Updating a contact's bounceback status

If you want to update contact's bounceback status using the Bulk API, you can use the IsBounced special field.

This tutorial will provide an example of creating the definition and uploading data to update a contact's bounceback status. If you are not yet familiar with importing data via the Bulk API, see the tutorial.

In this tutorial:

• Creating contact import definition including IsBounced special field
• Uploading data to contact import definition to update bounceback status

Creating contact import definition including IsBounced special field:

Let's start by creating a contact import definition including the IsBounced and IsSubscribed special fields:

POST /bulk/2.0/contacts/imports

{
    "name": "Set IsBounced",
    "fields": {
        "C_EmailAddress": "{{Contact.Field(C_EmailAddress)}}",
        "IsBounced": "{{Contact.Email.IsBounced}}"
    },
    "identifierFieldName": "C_EmailAddress",
    "isSyncTriggeredOnImport": true
}

Note: All contact field statements, including special fields, can be retrieved using the Retrieve a list of contact field definitions.

Here's the response:

{
    "name": "Set IsBounced",
    "fields": {
        "C_EmailAddress": "{{Contact.Field(C_EmailAddress)}}",
        "IsBounced": "{{Contact.Email.IsBounced}}"
    },
    "identifierFieldName": "C_EmailAddress",
    "isSyncTriggeredOnImport": true,
    "dataRetentionDuration": "P7D",
    "isUpdatingMultipleMatchedRecords": false,
    "uri": "/contacts/imports/890",
    "createdBy": "API.User",
    "createdAt": "2025-03-05T23:04:07.6670000Z",
    "updatedBy": "API.User",
    "updatedAt": "2025-03-05T23:04:07.6670000Z"
}

Uploading data to the contact import definition:

Now that we have the uri for the contact import definition, let's upload data with IsBounced special field using “0” for False and “1” for True:

POST /bulk/2.0/contacts/imports/890/data

[
    {
        "C_EmailAddress": "john.doe@example.com",
        "IsBounced": "0"
    },
    {
        "C_EmailAddress": "jane.doe@example.com",
        "IsBounced": "1"
    }
]

Here's the response:

{
    "syncedInstanceUri": "/contacts/imports/890",
    "status": "pending",
    "createdAt": "2025-03-06T01:38:29.1500000Z",
    "createdBy": "API.User",
    "uri": "/syncs/2979"
}

Contact john.doe@example.com now has a bounceback status of "Valid Email Address" and contact jane.doe@example.com has a bounceback status of "Invalid Email Address".

Learn more

Import data into Eloqua