Inflated open and click rates

[Boston_Hale]

My past couple of campaigns have had open rates of over 90% and click rates of over 90%, with the vast majority happening in the first 2 minutes after the send. This looks very wrong, and is not in keeping with our general pattern. The clicks are also all showing that all users have clicked both links in the email. Is there something causing the email to artificially produce these results, if so what, and how can I make sure this doesn't happen again? And, how can I extract genuine opens and clicks? Many thanks

[Boston_Hale]

Hi @wilcoxonsensingtechnologies,

It's hard for us to know for sure without getting more details. This would be something I'd highly recommend speaking with our Delivery specialists about, as they can give a more informed answer. I think it's difficult for us to know fully, though. It's not necessarily an Outlook issue, as businesses could be using other platforms like Google Suite (random example). Are you seeing it with multiple business domains you send to or is one specific business domain causing the spike?

[William_A · Accepted solution]

Hello @Boston_Hale ,

If their network or email program uses some kind of security tool that "opens" emails and "clicks" their links to check for malware, it can result in that kind of data. The only suggestion I'd have is to swap your authentication to self-authentication since you have your own domain, especially if you're going to be predominantly sending to internal (same domain) email addresses. Ideally, this would show the security algorithms that emails being sent through us by you are effectively coming directly from you, and avoid triggering the clicks/opens from bots. 

Beyond that, there's not much else you can do from your end. Our devs are constantly trying to identify the various programs that utilize this functionality, so they can set our system to ignore the behavior and triggers from these particular programs. If, after setting your account up for self-auth, the click rate spikes start bleeding into your other regular sendouts, then it may be worth calling in. That way our general support or higher level technical team can see if there's any further info that can be gleamed from the content of the emails with you live on the phone, or to see if the domains of the contacts that are seeming to bot-click them show any other particular consistencies we can track.

[wilcoxonsensingtechnologies]

While my experience is not as extreme, I have experienced something very similar since June. Beginning in June, about 30-40 subscribers open and click every link in order, in keeping with a 'security tool that "opens" emails and "clicks" their links to check for malware'. I did not check my entire history, but in March, April and May 2023, this did not happen. In June, July, August and September 2023, it did. Only business emails are affected, not Gmail/Yahoo etc, so presumably recipients using Outlook. I have found several inquiries on Constant Contact in the same situation and the same time frame, so this is happening across the platform, including some users who are self-authenticated. What changed that would cause this?

[Nick_S]

Hi @wilcoxonsensingtechnologies,

It's hard for us to know for sure without getting more details. This would be something I'd highly recommend speaking with our Delivery specialists about, as they can give a more informed answer. I think it's difficult for us to know fully, though. It's not necessarily an Outlook issue, as businesses could be using other platforms like Google Suite (random example). Are you seeing it with multiple business domains you send to or is one specific business domain causing the spike?

[wilcoxonsensingtechnologies]

Thanks for writing back, Nick. Most of the subscribers affected by this came from a handful of businesses; there were a few outliers. I'll make sure to connect with the delivery specialists. Appreciate your guidance.