Identifying bot clicks in B2B emails involves a multi-faceted approach combining honeypot techniques, behavioral analysis, and technological methods. Experts and marketers suggest using CSS-hidden links instead of invisible pixels, as bots often don't process CSS. Honeypots, implemented as hidden fields or links, attract bot activity, allowing identification and filtering. Analyzing click times, patterns, and IP addresses, as well as comparing Google Analytics data with server logs, reveals bot behavior. Documentation sources highlight advanced bot management features using behavioral analysis, device fingerprinting, and proactive measures like CAPTCHAs. Unique tracking parameters added to URLs and browser fingerprinting further aid in bot detection.
8 marketer opinions
Several strategies exist to identify bot clicks in B2B emails. These include comparing Google Analytics data with server logs, implementing honeypot techniques (hidden fields or links), monitoring click times and patterns, analyzing IP addresses for anomalies, and using CSS or JavaScript to create links invisible to humans but detectable by bots. The goal is to identify and filter out bot-driven engagement to improve email analytics accuracy.
Marketer view
Email marketer from MarketingProfs emphasizes the importance of analyzing IP addresses associated with clicks to identify potential bot activity. Identifying patterns and anomalies in IP addresses can reveal non-human traffic sources, allowing for the removal of bot clicks from overall email engagement metrics.
12 Jan 2024 - MarketingProfs
Marketer view
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign advises monitoring click times and patterns to identify bot clicks. Unusually fast clicks or repetitive clicks from the same IP address can indicate bot activity, allowing for the filtering of these clicks from email analytics.
6 Jul 2023 - ActiveCampaign
6 expert opinions
Experts recommend using CSS-hidden text links instead of invisible pixels to identify bot clicks. Bots generally don't process CSS, making these links invisible to them but trackable. Implementing unique tracking parameters on these links can help identify bot sources and unusual patterns. Browser fingerprinting offers another layer of bot detection by comparing browser characteristics with known bot signatures. These techniques help segment and filter bot interactions from legitimate engagement data.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks suggests that instead of using an invisible 1x1 pixel, a better approach to identify bot clicks is to put the link around an empty string or a string hidden by CSS and track the clicks on that. This method offers the same benefit and is simpler to implement.
18 Jun 2021 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise mentions the utility of hidden links within emails to identify bot activity. These links, invisible to human recipients, attract bot clicks, thereby enabling you to segment and filter out bot-driven interactions from legitimate engagement data.
4 May 2022 - Word to the Wise
4 technical articles
Various documentation sources outline methods for identifying and mitigating bot traffic affecting B2B email analytics. Google Analytics offers automatic filtering based on the IAB Bot List. Cloudflare and Imperva provide advanced bot management features using behavioral analysis and device fingerprinting. OWASP emphasizes strategies like CAPTCHAs, rate limiting, and behavioral analysis to protect web applications from automated threats.
Technical article
Documentation from OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) outlines common automated threats including bot traffic. It details strategies for identifying and mitigating malicious bot activity, emphasizing techniques like CAPTCHAs, rate limiting, and behavioral analysis to protect web applications.
22 Dec 2022 - OWASP
Technical article
Documentation from Google Analytics Help explains how to exclude bot and spider traffic in Google Analytics. It involves using the 'Exclude all hits from known bots and spiders' setting within the view settings. This automatically filters out traffic identified by the IAB Bot List.
28 Nov 2023 - Google Analytics Help
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