Understanding Bot Traffic and How Audience Activation (AA) Mitigates It
Bot traffic refers to automated interactions with your email content, often executed by scripts or software programs rather than genuine human activity. These bots can skew analytics, leading to inaccurate data on email opens and clicks. Audience Activation (AA) employs several sophisticated techniques to ensure your email performance metrics remain reliable and reflect real user engagement.
Detecting and Filtering Fake Opens
1. Timing-Based Filtering: AA does not count email opens that occur within the first second after delivery. This measure effectively filters out most auto-opens, which are often initiated by bots that scan emails immediately upon arrival.
2. Referrer-Based Filtering: Any opens originating from mail.google.com are excluded from AA’s metrics. This is crucial for combating automated actions by Google’s systems, which may open emails for various reasons unrelated to genuine user interest.
Identifying and Disregarding Bot Clicks
1. Honey Pot Links: AA incorporates invisible linked pixels in all emails for new clients. When a bot clicks on one of these hidden links, AA identifies the interaction as non-human and excludes it from click metrics. Existing clients can request this feature to be implemented in their campaigns.
2. Analyzing Click Patterns: AA examines the behavior around link clicks, considering factors such as the number of links clicked, the time interval between the email open and the first click, and the duration between subsequent clicks. This analysis helps discern patterns indicative of bot activity, enabling AA to filter out such clicks from your reports.
By employing these advanced filtering techniques, Audience Activation ensures that your email engagement data remains accurate and reflective of real user interactions. This not only improves the reliability of your analytics but also helps in making more informed marketing decisions.