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Akira_T
Akira_T
New Participant
February 15, 2022
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How do you deal with bot clicks?

  • February 15, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 7389 views

How do you deal with bot clicks?

I'd like to count clicks of email blasts as precisely as possible, but the number of clicks analytics shows seem to include not a few bot clicks. I've enabled Filtering of Email Bot Activity since last year, but there seem to be more bot clicks than the function filtered out.

 

I differentiate natural clicks from bot clicks according to the following conditions:

- if the click doesn't come with an open, it should be a bot click

- if the click is not followed by with an access to website, it should be a bot click

 

If you have any more/other ideas how to differentiate them (manually/automatically), please tell me how! Thanks!

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Best answer by Katja_Keesom

Indeed the IP list Marketo currently supports is definitely not the be all and end all of bot clicks. However, both your behavioral patterns may or may not be true:

  • If images are not downloaded, you will not receive an open activity whilst the person can still click on a link.
  • If cookies are not accepted, the web visit may not be registered after a perfectly human email click.

When it comes to behavioral patterns, a key common one is multiple clicks within the same second, before an open or delivered is registered. Also, including a honey pot link in your email can uncover suspicious clicks. It is however really difficult to identify these patterns as particularly the clicks are not logged the instant they happen.

2 replies

C
ChristianeRo1
Community Manager
February 15, 2022

In addition to what was already suggested, I also look at trends for people who have clicked every link in our emails -- especially if those users have something in common. 

 

While you should always be looking at results with the lens of what's typical for your audience and not necessarily someone else's, for us, I would say it's very rare that someone would click every link, including header/footer/social links. So, if I see something like that come in, I'll also look to see if, say, those users are all from the same company. If that's the case, you might consider that activity coming from these users is a result of a spam checker or something of that sort. 

    Akira_T
    Akira_TAuthor
    New Participant
    February 16, 2022

    Thank you for your answer, and you're right! I'll try to detect something in common if there are some suspicious clicks at a time.

    坪倉央
    Katja_Keesom
    Katja_KeesomAccepted solution
    Community Manager
    February 15, 2022

    Indeed the IP list Marketo currently supports is definitely not the be all and end all of bot clicks. However, both your behavioral patterns may or may not be true:

    • If images are not downloaded, you will not receive an open activity whilst the person can still click on a link.
    • If cookies are not accepted, the web visit may not be registered after a perfectly human email click.

    When it comes to behavioral patterns, a key common one is multiple clicks within the same second, before an open or delivered is registered. Also, including a honey pot link in your email can uncover suspicious clicks. It is however really difficult to identify these patterns as particularly the clicks are not logged the instant they happen.

      SanfordWhiteman
      SanfordWhiteman
      New Participant
      February 15, 2022
      However, both your behavioral patterns may or may not be true:
      • If images are not downloaded, you will not receive an open activity whilst the person can still click on a link.
      • If cookies are not accepted, the web visit may not be registered after a perfectly human email click.

      I want to upvote this a million times!

       

      These are not standard signals of mail scanners. The first one especially is just what happens if someone’s running Outlook and hasn’t allowed images for your sender.

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