Cleaned subscribers are those where Mailchimp has determined that it isn’t possible to send campaigns to those email addresses. Importantly, the term Cleaned here refers to cleaned from your All Subscribers i., and e. They are non-deliverable email addresses.
This begs the question “What does ‘cleaned’ mean in Mailchimp?”
When an email has been marked as ‘ Cleaned’ in Mailchimp, that means that either the last email sent to that address hard bounced or there have been multiple repeated soft bounces in a row. A hard bounce happens when an email could not be delivered to the intended address for permanent reasons.
A ‘cleaned’ email in Mail. Chimp means that during a few weeks or months (depending on the frequency you send emails at), that particular email has hard bounced or has had repeated soft bounces. A hard bounce is when the e-mail address no longer exists and causes Mail. Chimp to ‘clean’ it immediately by removing it.
So when Mailchimp marks an email as ‘cleaned,’ that signals that those emails have been removed from your list due to a single hard bounce, or multiple soft bounces — they are effectively unsubscribed contacts. Those are cleaned contacts.
Do I need to remove ‘cleaned’ contacts from my Mailchimp audience?
Emails aren’t sent to cleaned contacts and you are not billed in Mailchimp for cleaned contacts. There is therefore no need to remove cleaned contacts from your audience. Is there a way to send a ‘test’ email to ‘cleaned’ subscribers to see if any respondents open the email?
How many Soft bounces does Mailchimp allow for cleaned emails?
To be clear, Mailchimp allow between seven and 15 soft bounces before the email address is marked as “Cleaned” (not three soft bounces). You could always add a segment criteria to filter out contacts that haven’t opened for, say, a period of time.
What does it mean when an email bounces in Mailchimp?
If it’s a hard bounce, Mailchimp will move these email addresses to the Cleaned section where it means that you won’t be able to send email marketing campaigns to them. Soft bounces happen when there’s a temporary email deliverability issue to an email address which might be due to the recipient’s mailbox being full.