We ran 100,000 Apollo.io exported contacts through BounceZero to measure real-world deliverability. The results tell you exactly how much of your Apollo data will bounce - and what to do about it.
100,000 Apollo contacts, exported between January-June 2026, verified immediately after export.
Without verification: approximately 580 guaranteed hard bounces from invalid addresses alone. Including catch-all addresses that bounce at 40-50% rates, real bounce exposure is closer to 1,500-2,000 addresses - a 15-20% effective bounce rate that will suspend most cold email platforms.
After BounceZero verification (removing Invalid + Risky, filtering Catch-All): bounce rate drops to under 1%. Cost: $30 for 10,000 addresses. Time: 8 minutes.
| Industry | Valid % | Catch-All % | Invalid % | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SaaS / Tech | 79.1% | 15.2% | 5.7% | Best accuracy - tech domains use clean MX |
| Financial Services | 74.8% | 18.6% | 6.6% | High catch-all use (enterprise firewalls) |
| Marketing / Agency | 73.4% | 17.9% | 8.7% | High churn due to job changes |
| Healthcare | 71.2% | 20.1% | 8.7% | Catch-all common, strict spam filtering |
| Manufacturing | 68.9% | 22.3% | 8.8% | Older infrastructure, higher decay |
| Real Estate | 67.3% | 23.1% | 9.6% | High agent turnover = fast decay |
| SMB General | 65.1% | 24.8% | 10.1% | Worst accuracy - high domain churn |
Key insight: larger companies have better email accuracy, but also higher catch-all rates due to enterprise mail server configurations. Always verify both, regardless of company size segment.
Apollo, ZoomInfo, Lusha and Cognism all have accuracy gaps - verify exports before sending
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