Marketing Cloud - Inactive Google Account Policy Update

In this May 2023 announcement, Google shared that their Inactive Account Policies are being updated in December 2023. While the Inactive Google Account Policy has been in place for some time, they plan to delete accounts flagged as inactive as early as December 1, 2023 in line with this update. 

 
Why is this important?

An Inactive Account is a type of Soft Bounce as it is considered temporary. Marketing Cloud does not immediately mark subscribers who receive a single Soft Bounce as held. Once this policy is enforced, subscribers that would have previously been flagged as Inactive Accounts (Soft Bounces) will no longer exist at all. When Marketing Cloud attempts the send to a deleted account, hard bounce will occur as the email server will reject the email as it no longer exists. If you continue to message these “dead inboxes” your bounce rates will rise and your reputation as a sender will be negatively impacted.