Understanding bot detection in message statistics
This article explains a feature that is being released gradually and might not be available in all accounts.
If you don’t have access to it but would like to use it, let our Customer Success Team know to add you to the waitlist.
If you’ve noticed unusually high open or click rates in your email campaigns that don’t seem to match the actual engagement or conversions – bots could be the reason.
Bots, crawlers, and automated tools often scan emails for security, anti-phishing checks, or preview generation. While these tools serve legitimate purposes, they can falsely inflate open and click statistics in your email reports. As a result, your campaign metrics may not accurately reflect real user engagement, leading to:
- Misleading open and click rates
- Inefficient marketing automation triggers based on false interactions
- Overestimated engagement scores
- Inaccurate contact behavior segmentation
GetResponse Bot Detection
To help you regain confidence in your email performance data, GetResponse has introduced Bot Detection – an intelligent filtering mechanism that differentiates human interactions from bot-generated activity in your message statistics.
By analyzing multiple signals, such as the internet service provider (ISP), IP address, and the device’s User-Agent, our system flags opens and clicks that are likely caused by non-human activity. These flagged interactions can then be excluded from your message reports, giving you a much clearer and more reliable view of how your audience actually engages with your emails.
How Bot Detection impacts your reports and business outcomes
When Bot Detection is enabled:
- Your open and click rates will reflect human interactions only. In most cases, this results in lower but more accurate percentages – eliminating the noise from automated scanners.
- Click maps will show a more realistic distribution of link interactions, typically with higher concentration around call-to-action buttons and prominent links.
Accurate data drives better decisions. With Bot Detection:
- You’ll have a clearer understanding of how your content performs.
- Your marketing automation becomes more targeted and efficient, avoiding unnecessary follow-ups triggered by bots.
- Your deliverability team can better assess the actual impact of your campaigns on inbox placement.
- Your performance tracking aligns more closely with external analytics platforms like Google Analytics.
Summary of differences: before vs. after enabling Bot Detection
| Metric | Without Bot Detection | With Bot Detection |
|---|---|---|
| Open Rate | Artificially inflated | More accurate, human-only |
| Click Rate | Skewed by automated clicks | Reflects real user interest |
| Click Maps | Spread evenly, many false clicks | Focused on CTA and real links |
| Engagement Score | Overestimated | Reliable |
