What specifically causes email click rates to be inflated?

Inflated click rates are primarily caused by automated security scanners and spam filters that pre-click links in emails to check for malicious content before delivery. Privacy features like Apple Mail Privacy Protection can also contribute by pre-fetching content. These non-human interactions register as clicks, skewing your metrics.

How can I tell if clicks in my email reports are from bots or real users?

You can often identify bot clicks by analyzing the timestamp of clicks (many clicks immediately after sending), checking if your ESP tags clicks as 'bot_click', or looking for clicks from known security IP ranges. Some ESPs also offer beta features to filter these out of your reports automatically.

Do inflated click rates affect my sender reputation or lead to blocklisting?

While inflated clicks don't directly blacklist you, relying on inaccurate data can lead to poor decision-making regarding content and targeting. This might indirectly impact sender reputation if your actual engagement (conversions, replies) doesn't align with perceived high click rates.

Should I segment my email lists to account for domains with inflated clicks?

Yes, consider segmenting your audience by email domain, especially for domains like Hotmail, Outlook, or Live that are known for aggressive scanning. This allows you to analyze these segments separately and view cleaner data for your other subscribers.

What other metrics should I focus on if click rates are unreliable?

Focus on metrics beyond clicks, such as conversion rates, website visits, time spent on landing pages, and engagement with subsequent emails. These metrics provide a more accurate picture of actual human interest and campaign effectiveness.

Why are email click rates inflated and how to solve the issue? - Troubleshooting - Email deliverability - Knowledge base

Email click rates are a fundamental metric for understanding campaign performance, yet many of us are increasingly finding these numbers look too good to be true. I've noticed a significant uptick in inflated click rates, particularly impacting

Outlook and Hotmail domains, skewing our understanding of true engagement. This isn't just a minor fluctuation, it can dramatically misrepresent your audience's interest and the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts.

The challenge is distinguishing genuine human interaction from automated clicks generated by security filters and bots. If you're seeing suspiciously high click-through rates that don't align with conversions or other engagement metrics, you're not alone. It's a common issue that requires a strategic approach to identify, filter, and ultimately understand what's truly happening with your email campaigns. Let's delve into why this is happening and what steps you can take to get a clearer picture of your email performance.

Understanding the problem: what causes inflated click rates?

The primary culprit behind inflated email click rates is machine activity, often attributed to email security tools and spam filters. These systems are designed to scan incoming emails for malicious links and content before they reach the recipient's inbox. To do this, they automatically click on every link within an email to ensure safety. This pre-scanning behavior, while beneficial for security, registers as a legitimate click in your email service provider's (ESP) reports, artificially boosting your metrics.

Certain mailbox providers, especially

Outlook, Hotmail, and Live domains, appear to have increased their link-following behavior since late 2023, continuing into 2024. This isn't a consistent pattern for every email sender but seems to target specific senders for periods before tapering off. This behavior can lead to a significant spike in reported clicks for these domains, making your metrics look unusually high.

Beyond security scans, privacy features like

Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) contribute to this issue. While primarily impacting open rates by pre-fetching email content, their mechanisms can also trigger automated clicks. These machine clicks are indistinguishable from human clicks in raw data, making it challenging to get an accurate read on your email campaign's success.

It's important to understand how spam filter and bot clicks manifest in your data. Often, these non-human interactions occur immediately after delivery, with multiple links being clicked within seconds, or from IP addresses known to belong to security services. These patterns are critical indicators that you're looking at bot activity rather than genuine user engagement.

Identifying machine clicks

Look for click events that occur within seconds or minutes of an email being sent, especially across multiple links in the same email. This rapid activity is highly indicative of automated scanning. Also, check if your ESP provides data on bot clicks directly in their reporting.

Impact of inflated metrics on your email strategy

The impact of inflated click rates extends far beyond skewed numbers. If you base your strategic decisions on these inaccurate metrics, you risk misinterpreting campaign success and making poor choices. For example, a campaign might appear to have an excellent click-through rate, leading you to believe your content resonates widely, when in reality, a significant portion of those clicks are from automated systems, not engaged subscribers.

This can lead to a misallocation of marketing resources. You might invest more in a content strategy or email design that, in truth, isn't performing as well as the numbers suggest. It can also prevent effective audience segmentation and personalization, as your understanding of what engages your actual human subscribers is distorted by the noise of bot activity. The goal is to protect your email marketing ROI and make data-driven decisions.

Furthermore, relying on inflated metrics can have a long-term impact on your sender reputation. While direct harm is unlikely from these security scans, if you're not seeing real conversions or engagement despite high reported clicks, it suggests a disconnect. This disconnect, if severe, could subtly affect how internet service providers (ISPs) perceive your mail, potentially leading to deliverability challenges down the line. It's about ensuring your engagement metrics truly reflect subscriber value, not just scanner activity.

Ultimately, the issue isn't just about a vanity metric, it's about understanding what truly drives your business outcomes. When click rates are inflated, you're missing out on crucial insights into subscriber behavior, content effectiveness, and overall campaign health. Accurate data allows for precise optimization, leading to better engagement and higher conversions.

Inflated metrics

Misleading performance: Campaigns appear more successful than they actually are due to bot activity.
Resource misallocation: Investments made in strategies based on false engagement signals.
Ineffective segmentation: Difficulty personalizing content when true user behavior is obscured.

Accurate metrics

True performance insights: Understand actual subscriber engagement and content effectiveness.
Optimized resource allocation: Direct investments to strategies that yield genuine human interaction and ROI.
Enhanced personalization: Tailor content based on real user interests, improving relevance.

Strategies for accurate click rate measurement

To get a more accurate picture of your email performance, the first step is to diligently identify artificial clicks. Most ESPs will track click events and might even provide a 'bot_click' boolean value. Analyzing timestamps is crucial: multiple clicks occurring immediately after delivery or within a short, implausible timeframe for a human to interact naturally are strong indicators of bot activity. Many email clients' recent upgrades will enhance privacy for recipients, gradually resulting in inflated, artificial engagement rates for email marketers, according to the University of Colorado.

Consider segmenting your audience by email domain. For instance, if you're consistently seeing inflated rates from

Hotmail, Live, or

Outlook domains, you might create separate segments for these recipients. This allows you to exclude their potentially inflated data when analyzing overall campaign performance, providing a cleaner view of how your other subscribers are interacting. This method gives you a truer sense of human engagement.

Many ESPs offer features to help mitigate these issues, such as dedicated click tracking domains or built-in bot filtering. If your ESP has a beta feature to remove bot clicks from reporting, as some do, I highly recommend exploring it. While it might initially show a plummet in your reported click rate, this adjustment reflects the real engagement and provides a more honest assessment of your campaign's success.

Remember, the goal is to accurately measure email engagement, not just inflate numbers. By implementing these strategies, you can begin to distinguish between machine activity and true human interaction, leading to more informed marketing decisions.

Method	Description	Benefit
Timestamp analysis	Examine clicks occurring seconds after delivery, or simultaneous clicks on multiple links.	Helps identify rapid, non-human interactions indicative of security scanners.
Segmenting by domain	Separate high-bot domains (like Outlook/Hotmail) for focused analysis.	Provides a cleaner, more accurate view of engagement from other segments.
ESP bot filtering	Utilize built-in features to filter out known bot clicks from reports.	Offers the most direct way to see true human click rates without manual analysis.

Long-term solutions and best practices

Beyond immediate fixes, several long-term strategies can help ensure your email metrics are more accurate and reflective of genuine interest. Firstly, prioritize maintaining a clean and engaged email list. Regularly removing inactive subscribers or invalid addresses can reduce the likelihood of encountering spam traps and security scanners, which might contribute to false engagement. A healthy list naturally yields more reliable data.

Secondly, always focus on creating highly relevant and engaging content. When your emails truly resonate with your audience, you'll see organic clicks that outweigh any bot noise. This means understanding your audience's needs, segmenting your lists effectively, and delivering personalized messages. The goal is to increase email click through rate through compelling content.

Finally, adopt a holistic view of your email marketing success. Don't rely solely on click rates. Incorporate other metrics like conversion rates, website visits, time spent on landing pages, and even direct replies to gauge true engagement. By cross-referencing these indicators, you can paint a much more accurate picture of your campaign's effectiveness, regardless of any bot-induced inflation.

Views from the trenches

Best practices

Implement dedicated click tracking domains if your email service provider offers them.

Segment email reporting to exclude or separately analyze domains prone to bot activity, such as Outlook and Hotmail.

Focus on content relevance and personalization to drive genuine human clicks that are less likely to be obscured by bot noise.

Regularly clean your email lists to remove inactive subscribers and potential spam traps, which can attract security scanners.

Common pitfalls

Over-reliance on raw click-through rates without considering the possibility of bot inflation.

Failing to analyze click timestamps and IP data to distinguish human interactions from automated scans.

Not utilizing ESP-provided features or beta programs for filtering out bot clicks, leading to skewed data.

Making significant strategic decisions based on artificially inflated metrics, misallocating marketing resources.

Expert tips

When dealing with high click rates on Outlook/Hotmail, separating these into their own campaign can help maintain overall metric accuracy.

Some ESPs can tag clicks as 'bot_click' (Boolean) per event, which is valuable for filtering data.

Be aware that Microsoft has increased link following behavior since late 2023, affecting certain senders for periods.

If your ESP offers a beta feature for removing bot clicks, enable it, even if it initially shows lower click rates.

Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks says they started seeing their CTR skyrocket around May 24, with Hotmail/Outlook domains being the primary cause, leading them to split these domains into separate segments.

2024-06-08 - Email Geeks

Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks says that if click and open timestamps are all right after delivery, these are likely non-human interactions, and mentioned an instance where Microsoft's EOP filter clicked unsubscribe buttons.

2024-06-08 - Email Geeks

Achieving clarity in your email metrics

While inflated email click rates can be a frustrating challenge, understanding their root causes and implementing proactive strategies can significantly improve your data accuracy. By recognizing the impact of security scanners and privacy features, you can adjust your measurement approaches to gain a clearer picture of true subscriber engagement. Focus on data analysis, leverage ESP features, and prioritize genuine content relevance to ensure your email marketing efforts are truly effective.

The path to better email deliverability and campaign performance lies in accurate insights. By taking steps to identify and filter out artificial clicks, you're not just cleaning up your reports, you're empowering yourself to make more informed decisions that lead to real, measurable results for your business.