Enabling the Aggressive Machine Email Open Bot Filter counts only human email opens and excludes machine-generated opens from spam filters and email clients.
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After enabling this feature, the open rate may drop significantly, which is expected and indicates more accurate human engagement data.
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In some cases, the number of clicks may be higher than the number of opens, since machine clicks are currently not filtered.
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This setting helps improve the accuracy of reporting by excluding automated activity caused by security scanners and email client prefetching.
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Once enabled, the filter applies only to future email campaigns and does not affect previously sent campaigns.
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Email providers like Gmail and Apple Mail may still trigger non-human opens due to content rendering and privacy protection mechanisms.
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High volumes of opens or clicks occurring at the same delivery time are usually indicators of non-human engagement.
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The same IP address appearing across multiple open or click events may indicate bot or machine activity.
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Use this feature when analyzing campaign performance to make better decisions based on real user engagement, not inflated metrics.
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It is recommended to enable this setting before launching new campaigns to maintain consistent and reliable reporting.
Aggressive machine email open bot filter
What is an Aggressive Machine Email Open Bot Filter?
An aggressive machine email open bot filter detects machine opens and only counts actual human interactions as valid opens. By enabling this setting, your total email clicks may exceed your total email opens, as we currently lack the ability to identify machines clicks.
Why do we need an aggressive machine email bot filter?
Aggressive spam filters can open messages and click links in incoming mail before delivering them to attempt to expose malicious content. Similarly, some email service providers prefetch opens to improve their user experience. Currently, AiTrillion does not filter out clicks or opens that are produced by recipient bots or security software. As a result, all activity will be included in reporting.
Symptoms of Non-Human Engagement
A high number of clicks is reported at approximately the same time that a message is delivered
Same IP address reported for a high number of click events. The IP address reported for a click event should be unique for each recipient.
Open Troubleshooting
Another cause of non-human engagement reporting is Google and Apple pre-fetching opens. Each provider does this for different reasons: Google to improve speed for user experience and Apple to preserve user privacy.
Gmail signals someone was active in the inbox, resulting in Gmail wanting to render the content quicker to provide a better user experience with shorter loading times.
Apple signals that the recipient has requested anonymity in engagement—they are seeking data privacy.
Note: The number of clicks may exceed the number of email opens because the bot only counts opens made by humans.
Here are the steps to enable the Aggressive machine email open bot filter:
Step 1: Go to Email marketing >> Settings >> General settings
Note: Enabling this feature may significantly reduce the open count, and in some cases, the click count may exceed the open count. Additionally, once enabled, this setting will apply only to future campaigns.