Match rate
Match rate is the percentage of records in an enrichment run that a provider claims to have found data for, a headline number vendors advertise that says nothing about whether the data returned is actually correct.
Match rate is the number every enrichment vendor leads with: run a list through a waterfall and the vendor reports back what percentage of rows got a hit. It's an easy number to make look good, because a provider can count a match on a loose criterion, a plausible-looking email, a same-company guess, without confirming the result is actually right for that specific person.
Why bounce rate is the number that actually matters
A high match rate paired with a high bounce rate three weeks later means the provider was generous with what counts as a match, not accurate. The KPI that should carry the weight in this layer isn't a headline match rate. It's bounce rate, tracked over time, on the specific sends that layer touched, because a bounce is the moment a claimed match gets tested against reality and either holds up or doesn't.
The gap between the two numbers is exactly where a lot of enrichment spend gets wasted. A team optimizing for match rate alone will pick whichever provider claims the highest coverage, then discover the actual usable, deliverable contact rate sits well below that headline figure once bounces get subtracted out.
In practice
Track bounce rate on the records a given provider or waterfall step filled, not just the match rate that provider reported at the time of the run. That gap between the two numbers is the real measure of whether a source is worth its place in the sequence.
What people get wrong
Teams compare enrichment providers on match rate the way they'd compare hotels on star rating, treating it as the one number that settles the decision. It settles nothing on its own. A provider with a lower match rate but a lower bounce rate on what it does return is doing a better job, even though the headline number looks worse.
