Have you noticed unexpectedly high open or click-through rates (CTR) in your email campaigns? In some cases, these rates can approach 100%, which may seem promising at first glance. However, these inflated numbers are often caused by machine clicks—automated actions triggered by security systems that scan your emails for safety before delivering them to recipients. These scans can artificially inflate your statistics.
What Are Machine Clicks?
Machine clicks happen when email security software automatically checks the links and images in your email before the recipient sees it. While no real user interaction has occurred, these actions are recorded in your campaign metrics, leading to higher-than-expected clicks or opens.
How Do Machine Clicks Affect My Reports?
Engage counts two types of clicks: unique clicks (one click per recipient) and total clicks (counting all clicks). Machine clicks can inflate the total clicks, making it look like your recipients are interacting more with your emails than they are. This can skew your data, especially when reviewing total engagement metrics.
Can We Filter Out Machine Clicks?
Unfortunately, it’s not possible to completely filter out machine clicks, as they closely resemble legitimate user actions. These automated clicks often come from common security tools like Proofpoint or Mimecast.
How to Spot Machine Clicks
While it’s difficult to remove them entirely, you can identify patterns in your campaign reports:
Multiple Clicks in Seconds: If you see a cluster of clicks within seconds of the email being delivered, especially when several clicks are recorded in quick succession, these are likely machine clicks.
Post-Delivery Scans: Some email providers, like Microsoft Outlook or Gmail, scan links after the user clicks them. In this case, you might see additional clicks a few minutes later, which are also machine-generated.
How Can This Information Help Me?
If you notice unusually high click or open rates in your reports, understanding the role of machine clicks can help you adjust your expectations. While you can’t remove these clicks, knowing they exist allows you to explain potential data anomalies. You may also want to focus more on unique clicks as a more reliable indicator of engagement.