Learning Objective
By the end of this tutorial, you’ll know how to find your campaign’s negative metrics in lemlist, interpret what each metric means, and choose the right actions to reduce bounces, unsubscribes, and “Not interested” responses.
Why This Matters
Negative metrics are early warning signals that something in your targeting, data quality, messaging, or deliverability setup needs attention. Improving them protects your sender reputation, increases deliverability, and helps you focus your outreach on leads that are more likely to engage.
Prerequisites
You have an active campaign with leads and at least a few sends completed.
You understand basic campaign navigation (opening a campaign, switching tabs like Overview).
Core Lesson — Step-by-Step Workflow
Phase 1: Locate negative metrics
Open the campaign you want to analyze, click Overview, then scroll down to the Negative signal stats section to see items like Bounced, Unsubscribed, and Not interested. This is the quickest way to spot what’s hurting deliverability or audience fit.
Phase 2: Understand what each negative metric means
Use the definitions below to decide whether the issue is mostly data quality (e.g., bounces), messaging relevance (e.g., unsubscribes), or targeting/positioning (e.g., not interested).
Metric | What it means | Learn more |
Bounces | Emails that couldn’t be delivered to recipients (invalid address, blocked domain, server rejection, etc.). | |
Unsubscribes | Leads who opted out of your email list, usually because the content wasn’t relevant or the outreach felt too frequent. | |
Not interested | Leads manually marked as not interested (typically after a reply or a manual review). |
Phase 3: Choose the right improvements
Negative metrics aren’t “bad performance” by default—they’re diagnostic signals. Apply the fixes below based on which metric is growing fastest.
Practical Application / Real-Life Example
Example workflow: You notice bounces increased this week, unsubscribes are stable, and “Not interested” is slightly up.
Step 1 (Bounces): Verify and clean your next lead batch before adding it to the campaign.
Step 2 (Not interested): Tighten your targeting criteria (industry, job title, company size) and update your first message to be more specific about who you help and why.
Step 3 (Validation): Run a smaller test segment first, then scale once negative metrics stabilize.
Troubleshooting & Pitfalls
Issue: Bounce rate is unexpectedly high
Root cause: Invalid/outdated emails, risky domains, or deliverability setup issues.
Fix:
Clean and verify your contact list before uploading/sending.
Use email verification or enrichment to flag invalid addresses.
Confirm your sending domain is properly configured (SPF, DKIM, DMARC).
Issue: Unsubscribes increase after a new step is added
Root cause: Messaging mismatch (too broad), too frequent follow-ups, or unclear value proposition.
Fix:
Segment your audience so each message is relevant.
Reduce send frequency or add more time between steps.
Rewrite the step to be more human and specific (who you help + why you’re reaching out).
Issue: “Not interested” is high even though deliverability looks good
Root cause: Targeting is too broad, or the offer/pitch isn’t aligned with the segment.
Fix:
Refine your lead list criteria (role, industry, company stage).
A/B test positioning in the first message (problem statement, proof, CTA).
Issue: LinkedIn steps are being skipped
Root cause: Missing/invalid LinkedIn URLs or step conditions not matching lead status.
Fix:
Make sure all leads include a valid LinkedIn URL in the
linkedinUrlfield.Add a condition to check if the invite is accepted before sending a LinkedIn message step.
General Optimization Tips
Review negative metrics weekly so you can spot trends before they impact overall performance.
Run A/B tests on subject lines, delays, and first-line personalization.
Prioritize list quality: it’s the fastest lever for improving bounces and engagement.
If you need help diagnosing a specific campaign, contact our support team.
Knowledge Check
Which negative metric is highest in your campaign right now—and is it primarily a data issue or a relevance issue?
What is one change you can make today to reduce that metric (list cleanup, segmentation, messaging, or pacing)?
How will you validate the change (small test segment, A/B test, or step-by-step rollout)?