and settings.
- If your permissions allow, update the policy settings and click Save changes.
You have now reviewed or configured your team's sending policies.
Choose a sending policy to learn more:
| Sending policies | ||
|---|---|---|
| Domain protection | Who gets emailed | Sending safeguards |
| Automatic sending adjustments | Restrict unverified emails | Gradual sending increase |
| Restrict catch-all domains | Bounce guard | |
| Require email signatures | Blocklist detection | |
| One-click unsubscribe | Workspace sending limit | |
Automatic sending adjustments
Automatic sending adjustments checks SPF, DKIM, and DMARC before emails send. If Apollo finds a critical authentication issue, it can pause sending from the affected domain until the issue is resolved. Less severe issues display a warning without pausing sending.
To configure automatic sending adjustments:
- Set Automatic sending adjustments to On or Off.
- Click Save changes.
You have now configured automatic sending adjustments.
Restrict unverified emails
When this policy is on, Apollo holds back contacts with unverified email addresses when you add them to a sequence, including manual, bulk, and queued enrollment. Apollo doesn't check this policy at send time. Verify the email address, then add the contact to the sequence again. Turning the policy off doesn't enroll contacts retroactively.
To configure unverified email protection:
- Set the protection to On or Off.
- Click Save changes.
You have now configured how Apollo handles contacts with unverified email addresses.
Restrict catch-all domains
Apollo enables this policy by default. A superuser or partner can turn it off or update its settings for your team.
A catch-all domain accepts email sent to any address on the domain, which makes individual email addresses harder to verify. Sending to unverified addresses on catch-all domains can increase bounce risk and affect your sender reputation.
When this policy is on, Apollo blocks high-risk catch-all contacts when you add them to a sequence and checks them again before sending. Apollo warns you about lower-risk catch-all contacts, but you can continue adding them. Contacts on exempt domains skip this policy.
Review how Apollo handles contacts on catch-all domains:
| Scenario | What Apollo does |
|---|---|
| Exempt catch-all domain | Apollo allows the contact because your team has exempted the domain. |
| Lower or unclear risk | Apollo warns you about the catch-all domain, but you can continue with the contact. |
| High risk | Apollo prevents the contact from being added to a sequence and checks the contact again before sending. |
To configure catch-all domain protection:
- Set the policy to On or Off.
- If you want to exempt a trusted recipient domain, select the domain from Exempt domains, then click Add domain. Contacts on exempt domains can receive email even when the domain is catch-all.
- Click Save changes.
You have now configured catch-all domain protection.
Require email signatures
When this policy is on, Apollo checks that each sending mailbox has a signature and that every sequence email step includes it. Apollo only checks whether a signature is present and doesn't review its content.
To configure email signature protection:
- Set Require email signatures to On or Off.
- To exempt a mailbox from this policy, use Search mailboxes... under Exempt mailboxes to select the mailbox, then click Add mailbox. Emails sent from exempt mailboxes don't require a signature.
- Click Save changes.
You have now configured email signature protection.
One-click unsubscribe
In workspaces where Sending protection is active, Apollo adds one-click unsubscribe headers to applicable emails. Sending protection also requires an opt-out link in the body or footer of applicable sequence emails, even if the profile or mailbox opt-out setting was previously off. You can still customize the opt-out message text.
The recipient's email provider decides whether and where to display the header-level Unsubscribe option. Depending on the provider, it may appear near the top of the email. This header-level option is separate from the opt-out link in the email body or footer, so recipients may see both in the same email.
One-click unsubscribe helps reduce spam complaints, protect your sending reputation, and meet email-provider requirements.
Learn more about configuring an unsubscribe link.
Gradual sending increase
When this policy is on, new domains and mailboxes start at a lower sending volume. Apollo gradually increases how much they can send as they warm up, which helps prevent sending too much too soon.
To configure gradual sending increases:
- Set the protection to On or Off.
- Click Save changes.
You have now configured gradual sending increases for new domains and mailboxes.
Bounce guard
Bounce guard flags sequences for review or pauses them automatically when their bounce rates cross your limits. Apollo turns this policy on by default to help protect your team's sending reputation.
By default, Apollo flags sending for review at a 4% bounce rate and pauses sending at 6%. Apollo calculates the bounce rate after at least 200 emails have been sent during the past 7 days.
To configure Bounce guard:
- Set Auto-pause protection to On or Off.
- Set your preferred values for Flag for review at (%), Pause sending at (%), and Minimum volume (emails).
- Set your preferred Time range.
- Click Save changes.
You have now configured Bounce guard.
If Bounce guard flags or pauses a sequence, use the Health tab to review its bounce rate and complete recommended actions.
Blocklist detection
On paid plans, Apollo checks sending domains against major email blocklists once a week. If Apollo finds a sending domain on a major blocklist, it can limit or pause sending and show you how to resolve the issue.
Blocklist detection is always on for paid plans and can't be turned off. Free plans don't include this policy.
Workspace sending limit
Workspace sending limit controls how many emails your team can send per day and per hour. Apollo applies limits in this order: workspace, domain, then mailbox. An email must stay within all three limits before Apollo sends it.
When a limit is reached, the remaining emails wait for the next sending window. Lower limits take effect immediately, while higher limits take effect gradually.
To configure workspace sending limits:
- Set Sending limits to On or Off.
- Set the workspace Daily cap (emails/day) and Hourly cap (emails/hour).
- Set the Domain cap (emails/day).
- Set the default mailbox limits under Emails sent per day and Emails sent per hour.
- Set Allow per-mailbox overrides to On if individual mailboxes can use different limits. A mailbox can't exceed the workspace or domain caps.
- Click Save changes.
You have now configured workspace sending limits.
You have now reviewed or configured your team's sending policies.
Next Steps
Check out these resources to continue managing your team's email setup and deliverability:
| Manage Mailboxes and Domains on Apollo | Review the mailboxes and domains connected to your team, monitor their health, and run deliverability checks with Manage Mailboxes and Domains on Apollo. |
|---|---|
| How Apollo Verifies Emails | Learn how Apollo checks email addresses and what each verification status means with How Apollo Verifies Emails. |
| Set Up Your Email Signature | Add or update a signature for a connected mailbox with Set Up Your Email Signature. |
| Report on Sequences | Review sequence performance and identify sending issues with Report on Sequences. |
| Configure Your Unsubscribe Email Link | Configure how recipients opt out of your emails with Configure Your Unsubscribe Email Link. |