Understanding bot clicks from data center IPs and their impact on email metrics

Non-human traffic or bot clicks from data center IPs are an industry wide issue for email marketers. They can wreak havoc on email campaign metrics. It’s frustrating to constantly have to wonder if you just ran an amazing email campaign or if it was just an influx of clicks from IPs originating from data centers.

Many vendors, including Omeda, have rulesets in place to remove automated clicks based on patterns and known bots. These rulesets are never 100% accurate and never will be. It’s an ongoing arms race — email security products are constantly changing their algorithms to protect recipients and vendors adjust to try and recognize the patterns.

Let’s start with the basics. We’ll jump into how data center bots influence email campaign metrics. We’ll also cover how to research data center IPs and we suggest some best practices. Soon, you can filter out unwanted bot clicks from your metrics to ensure your engagement rates are real.

What are data center IPs?

Data center IPs are often associated with bot clicks in email marketing. Bots are used in security scanning, automated testing, and spam filtering. Many B2B and B2C email providers use security services that operate from data center IPs to scan incoming emails. These automated systems check emails for security purposes. This ensures malicious links, phishing attempts, and spam are filtered out before getting to the recipient’s inbox.

The impact of data center IP bots on email metrics

Bot-driven clicks from data center IPs can distort email campaign performance data.

• Inflated click-through rates (CTR): Email marketers may see unusually high CTRs that don’t translate into real conversions.
• Triggering automated responses: If your team has engagement-based automation set up (such as sending follow-up emails to engaged users) it’s important to be aware that the engagement signal may be triggered by bot activity instead of real user behavior.

Identifying and managing bot clicks from data center IPs

To minimize the impact of data center bot clicks on email campaigns, marketers should:

• Use a solution with bot filtering tools: Many email platforms, like Omeda, offer solutions to filter out automated clicks based on patterns and known bot IPs. (Remember that no vendor has the perfect filter. Email security providers are constantly changing and improving their security.)
• Track engagement patterns: Always be on the lookout for unusually high or instant opens and clicks across multiple campaigns from the same IP range. It’s smart to have a consistent step in your process dedicated to looking for unusual activity in your campaigns.
• Analyze IP addresses: Use analytics tools to identify suspicious activity from known data center IP ranges. Check IP lookup databases like whatismyipaddress.com, IPinfo, or Talos to see if an IP is associated with data centers or known security filters.
• Filter out data center IPs and other unwanted IP addresses: When Omeda positively identifies a data center IP, we add it to our knowledge base documentation for clients to use.
• Leverage click validation techniques: Many platforms have tools that can help differentiate real users from automated scanners. Here is how Omeda recognizes click bots and helps clients report on them. There’s also a stealth link technique that embeds a hidden link that a human wouldn’t see. If you get a click on that link, it’s fair to assume that a bot clicked it. Any clicks from stealth links are automatically suppressed from reports.

By understanding how data center IPs contribute to bot clicks, email marketers can improve the accuracy of their performance metrics and refine targeting strategies for better campaign effectiveness.

Best practices

How do marketers prevent data center IP bots from messing up the data and automations? The good news is that there are things your team can do.

Segmentation

Technical considerations

• Make sure proper email authentication is in place (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to improve deliverability. (Omeda has this in place automatically.)
• Monitor and maintain a good sender reputation by using engagement data and regularly cleaning lists.

Automation strategy

It’s important to design emails knowing that bots will click the links. Here’s an example: On the surface it seems like a great idea to make renewing super easy for your users with the click of one button from an email. But what happens when you get bots clicking to renew? Requiring a response or a multi-step engagement process is key to making sure your automations and engagement metrics are real.

Monitoring and analysis

• Regularly review key email metrics: open rates, click rates, and bounce rates.
• Adjust campaign strategies based on data insights to optimize performance and minimize data center interactions.

Summing it up

Understanding bot activity from data center IPs and the impact it has on your email marketing metrics is essential for assessing successful email campaigns. By implementing best practices, and continuously monitoring performance, you can ensure that what you’re measuring is real.

Questions about bot clicks? If you’re an Omeda client, reach out to your Client Success Manager. If you’re exploring email service providers and have questions about Omeda’s email marketing automation capabilities, set up a conversation with an expert.