Fake clicks followed by fake web visits

[Frank_Buzzanca]

Hello,

We've had a lot of issues with fake, server/spam filter clicks in the past. I have read several posts in the community and have never really found a fully-functioning solution. That said, some people have suggested that requiring a web page visit to also occur is an option. We are now seeing fake web visits that are accompanying the fake clicks. Is anyone else experiencing this? Is there a solution out there or a post about this already? You can see in the image below that upon delivery all of the links in the email are being clicked and then all of the web pages are being visited.

This is a data nightmare!

Thank you,

Frank

[Charlotte_Taft]

Has anyone here found a solution? I know this thread is ageing. We are running into the same issue - our marketo clicks and GA visits are super inflated.

[Amy_Vosko]

I just had a convo with Marketo about this, as I was marking success and alerting my sales team based on the click, and totally losing credit, as the person who "clicked" turned out to no longer be at the company.

Here is what they said. 1st thing to check: "email opens" event only fire if you download all the images in the email. So check that you have indeed downloaded these images. You can open the email without the images and Marketo (like any other emailing solution) will not register the open event, but will indeed register the click, since the click is routed through the click detection server.

[SanfordWhiteman]

1st thing to check: "email opens" event only fire if you download all the images in the email. So check that you have indeed downloaded these images. You can open the email without the images and Marketo (like any other emailing solution) will not register the open event, but will indeed register the click, since the click is routed through the click detection server.

While this statement is true, it isn't material to any kind of solution. Not sure what you're suggesting here... the lack of an open doesn't mean the lack of a human.

[SanfordWhiteman]

There is a solution for identifying a true click on an email link if it leads to another deliberate human action, i.e. submitting a form on the LP, or even just navigating to the next web page after the LP.

It's really only the first pageview,of the LP -- the one that isn't a specifically human action -- that can't be attributed to a true click.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Even scrolling on a long page is a good sign, if only we could detect it in Marketo...

Could we imagine a solution that would analyse the referrer, the traffic source and the behavior on the page and log a specific event through the munchkin API ?

-Greg

[SanfordWhiteman]

Even scrolling on a long page is a good sign, if only we could detect it in Marketo...

We could detect scrolling on the browser side and use that as another type of human confirmation.

Could we imagine a solution that would analyse the referrer, the traffic source and the behavior on the page and log a specific event through the munchkin API ?

No need to analyze that other data, you just need to wait for an interaction (human-driven event), which could be a keypress, click, form submission, or (now that you've suggested it) a scroll.

At the point that you capture such an event, you can reissue the Clicked Email activity (exactly as usual, with the email asset and clicked link) to Marketo in such a way as to make it distinct from other such events, i.e.

But the remaining gap is the pageview alone, if there's no interaction and it just sits there.

[Nicholas_Manojl]

That's good but I guess it doesn't suit all use-cases of how people use Clicked Link.

For example...

Click the number in this email that represents your opinion of us out of ten.

Click the button to request a call from sales.

Etc.

But I do agree that using human interaction would be a cool step in the overall plan to register click activity. I also like the idea of not even measuring clicks that don't have any sort of dwell time for links to content.. even when the decision to click was made purposely. (Ie, clicked, glanced, closed).

[SanfordWhiteman]

Right, that's what I meant by another interactive action.

If the only thing they do is click an email link, and then close the page, there's nothing to distinguish that session. If they perform a second interaction then you retroactively know the previous link was an interaction and can reissue it in a special way that can be tracked, as in the screenshot above.

But it's been years since I've encouraged a one-click anything, a second confirmation click is always recommended. Requesting a callback especially... since otherwise it can turn into a cold call and make both sides unhappy!

[Dan_Stevens_]

Sandy, I suppose your "direct download links" approach - which is what we use to directly link to PDF files (and cookie users) in an email - has no way of distinguishing a bot from an actual user?

http://blog.teknkl.com/stop-using-direct-download-links-unless-you-like-losing-tracking/

[SanfordWhiteman]

Not if there's not also a Get your download for confirmation.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Sanford,

You are puzzling me here

How do you reissue the clicked email activity ? The 3 things I know that can be done with the munchkin API are visitWebPage, clickLink and associateLead.

-Greg

[SanfordWhiteman]

Wait and see...

[Oz_Platero]

@frankbuzzanca

Marketo should have a new feature to help detect those link scanners.  File a support ticket and ask to see if it is turned on in your instance.

Thank you,
oz

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Oz,

vote here

-Greg

[Dan_Stevens_]

We have this turned on in our instance and it doesn't help.

[Oz_Platero]

There was an article around this feature, but it has been taken down due to incorrect information. The article is being re-written by Marketo.  It seems the feature is still in development stages at this time.

In the meantime you can take some action on clicks on some of these types of false positives.

False positives for email clicks

nation.marketo.com/docs/DOC-4693

Suggestion by a user is to look for clicks on images too small to see.  1x1 Pixel

https://nation.marketo.com/message/117336#comment-117336

Thank you
Oz

[Michael_Mason]

I'm not sure this would work, but I've thought of putting an "invisible" link as the first link of my emails (in the pre-header) and ANYTHING that clicks that link is garbage. You would have to set success to false or somehow mark this (temporarily) as not being a successful interaction. Perhaps a filter campaign in this instance would be used, so:

If main CTA is clicked, AND invisible link is NOT clicked AND there's a CTA linked website visit, then SUCCESS, otherwise, do nothing.

The downside is, if there IS an interaction post scanner, you'd never know it.

Wait! What if you timestamped that initial invisible click, and your filter campaign could be set to look at the timestamp and let's say positive interaction that happens 5-10 minutes after that timestamp would be considered a "live" interaction?

[Dan_Stevens_]

But what if the scanners click all links, visit all web pages and then eventually send to the actual recipient, who takes action on the link(s)?  All within seconds after the email has been scanned.

[Michael_Mason]

Sadly, In that case, you'd be SOL.

Would you say you have more mail scanners that click all links than actual people that click within seconds of your email send?

[Josh_Hill13]

I have tried this. The scanners do see that link and try it and also block your email and then create a Visit Page. So sure, you could block that lead.

I am skeptical that this would be a long term solution due to lower delivery rates in some situations.