Introducing Bot Filtering for Accurate Email Campaign Analytics

Introducing Bot Filtering for Accurate Email Campaign Analytics


Alert
Update : This feature has been revamped. For the most current information and improved functionalities, please visit the updated version here.


Dear Marketers,

 

We're excited to announce a new feature designed to enhance the accuracy of your email campaign analytics: bot filtering. This feature helps you filter out bot-generated opens and clicks, ensuring your campaign reports reflect genuine recipient engagement.

 

What are bot clicks? 

Bot clicks are actions performed by automated software, not humans. These programs often scan emails for security threats like viruses or malicious links. As a result, they can inflate your engagement metrics by showing multiple clicks from a single contact, even if no one actually interacted with the email.

 

Why bot filtering matters 

Bot-generated activity can distort your campaign performance metrics. Our bot filtering feature helps you eliminate this noise, providing a more accurate picture of your audience's engagement.

 

Key features of bot filtering

  • Easy toggle: Enable or disable bot filtering with a simple switch in Settings > General Settings.

  • Accurate reporting: When enabled, bot filtering automatically excludes bot activity from your campaign reports, offering clearer insights.

  • Transparency: A visual indicator in your reports shows whether bot filtering is active, ensuring full transparency in your data analysis.


How it works

Default setting: Bot filtering is initially turned off to include all opens and clicks in your reports.

By leveraging bot filtering, you can gain a more accurate understanding of your email campaign performance and make data-driven decisions with confidence. 


NotesNote: To provide more granular insights, we're incorporating detailed bot data into our email campaign reporting. This will empower users to monitor performance closely and take informed actions.Due to the simultaneous development of report handling improvements, we have revised the anticipated release date. You can expect this release to go live by Jan 2025.


Here's how to enable the bot filtering option in Zoho Marketing Automation.

Step 1: Bot filtering option

Locate the Bot Filter link under Settings > General settings.



Step 2: Toggle the bot filtering option

In the Bot Filter setting, click the bot filtering toggle to enable the feature.



When you enable this option, a pop-up will appear to confirm your decision. Click enable to activate this feature, which will be applicable to all upcoming campaigns.

Step 3: Enable/disable the option

Filter enabled: If the bot filter setting is enabled, all bot opens/clicks will be excluded from email campaign reports and overall reports.

Filter disabled: If the bot filter setting is disabled, all bot opens/clicks will be included in email campaign reports and overall reports.


Here's how you can see it in the campaign reports, When the bot filter setting is disabled 




When the bot filter setting is enabled




Info
Note

  • Open rates may decrease when the bot filter is enabled.

  • Follow-up actions, such as journeys and response action components, will not be triggered by bot interactions.

  • Campaigns that have already been sent or are in progress will not be affected by new changes. We'll roll this update out in two weeks, and after that, users might notice an increase in opens and clicks, as the bot filter will be disabled by default.

  • We'll examine the bot settings when sending the campaign.

  • Please note that Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) opens are not currently filtered in this update.  We are working on a solution to handle Apple MPP opens and will provide another update soon.

For example, if a user disables bot filtering before sending a campaign but re-enables it afterward, the email campaign report will still reflect bot-related activities. This occurs because the settings were disabled at the time the campaign was sent

Bot filter option when campaign was sent

Bot filter option after the campaign was sent

Bot-related activities in campaign reports

Enabled

Disabled

Excluded

Disabled

Enabled

Included


Step 5: Pop-up confirmation to disable bot filtering

You'll see a pop-up while disabling bot filtering.


We're here to help

As always, our support team is ready to assist you with any questions you may have about bot filtering or any other feature in Zoho Marketing Automation.

We're confident that bot filtering will provide you with more reliable insights and enable better decision-making and more optimal marketing strategies.

Happy marketing!

Best regards
Zoho Marketing Automation Team

    • Sticky Posts

    • Marketer’s Space - Automating CRM Actions with Journeys – Part 2

      Hello marketers! Welcome back to another post in Marketer’s Space. In our previous post, we explored how CRM actions in Journeys help marketing and sales teams work together by nurturing CRM leads and pushing only engaged prospects back to sales. If you

    • Introducing automation and utility conversations in WhatsApp marketing

      We’re excited to announce the addition of two new features to our WhatsApp integration: Automation and Utility conversations. These enhancements will allow you to streamline your marketing efforts and engage with your customers more effectively by automating

    • Tip of the week 02 - The art of 'seeing' your leads

      What's the last page that your lead visited before signing up for your brand? What was the page that first convinced your lead to explore more about you? Where are your leads coming in from? Well, these are some perennial questions today's marketers live upon. And, knowing the answers to these questions is crucial, considering the vitality of leads in every business. In the journey of finding lead opportunities, it's important to understand that every detail about a lead is useful. While the channels

    • Zoho Marketing Automation Update: Topics, Contacts, and List Management

      At Zoho Marketing Automation, our highest priority is making it easier for you to use our product to accomplish your business goals. With that in mind, we are updating three of our pivotal features: Topic, Contacts, and List Management.   These existing

    • Important: Zoho MarketingHub is now Zoho Marketing Automation

      Hello Everyone,   We hope you all are doing well. We'd like to notify you that we have rebranded Zoho MarketingHub to Zoho Marketing Automation. We'll discontinue using the term "MarketingHub" from May 26, 2021. However, there will be no changes in the

      • Recent Topics

      • Zoho Books: tax is not automatically pulled from product-data anymore - why?

        Hi, until a short time ago, you could set a default taxrate for each product/item. This taxrate automatically appeared each time the item was chosen in an invoice or quote. Why does this not work anymore? The field is still there at the product record,

      • Kaizen #237 - Zoho CRM APIs: GraphQL & COQL- When to use which?

        Hello everyone, Welcome to another week of Kaizen. This Kaizen post discusses Zoho CRM GraphQL APIs and COQL APIs and is meant to be a decision guide on selecting between them. It aims to help developers to choose the most efficient approach in different

      • Introducing SlyteUI : From Idea to a Working Interface in Minutes

        Hello everyone! Are you spending hours building basic UIs? Does even the smallest customization feel like a major task? CRM customization should feel intuitive and straightforward, not time consuming or exhausting. SlyteUI makes this possible by simplifying

      • Deluge Update Function

        I am struggling to get this function to work no matter what changes I make - this is the constant error (my code is 30 lines long): Data type of the argument of the function 'get' did not match the required data type of '[BIGINT]'at lineNumber 31 I am

      • Add a way to connect Log360 Cloud logs with Zoho analytics

        Hi, Several month ago Log360 Cloud was added to zoho one - and this is great. But as far as I see there is no prebuilt way to connect Zoho analytics to the logs we have in Log360 Cloud. Please add a prebuilt connection like we have for so many other zoho

      • Option to Convert Request to a Specific Work Order (Parent WO Linking)

        Hello FSM Team/Mr. Abid, We would like to inquire if it is possible to convert a Request into a specific existing Work Order (as a child or linked Work Order) instead of always creating a new one. Context: An inspection/emergency Work Order is completed

      • Automation of CRM Items to FSM Work Order (Parts Section)

        Hello FSM Team, We would like to inquire about the possibility of automating the transfer of item details from CRM to FSM Work Orders (Parts section), specifically for LPO WO Job type. Currently, in CRM, we have detailed item information including: 1.

      • Introducing Product Catalog in Bigin

        Greetings, I hope all of you are doing well. For many small businesses, sharing products and collecting customer interest often involves multiple tools, manual follow-ups, or even building a full ecommerce website. To address this challenge, we're excited

      • Creating a stakeholder register for a Project

        Should we connect and/or associate Projects to Contacts to build a stakeholder register? If a Contact is associated to more than one Project and has different roles across the Projects, what is the best way to parse this information?

      • Whatsapp Limitation Questions

        Good day, I would like to find out about the functionality or possibility of all the below points within the Zoho/WhatsApp integration. Will WhatsApp buttons ever be possible in the future? Will WhatsApp Re-directs to different users be possible based

      • Displaying Rate Inclusive of GST per unit

        Hello, Currently when I enter the pricing of a line item it shows the overall amount (price including tax * quantity). I would like to see price/unit inclusive of GST. Is there any way to simplify this and to be able to view it? I've attached my current

      • Announcing Zoho Sheet desktop app for macOS and Windows (Beta)

        Hello Sheet users, We know you’ve been waiting for this one. It has always been the top priority on our roadmap to provide a single native desktop app for macOS and Windows that works both online and offline. Today, we are excited to announce that the

      • Allow Zia Agents using Zoho One Account

        When I went to try Zia Agents, it forced the creation of a new, separate account. This seems counter-intuitive to me. I don't want to manage a separate account. Plus, aren't Zoho One users the ones most likely to adopt Zia Agents most quickly? It seems

      • Adding Custom Status Options in Work Order Action Menu

        Hello FSM Team, We would like to inquire if it is possible to add more custom options in the Work Order action/status dropdown (e.g., Cancel, Terminate, Non-Billable, Void, etc.). Currently, the available options are limited, and we are unable to customize

      • Turning off self view in Zoho Meeting

        Hi Is it possible to turn off/hide self view in meetings?  Cant see any options for it. Thanks

      • 商談の特定ステージ選択時に、集計項目の入力を必須化したい

        こんにちは。Zoho CRMの商談管理で以下を実現したいです。レイアウトルールでは、集計項目を条件に選択できず実現できておりません。よい方法があればご教示いただけると嬉しいです。 ■やりたいこと 商談で特定のステージに変更する場合に、特定の集計項目（同じ商談データ内の項目。以降、集計項目Aとする）を入力必須化したい。 ■概要、状況 ・集計項目Aは、別のオブジェクトで、商談に関連する月ごとの売上を集計している数値項目 ・見積を顧客に提示した際に、集計項目Aに見積金額と一致するようにデータ登録する運用をしている

      • Bank Fees - Allow User to Choose Expense Account

        Bank fees from Customer Payments can only be debited against the system Bank Fees account due to hard-coding. The user should be able to select which expense account those fees are debited against. The use case is pretty straightforward. A business like

      • How do I change the account bank charges are charged to?

        I want bank charges charged to my Credit Card Fees account. Is there a way to do this?

      • Feature Request: Estimated Delivery Date Display on Product Pages

        Dear Zoho Commerce Support Team I am writing to submit a feature request that I believe would greatly benefit all Zoho Commerce merchants: the ability to display an estimated delivery date directly on the product page. Today's e-commerce customers expect

      • Automated Sales Order Fulfillment Based on Inventory Availability (Allocation / Commitment Modes)

        Hi everyone, I recently reached out to Zoho Inventory support regarding a workflow challenge and wanted to share both the issue and their response here for visibility. Zoho confirmed: “Zoho Inventory does not currently support automatic notifications

      • Set Mandatory Lookup Fields in Ticket Layout

        I added a custom module called 'Site' in the desk. I also added a lookup field 'Site' in the ticket layout. Now, I want the 'Site' field to be mandatory in the blueprint transition. How can I do that?

      • Properly Capture Dropdowns & Hover Elements When Recording a Window/Tab

        Hi Zoho WorkDrive Team, Hope you are doing great. We encountered a limitation when recording a selected window or browser tab: Certain UI elements, such as dropdown lists, hover menus, and overlays, are not captured unless we record the entire screen.

      • Followed Tickets view

        Hello, following a ticket makes no sense at all / offers no additional value.... Of course I can install and use the add-on My Followed Tickets for Zoho Desk, but what does it do for me? Not much! It cannot be used across departments! The range of functions

      • Mail Merge preview won't load

        Hello! One of our users has not been able to use mail merge templates in CRM as the preview screen does not load. We have many templates for one of our custom modules and the users are used to this feature and have been using it for years without any

      • Zoho Desk - Event Calendar View

        Hi Desk team, Are there any plans to introduce a calendar or timeline view for Events in Zoho Desk? It would be very helpful if we could see Events visually in a calendar and/or timeline. This is very helpful when desk side support activities need to

      • Sales Ordes removes TAX at random for some or all prodcuts, even after creating it

        Hi at Zoho CRM, in the Sales Orders section, when Creating, Cloning or editing any Sales Orders the TAX of one or all products gets "unchecked" at random. All of our products ALWAYS must have the same TAX selected automatically. At least it used to be

      • Make Module Name In CRM 4 Everyone A link To List View.

        I've been using the new UI for a little while now and I have what I think is a simple suggestion that would add speed and ease to the UI At the top of the detail page for a module entry you show the module name as shown in the screenshot - if that could

      • mask Customer phone number and agents cant see customer phone number

        Is there any way we can integrate Zoom Phone with Zoho CRM while ensuring that customer phone numbers remain masked? We need a solution where agents can make outbound calls but cannot see customer phone numbers. Please let us know if there is any solution

      • Can Zoho CRM Emails be used in Zoho Analytics in any capacity?

        We're wanting to display details about Lead Activity in regular reports through Zoho Analytics but we're having difficulty integrating Emails at all. We'd like to be able to note when an email is received and when it is sent somewhere other than just

      • User can import contacts into Campaign even without permission

        Hi everyone! We have a role that's configured with "Import records: Calls" only, but when a user with that role enters a Campaign, the "Contacts" section shows a "Import contacts" button. Is this expected?

      • Allow moving closed Issues between Zoho Projects without reopening them

        Hello Zoho Projects Team, We hope you are doing well. We would like to submit a feature request regarding moving closed Issues between projects in Zoho Projects. Current Limitation: As of now, Zoho Projects allows users to move closed Tasks between projects,

      • Improve Back Navigation (X Button) Inside Nested Milestones, Task Lists, Tasks, and Issues

        Hi Zoho Projects Team, We would like to request an improvement to the X / close button navigation behavior inside milestones. Currently, the milestone area behaves as a nested hierarchy (tree structure): Project → Milestone → Task List → Task So when

      • Accept credit card payment for multiple invoices

        We have a problem with Zoho Books.  While we can charge a customer's credit card for an individual customer invoice, we cannot charge a customer's credit card for more than one invoice. In our business, it is common for a client to phone up and say, "Here

      • Zoho Books | Product updates | February 2026

        Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From Advanced Reporting Tags to the ability to mark projects as completed, explore the latest updates designed to improve your bookkeeping experience. Introducing Advanced Reporting

      • How is Covid affecting the 2021 Super Bowl Commercials

        Super Bowl, the annual championship game of the National Football league, USA has an incredible viewer base of 100 million viewers on an average and is also one of the most-watched television broadcasts in the USA of all time. Nine out of ten Americans

      • Columns with no data still displayed despite "Show missing values" disabled

        I have a table with missing data, but columns are still being displayed even though the "Show missing values" option is disabled. The table contains 3 columns split across 12 months. I suspect the issue is caused by one of the columns using an aggregation

      • How can we get payment status updates for payment links in Zoho Books using webhooks?

        When we create and share a payment link in Zoho Books, is there a way to know when the payment is updated? Can we use webhooks to get real-time updates for payment link status instead of checking manually?

      • How do I automate my package and shipment process

        Hey, I have a very basic problem regarding automating my package and shipment. My business does not require me to have those modules and manage them currently and since I'm new to zoho I want to start with just the basics. I just need to automatically

      • Accounts Receivable Balances Differs in Balance Sheet, Customer Balance Report, AR Ageing Summary, and AR Ageing Details.

        Hello Zoho Accounts Receivable Balances Differs in Balance Sheet, Customer Balance Report, AR Ageing Summary, and AR Ageing Details. Please clarify and fix the issues here. Thanks

      • Zoho Books Inter-company integration

        We have an Indian parent entity, and its accounting is managed in Zoho Books. We also have a subsidiary company in Dubai under the same parent entity, for which we have procured a separate Zoho Books license. I want to understand whether Zoho supports

      • Next Page