Can ISPs track positive engagement from interactive emails without outbound clicks?
Michael Ko
Co-founder & CEO, Suped
Published 28 Jun 2025
Updated 19 Aug 2025
8 min read
The rise of interactive emails has transformed how we think about email engagement. These dynamic messages, featuring elements like carousels, forms, and quizzes directly within the inbox, aim to provide a richer experience without requiring an outbound click to a website. This innovative approach naturally leads to a crucial question for senders: can Internet Service Providers (ISPs) track positive engagement from these interactive emails even when there isn't a traditional click to an external link? It's a complex area, but the short answer is yes, to a significant extent. ISPs utilize a variety of signals beyond simple clicks to understand subscriber behavior and inform their deliverability decisions.
When we talk about email engagement, we're looking at a broad spectrum of user interactions. Traditionally, marketers focused on open rates and click-through rates. However, with changes in privacy and tracking, and the advent of interactive content, the landscape of what constitutes 'engagement' has broadened considerably for ISPs.
Beyond the click: how ISPs measure in-email engagement
ISPs have sophisticated systems in place to monitor how users interact with emails within their environments, especially in webmail interfaces like Gmail or Yahoo Mail. They track a multitude of signals that go far beyond a mere click. These signals are crucial for building a comprehensive profile of a sender's reputation and determining inbox placement.
Consider how deeply an ISP's webmail client integrates with the email content. They can observe behaviors such as how much time a user spends viewing an email, whether they scroll down, and even mouse movements within the message body. For interactive emails, the very act of engaging with an embedded form or navigating a carousel signals intent and interest, even if no external link is triggered. This active participation within the email itself provides valuable positive feedback to the ISP, indicating that the content is relevant and welcomed by the recipient. The underlying JavaScript and rendering capabilities of modern webmail environments enable this level of observation.
This detailed tracking of in-email activity is a significant component of how ISPs determine email engagement and its impact on deliverability. It suggests that while traditional outbound clicks are certainly a strong signal, they are not the only, nor necessarily the primary, indicator of positive interaction. Interactive emails can foster a deeper level of engagement that is still visible and valuable to inbox providers.
Key engagement signals ISPs track
ISPs monitor a wide array of user interactions within their email clients to assess engagement and sender reputation. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:
Read time: How long a recipient keeps the email open.
Scroll depth: Whether the user scrolls through the entire email or just glances at the top.
Replies: Responding to an email is a very strong positive signal.
Adds to contacts: When a user adds your sending address to their address book.
Impact on sender reputation
Interactive email elements, like embedded forms or quizzes, provide a unique opportunity for ISPs to gauge user interest. When a recipient interacts with these elements, even without clicking an outbound link, it creates a trail of activity. This activity occurs within the ISP's own environment, making it inherently trackable. For instance, a user submitting an answer to an in-email poll demonstrates active engagement just as much as, if not more than, a simple click to an external landing page might.
This internal engagement, if consistently positive, contributes significantly to your sender reputation. A good sender reputation is the cornerstone of deliverability. ISPs (and mailbox providers) use this reputation score to decide whether to place your emails in the inbox, spam folder, or even reject them outright. Regular, active engagement, even without outbound clicks, tells the ISP that your mail is valued by its recipients.
Conversely, a lack of engagement, or worse, negative engagement such as marking an email as spam or unsubscribing, can quickly deteriorate your reputation. Even with highly interactive content, if users are not engaging positively, it will negatively impact your standing with ISPs. This highlights the importance of sending relevant content to an engaged audience, regardless of the email format. Understanding how email engagement is measured is critical.
The broader scope of engagement tracking
While interactive emails offer new avenues for engagement, it's important to remember that core deliverability best practices still apply. Email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC remain foundational to proving your legitimacy as a sender, regardless of the content within your emails.
An interactive email, like any other email, is subject to the same initial filtering checks. If your domain or IP address is on a blacklist (or blocklist), your interactive email might not even reach the inbox for engagement tracking to occur. Therefore, maintaining a healthy sender reputation through consistent positive sending practices is paramount.
Focusing on delivering value, segmenting your audience effectively, and monitoring your email deliverability metrics will always yield the best results. Interactive emails are a tool to enhance engagement, but they work best when built upon a solid foundation of deliverability and sender trustworthiness. They can certainly improve inbox deliverability by providing rich engagement signals, but they don't bypass the fundamental requirements for good email hygiene.
Traditional engagement focus
Metrics: Primarily open rates and click-through rates (outbound clicks).
Tracking: Relies on pixel loading and URL redirects.
ISP visibility: Clear signals, but limited to explicit actions.
Interactive engagement focus
Metrics: Includes scroll, read time, in-email form submissions, carousel interactions.
Tracking: Observed within the webmail environment's own code base.
ISP visibility: Rich, granular data on user behavior, even without external links.
The bigger picture for deliverability
Many major ISPs and mailbox providers, such as Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo, provide tools and dashboards for senders that give insights into their email performance. While these tools might not explicitly detail every in-email interaction, the overall engagement trends reported are influenced by all forms of user interaction, not just outbound clicks. This holistic view is what guides their filtering decisions.
In addition to direct engagement, ISPs monitor various other factors that contribute to your deliverability. This includes bounce rates, spam complaints, and whether your emails are being moved out of the spam folder or marked as not spam. All these elements form a complex picture that ISPs use to assess your sender reputation. Interactive emails, by their nature, are designed to generate more positive interactions, which can contribute positively to these broader metrics.
While it's difficult to get a definitive statement from every ISP on their exact tracking methodologies for interactive content, the consensus among deliverability experts is that they are indeed observing and factoring in these behaviors. The goal for any sender should be to foster genuine user engagement, whether that engagement leads to an outbound click or a rich, satisfying interaction directly within the email itself. Both are valuable signals for improving your deliverability and avoiding the spam folder.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Maintain a clean email list by regularly removing inactive or unengaged subscribers. This improves overall list hygiene.
Use clear and concise subject lines that accurately reflect the email's content to set proper expectations.
Implement email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to build trust with ISPs.
Segment your audience and personalize content to increase relevance and encourage positive interaction.
Monitor your deliverability metrics beyond opens and clicks, including replies, forwards, and spam complaints.
Common pitfalls
Sending emails to unengaged subscribers, which can negatively impact sender reputation over time.
Relying solely on open rates as a measure of engagement, especially with privacy changes affecting pixel tracking.
Ignoring feedback loops from ISPs, which provide crucial data on how recipients perceive your emails.
Failing to optimize interactive emails for various email clients and devices, leading to poor user experience.
Purchasing email lists, which often contain spam traps and unengaged addresses that hurt deliverability.
Expert tips
Consider how ISPs track subtle engagement signals like scroll depth and time spent in the email body, particularly for interactive content.
Focus on creating genuinely valuable and relevant content that encourages organic interaction, whether explicit or implicit.
Remember that even without outbound clicks, in-email interactions provide valuable data to ISPs about user interest.
Regularly review your sender reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools to identify and address issues.
Ensure your email design is responsive and renders well across all platforms, optimizing the interactive experience.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says ISPs are generally able to track engagement within interactive emails, even without outbound clicks, particularly in their webmail clients which run enough JavaScript to detect scrolling and read time.
2024-03-20 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says that while this tracking applies mostly to webmail and tightly bundled mobile apps, if an ISP can observe outgoing clicks, they can likely monitor all other user interactions.
2024-03-20 - Email Geeks
Yes, ISPs track more than just clicks
The belief that ISPs only track outbound clicks for engagement is outdated. Modern ISPs employ sophisticated mechanisms to monitor a wide array of user behaviors within their email environments, particularly in webmail clients. Interactive emails, by design, generate a rich set of these internal engagement signals, such as time spent, scrolling, and direct interaction with embedded elements.
These non-click interactions are indeed captured and contribute to your overall sender reputation. A high level of positive internal engagement tells ISPs that your emails are valuable to recipients, which in turn aids in better inbox placement and avoids falling into spam folders or being placed on a blacklist (or blocklist). Therefore, when designing interactive emails, you can be confident that the positive interactions within the message are likely being recognized and factored into your sender score, helping you maintain a healthy email program.
Yahoo Mail. They track a multitude of signals that go far beyond a mere click. These signals are crucial for building a comprehensive profile of a sender's reputation and determining inbox placement.
Gmail, 
Outlook, and Yahoo, provide tools and dashboards for senders that give insights into their email performance. While these tools might not explicitly detail every in-email interaction, the overall engagement trends reported are influenced by all forms of user interaction, not just outbound clicks. This holistic view is what guides their filtering decisions.
