Summary
Accurately measuring email engagement is increasingly challenging due to the prevalence of bot clicks and automated security scans, which inflate basic metrics like opens and clicks. To overcome these limitations, email marketers must shift their focus from raw click rates to deeper, more meaningful engagement signals. This involves analyzing post-click website activity, such as conversions and time spent on landing pages, and leveraging advanced analytics tools with UTM parameters. Implementing robust segmentation based on genuine user behavior, rather than solely relying on potentially flawed ESP bot filters, is essential. Additionally, marketers should consider developing custom bot identification methods, such as honeypot links, and creating a holistic engagement score that combines various interaction points. Maintaining a clean, high-quality subscriber list and focusing on first-party data also contribute to a more accurate understanding of true human engagement.
Key findings
- Bot Clicks Distort Metrics: Automated programs and security services, including those from Apple's Mail Privacy Protection, pre-scan email links, inflating open and click rates and obscuring true human engagement.
- ESPs' Bot Exclusion Is Imperfect: While ESPs aim to filter out non-human interactions, their automated bot click exclusion features can be imperfect, sometimes leading to false positives that flag legitimate human clicks as bot activity.
- Bots vs. Human Contacts: It's crucial to distinguish between bot clicks and bot addresses. Even legitimate, engaged human contacts can have their email activity flagged as bot clicks due to security scanning, complicating engagement measurement.
- Post-Click Activity is Key: Bots typically do not engage beyond the initial click. True engagement is best measured by post-click activity on your website, such as time spent, form submissions, purchases, or other conversion events.
Key considerations
- Shift Focus to Deeper Metrics: To accurately measure engagement, move beyond basic opens and clicks to focus on downstream metrics such as conversions, purchases, form submissions, webinar registrations, and overall website activity. These actions are almost exclusively human-driven, providing undeniable proof of genuine interest and progress through the sales funnel.
- Implement Smart Segmentation: Segment your audience based on real activity, like a 'real open' or 'real click' within a recent period, rather than broadly excluding based on all detected 'bot clicks.' Aggressively clean inactive subscribers and target genuinely interested recipients to improve the quality of your engagement data.
- Utilize Advanced Analytics and Tools: Employ UTM parameters in email links for precise post-click tracking in Google Analytics and other web analytics platforms. Analyze click maps, time spent on landing pages, scroll depth, and heatmaps to understand true content resonance. Integrate email data with CRM and lead scoring systems to assign points for valuable actions and identify genuinely engaged leads.
- Develop Custom Bot Identification Methods: If your ESP's bot exclusion is unreliable, consider turning it off and implementing your own methods. A common technique is using a honeypot link, a subtly hyperlinked character in the email footer with a UTM parameter, to identify and tag probable bot clicks for separate analysis.
- Analyze Click Patterns for Anomalies: Look for suspicious click patterns, such as multiple clicks from the same IP address in a short period, or clicks on every link within the email, which often indicate bot activity. Focus on unique clicks and cross-reference with other behavioral data.
- Create a Holistic Engagement Score: Develop an engagement score that combines various interaction points, including opens, clicks, replies, forwards, and website activity. This approach gives less weight to potentially inflated metrics and provides a more robust, long-term picture of true subscriber interest.
- Gather First-Party Data: Prioritize collecting and analyzing first-party data, such as explicit preferences, survey responses, and purchase history. This direct interaction data offers undeniable proof of genuine user engagement that cannot be faked by bots.
- Benchmark and Trend Analysis: Compare your unique open and click rates against industry benchmarks to normalize data. Analyze trends in engagement metrics over time to identify consistent human interaction patterns versus one-off automated spikes.
What email marketers say
17 marketer opinions
Building on these strategies, ensuring accurate engagement measurement means accepting that bot activity is an unavoidable aspect of email marketing. The primary goal is to minimize its impact on data interpretation. This involves shifting away from over-reliance on simple click and open rates, recognizing that even legitimate subscribers can trigger bot flags. Instead, marketers should prioritize qualitative indicators of genuine interest, such as consistent behavioral patterns, integration with lead scoring systems, and observing how users interact with content beyond the initial click.
Key opinions
- Security Scans Inflate Clicks: Many bot clicks originate from automated security scans, not necessarily from bot addresses, meaning legitimate human contacts can have their interactions flagged as non-human.
- Disengagement Defined by Absence: True disengagement is often better identified by a prolonged lack of any interaction over many emails, rather than focusing on the presence of individual, potentially mixed real and fake clicks.
- ESP Filtering Limitations: Even sophisticated ESP systems can experience false positives in their non-human interaction (NHI) exclusion, mistakenly filtering out legitimate engagement.
- Phantom Clicks' Origin: Phantom clicks are a common phenomenon caused by security and anti-phishing bots pre-scanning links within emails.
Key considerations
- Prioritize Behavioral Segmentation: Segment audiences based on genuine, consistent behavioral patterns, such as real opens or clicks within a recent timeframe, rather than solely relying on generic bot click exclusions. Incorporate purchase history and on-site activity, as these are strong indicators of human engagement that bots cannot replicate.
- Leverage A/B Testing and Qualitative Metrics: Utilize A/B testing to understand how different content and subject lines perform in terms of true engagement. Beyond clicks, analyze qualitative metrics like 'read time' (if available), scroll depth on landing pages, and heatmaps to gauge how deeply human subscribers interact with your content.
- Integrate with Lead Scoring Systems: Combine email activity with a robust lead scoring system to assign points for high-value actions, such as form submissions, content downloads, or webinar registrations, and deduct points for inactivity. This approach helps identify genuinely engaged leads progressing through the marketing funnel.
- Embrace Industry Benchmarking: Compare unique open and click rates against industry benchmarks to gain a more realistic perspective. While bots can inflate raw numbers, deviations from typical industry engagement patterns can highlight true performance and help normalize data interpretation.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that bot clicks identify automated security scans, not necessarily bot contacts, highlighting that real, engaged human contacts can still have bot security scanning on their emails.
17 Oct 2024 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares an alternative engagement metric, suggesting that a lack of any click over an extended period (e.g., 6 months and 50 emails) is a clearer indicator of disengagement than focusing on potentially mixed real and fake clicks.
29 Aug 2024 - Email Geeks
What the experts say
3 expert opinions
Effectively measuring email engagement despite the pervasive influence of bot clicks and platform limitations requires a strategic shift in analytical focus. It's now essential to move beyond the traditional, often inflated, metrics of raw opens and clicks, which are distorted by automated security scanners like Apple's Mail Privacy Protection. Instead, marketers should prioritize 'meaningful engagement' signals, such as downstream conversions, purchases, sign-ups, replies, and forwards, as these actions almost exclusively reflect genuine human interest. A robust approach involves analyzing engagement trends over time and comparing performance across different audience segments or campaign types to truly understand what resonates with human subscribers. Furthermore, marketers should critically evaluate their email service provider's bot exclusion capabilities, being prepared to disable them and develop custom identification methods if trust in their accuracy is lacking.
Key opinions
- Raw Metrics Distorted by Bots: Automated security scanners, such as Apple's Mail Privacy Protection, significantly inflate raw open and click rates, making these metrics unreliable indicators of true human engagement.
- Focus Beyond Basic Metrics: To accurately measure engagement, it is crucial to look past raw open and click data and instead prioritize 'meaningful engagement' signals like conversions, replies, and forwards.
- Trends Over Instant Data: Analyzing click and engagement trends over time provides a more reliable assessment of human interaction than focusing on individual campaign metrics, which can be easily skewed by bots.
- ESP Tools May Be Flawed: Email Service Providers' (ESP) built-in bot exclusion features may not always be accurate, sometimes requiring marketers to implement their own identification or measurement strategies.
Key considerations
- Focus on Downstream Metrics: Shift the focus from raw open and click rates to more definitive, downstream metrics like conversions, purchases, sign-ups, replies, and forwards. These actions unequivocally indicate genuine human interaction and business impact, providing a clearer picture of true engagement.
- Analyze Trends and Segments: Instead of focusing on isolated campaign metrics, analyze engagement trends over time to identify consistent human behavior. Compare performance across different audience segments or campaign types to understand what truly resonates with your human subscribers and to differentiate genuine interaction from automated activity.
- Manage ESP Bot Exclusion: If an email service provider's (ESP) bot click exclusion feature is not trusted, consider disabling it and implementing internal methods for identifying and excluding bot activity, or at least be aware of its potential inaccuracies.
- Develop Custom Identification: For advanced control, create your own methods to identify bot interactions. This could involve setting up specific tracking or analyzing patterns that are characteristic of automated systems, allowing for more precise data segmentation.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks explains that if email marketers can't trust the bot click exclusion feature in their ESP, they should turn it off, create their own identification method, or consider click trends over time as a primary metric.
15 Jan 2023 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Spam Resource explains that due to bot clicks, especially from security scanners like Apple's Mail Privacy Protection, raw open and click rates are distorted. To accurately measure engagement, marketers should shift focus to downstream metrics such as conversions (purchases, sign-ups), analyze trends over time, and compare engagement across different audience segments or campaign types. This approach helps identify true human interaction over automated activity.
7 Feb 2024 - Spam Resource
What the documentation says
3 technical articles
To truly gauge email engagement amidst bot interference and platform specific nuances, marketers must move beyond surface-level metrics. A precise approach involves prioritizing unique click data and carefully analyzing subsequent website activity, which bots rarely replicate. Leveraging tools like UTM parameters for link tracking is essential for granular attribution of traffic origins, allowing for a clearer distinction between legitimate user interest and automated pre-clicks. Furthermore, understanding detailed email event logs, such as the difference between unique and total clicks, and cross-referencing this data with broader web analytics, provides a more reliable picture of genuine subscriber interaction.
Key findings
- Focus on Unique Clicks: Email platforms like Mailchimp advise focusing on unique clicks and analyzing post-click website activity to differentiate genuine engagement from bot-inflated click rates.
- UTM Parameters for Accuracy: Utilizing UTM parameters in email links is critical for accurately tracking traffic origin and distinguishing real user activity from automated pre-clicks on the destination website.
- Post-Click Activity Reveals True Engagement: Authentic engagement is best measured by subscriber activity on the linked website, as automated bot interactions typically do not extend beyond the initial click.
- Granular Event Data is Informative: Understanding granular email event data, such as the distinction between unique and total clicks in reporting, can help identify patterns of genuine engagement when cross-referenced with other analytics.
Key considerations
- Prioritize Website Analytics for Engagement: Shift focus to post-click website analytics, utilizing tools like Google Analytics with UTM parameters to track actual user behavior, time on page, and conversions, which are reliable indicators of true engagement.
- Distinguish Unique from Total Clicks: Pay close attention to the difference between unique clicks and total clicks reported by email service providers, as unique clicks offer a more accurate representation of individual subscriber interest.
- Leverage UTM Parameters Systematically: Implement a consistent system for applying UTM parameters to all email links to ensure accurate source attribution and facilitate detailed analysis of post-click user journeys on your website.
- Integrate Email and Web Data: Cross-reference email performance data with broader web analytics and CRM systems to gain a holistic view of subscriber engagement and to validate genuine interest versus automated interactions.
Technical article
Documentation from Mailchimp Knowledge Base explains that automated programs and security services can open emails and click links before a subscriber, which can inflate click rates. They recommend focusing on unique clicks and analyzing post-click activity on your website for a more accurate understanding of true engagement, as these automated clicks often don't lead to further website interaction.
20 Apr 2024 - Mailchimp Knowledge Base
Technical article
Documentation from Google Analytics Help explains that using UTM parameters in email links is crucial for accurately tracking engagement post-click. By tagging URLs, marketers can see exactly where traffic originates, allowing them to differentiate real user activity from potential bot pre-clicks in email clients, as the true engagement is measured by activity on the linked website.
4 Feb 2023 - Google Analytics Help
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