How to identify bot opens?

[Riz_Alvi]

Comrades,

We have a Honey Pot setup to identify bot clicks but what can we do to identify bot "Opens"?

Thanks for the response.

Thanks!

Riz (Edifecs Inc.)

[Phillip_Wild · Accepted solution]

Hi @Riz_Alvi ,

Marketo's out-of-the-box functionality around Email Bot Opens and Clicks will hopefully do the job. 

https://docs.marketo.com/display/public/DOCS/Filtering+Email+Bot+Activity

[Riz_Alvi]

Hi Philip,

Nope, Marketo solution did not catch our bot opens. Maybe because IAB list does not include our recipient servers. Also, there is no way to request IAB to add specific companies that employ bots. 😞

[Christiane_Rode]

Just as a note on the Email Activity Filter ... this will not identify your bots, it will just filter them out of your reports, so there's no way of knowing if someone who used to open your email but now does not was filtered out because they were a bot, or if they just decided to stop reading. 

[Riz_Alvi]

Hi Christiane,

Marketo filtering system did not give us any number (count). This makes us think that it did not identify our target company bot. 

I hope Marketo focuses on this little more to find a solution. Marketo is too behind is catching up with IT technologies that hinder in email deliverability. 

[Christiane_Rode]

The number of activities filtered is actually not stored in the email program itself, but it is stored in the Admin > Email > Bot Activity area as an aggregate number over 90 days. It will give you a sense of how many opens/clicks were filtered out. However, it will not tell you how many were opens/how many were clicks, and what programs they came from.

There's a thread discussion going on that has a bit more insights into the evolution of this feature.

[Balkar_Singh]

@Riz_Alvi - Not sure if this will help, but here's a method which might be useful.