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How to Integrate and Manage Bounce Tracking with Amazon SES

Here are the steps to send your email campaigns with Amazon SES and manage bounce tracking in MailerPress using Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service).

Requirements

1. Sign in to AWS Console

Go to the AWS Management Console and sign in with your AWS account credentials.

If you don’t have an AWS account yet, you’ll need to create one first.

Note that AWS requires a valid payment method, though Amazon SES has a generous free tier.

2. Set Up Amazon SES

Verify Your Domain or Email Address

Before you can send emails through Amazon SES, you need to verify your sending identity:

  1. In the AWS Console, search for SES and open the Amazon Simple Email Service dashboard
  2. In the left sidebar, click on Verified identities
  3. Click Create identity
  4. Choose Domain (recommended) or Email address
  5. Follow the verification steps provided by AWS
    For domain verification, you’ll need to add DNS records to your domain. AWS will provide the specific records to add.

Check Your SES Sending Status

New AWS accounts start in sandbox mode, which limits sending to verified email addresses only. To send to any recipient:

  1. Go to Account dashboard in the SES console
  2. If you see “Your account is in the sandbox”, click Request production access
  3. Fill out the request form with your use case details

3. Create IAM Access Keys for MailerPress

MailerPress needs API credentials to send emails through Amazon SES:

  1. In the AWS Console, search for IAM and open the Identity and Access Management dashboard
  2. In the left sidebar, click on Users
  3. Click Create user
  4. Enter a username (e.g., mailerpress-ses)
  5. Click Next
  6. Select Attach policies directly
  7. Search for and select AmazonSESFullAccess
  8. Click Next, then Create user

Generate Access Keys

  1. Click on the user you just created
  2. Go to the Security credentials tab
  3. Under Access keys, click Create access key
  4. Select Application running outside AWS
  5. Click Next, then Create access key
  6. Important: Copy and save both the Access key ID and Secret access key immediately. The secret key won’t be shown again.

4. Link Your Site with Amazon SES

  1. In your WordPress admin, go to MailerPress → Integrations
  2. Find Amazon SES in the list of email providers and click to configure
  3. Enter your credentials:
    Access Key ID: Paste the access key you copied earlier
    Secret Access Key: Paste the secret key you copied earlier
    Region: Select your AWS region (e.g., us-east-1, eu-west-1)
  4. Click Save to store your settings
  5. Click Test Connection to verify everything is working

5. Enable Bounce Tracking with Amazon SNS

Unlike other email providers, Amazon SES doesn’t have built-in webhooks. Instead, it uses Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service) to send bounce notifications. This requires additional configuration in AWS.

Step 5.1: Create an SNS Topic

  1. In the AWS Console, search for SNS and open the Simple Notification Service dashboard
  2. In the left sidebar, click on Topics
  3. Click Create topic
  4. Select Standard as the type (not FIFO)
  5. Enter a name for your topic (e.g., mailerpress-ses-bounces)
  6. Leave other settings as default
  7. Click Create topic
  8. Copy the Topic ARN – you’ll need it later (it looks like arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:mailerpress-ses-bounces)

Step 5.2: Create an HTTPS Subscription

  1. On your topic page, click Create subscription
  2. Configure the subscription:
    Protocol: Select HTTPS
    Endpoint: Enter your MailerPress webhook URL:
    https://example.com/wp-json/mailerpress/v1/esp/bounce/amazonses
    Replace example.com with your actual domain.
  3. Important: Leave “Enable raw message delivery” unchecked
  4. Click Create subscription

Step 5.3: Confirm the Subscription

After creating the subscription, AWS SNS will automatically send a confirmation request to your MailerPress endpoint. MailerPress will handle this automatically.

  1. Wait a few seconds, then refresh the subscriptions page
  2. The subscription status should change from Pending confirmation to Confirmed
    If the subscription remains pending:
    • Verify your site is accessible from the internet (not localhost)
    • Check that your SSL certificate is valid
    • Review your WordPress error logs for any issues

Step 5.4: Configure SES to Send Bounces to SNS

  1. Go back to the Amazon SES console
  2. Click on Verified identities in the left sidebar
  3. Select your verified domain or email address
  4. Go to the Notifications tab
  5. Click Edit in the “Feedback notifications” section
  6. Configure the following:
    Bounce feedback: Select the SNS topic you created (mailerpress-ses-bounces)
    Complaint feedback: Select the same SNS topic (recommended)
  7. Optionally, check Include original email headers for better debugging
  8. Click Save changes

6. Test Your Bounce Tracking

Amazon SES provides special email addresses for testing bounces without affecting your sender reputation:

  1. In MailerPress, create a test campaign or use the sending test feature
  2. Send a test email to: [email protected]
  3. Wait a few moments for the bounce notification to be processed
  4. Check your MailerPress → Audience to verify the contact was marked as bounced
    Other test addresses available:

7. Track Your Bounces

Once configured, MailerPress will automatically:

  • Receive bounce notifications from Amazon SES via SNS
  • Mark bounced email addresses in your contact list
  • Prevent future sends to hard-bounced addresses
  • Log bounce details for your review

You can view bounce statistics in MailerPress → Dashboard and see individual bounce records in your contact details.

Troubleshooting

Subscription stays in “Pending confirmation”

  • Ensure your site is publicly accessible (not behind a firewall or localhost)
  • Check that your SSL certificate is valid and not expired
  • Verify the webhook URL is correct and doesn’t have typos
  • Check WordPress error logs at wp-content/debug.log

Bounces are not being tracked

  • Verify the SNS subscription shows as “Confirmed”
  • Check that SES is configured to send bounces to the correct SNS topic
  • Send a test to [email protected]
  • Review MailerPress logs for any error messages

“Access Denied” errors

  • Verify your IAM user has the AmazonSESFullAccess policy attached
  • Check that your Access Key ID and Secret Access Key are correct
  • Ensure your IAM access keys are active (not disabled or deleted)

Emails not sending

  • Confirm your domain/email is verified in SES
  • Check if your account is still in sandbox mode
  • Verify you’ve selected the correct AWS region in MailerPress

AWS Region Reference

Choose the region closest to your audience for best performance:

Region CodeLocation
us-east-1US East (N. Virginia)
us-east-2US East (Ohio)
us-west-1US West (N. California)
us-west-2US West (Oregon)
eu-west-1Europe (Ireland)
eu-west-2Europe (London)
eu-west-3Europe (Paris)
eu-central-1Europe (Frankfurt)
ap-south-1Asia Pacific (Mumbai)
ap-southeast-1Asia Pacific (Singapore)
ap-southeast-2Asia Pacific (Sydney)
ap-northeast-1Asia Pacific (Tokyo)

Summary

To use Amazon SES with MailerPress bounce tracking:

  1. Create and verify a sending identity in Amazon SES
  2. Create an IAM user with SES permissions and generate access keys
  3. Configure MailerPress with your AWS credentials
  4. Create an SNS topic for bounce notifications
  5. Subscribe your MailerPress webhook URL to the SNS topic
  6. Configure your SES identity to send bounces to the SNS topic
  7. Test with the AWS bounce simulator
    Once set up, MailerPress will automatically track bounces and protect your sender reputation.