Introducing bot filtering to Zoho Marketing Automation

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. 

Note: 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

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

• Topic Participants

• Moncy Samuel

  

• Jed

• Jeshua Chinnappan Edward

  

• Vigneshvar Priyan

• Catherine

• 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

• Introducing Zoho Commerce 2.0 — It's more than just selling!

  Hello! We are proud to launch Zoho Commerce 2.0, a reimagination of how online businesses look, feel, and function. This launch is both timely and symbolic, as we reaffirm our commitment to empowering small and medium enterprises with powerful, yet simple-to-use

• Kits: Option to Hide Associate Items on Documents

  The new Kit type of Composite Item is very helpful, and we're already using it in several different ways. One problem is that there seems to be no way to hide the components on some documents, including Package Slips. There is an option given in settings

• Unable to display field label from a hidden Single Line Textbox in Description

  Hi folks, I'm unable to display my hidden field, e.g. ${zf:SingleLine4} , in my description. I'm pre-filling this hidden Single Line Text box via "Field Alias - Pre-fill URL" settings. I noticed that my decimal form fields work, e.g. ${zf:Decimal}, and

• An Exclusive Session for Zoho Desk Users: AI in Zoho Desk

  A Zoho Community Learning Initiative Hello everyone! This is an announcement for Zoho Desk users and anyone exploring Zoho Desk. With every nook and corner buzzing, "AI's here, AI's there," it's the right time for us to take a closer look at how the AI

• Email for customer to provide payment information

  Is there a way for customers when you set up a subscription to get an email that prompts them to put in their billing information to start their subscription? Also, can you show the subscription in their portal?

• Ticket Automatically Created from Closed Chat

  Is there a way to prevent a ticket being create for every chat.... or at the very least have it automatically closed.

• I want to Show the product list based on the drop Down

  in quotation app , amc form form i have Department drop down field and in subform i have loop up field item description taken from the anothe app PRO I want to show the product list look up based on the deparment selected example if they selected deparment

• Bad User: Authenticated but not connected

  Zoho CRM cannot send/receive emails and it appears as if it may be an api configuration change either via Zoho or MS. Does anyone have information on how to fix this error message? I am admin on all my accounts. Zoho and MS are blaming each other.

• Zoho + ERP (SAP)

  First of all: I'm using Zoho CRM and I have complete right that it's a brilliant solution for sales force. But, in my new job, doesn't exist a CRM system and I want propose Zoho CRM. In the company, we're using a ERP (SAP), a few time ago. I would like to know about integration between Zoho CRM and ERP (SAP), as possible? How I can do that? Regards, Renato Lima

• Lookup fields

  Is there any way to add Lookup fields to Zoho FSM -- I do not see the option but I see default lookup fields in different modules

• Sort data in Pivot Table

  Is it possible to sort by a data field. I can gruop and filter, but I culdn't find how to sort the results. Tank You.

• Inventory Barcode Creation - Add Picture of Item

  Hi I am trying to set up bar code labels and include a picture of the item on the label - any idea on how to add that field to the barcode generator?

• Shared Snippets Everyone

  Hi, Now that the Shared Snippets have been released and I think will be the most used feature implemented in 2023 :) Creating and Using Snippets in Ticket Responses - Online Help | Zoho Desk Maintain consistency in ticket responses with shared snippets

• Please Enable Snippets for Agents Adding Comments

  Snippets and templates are currently enabled for agents when they use the reply functionality. There is currently no way to add a template or snippets when an agent comments. This is really weird. Our agents don't use the reply functionality, only the

• Topics assigned to Contacts in Campaigns

  I have yet to find an efficient way to assign topics to contacts in campaigns with the new system in place.  We have daily contacts added to our system through various forms and we have to manually go in and add topics to contacts before each email campaign

• What are people using to send Service based emails?

  Zoho Campaigns is for marketing. Users can unsubscribe from these emails. Service based emails need to be delivered and can without the worry of Can-spam act. What are people using to send service based emails? My mailing list is derived from a database

• CRM Email Insights Not Working - Status not Changing

  I used to be able to see if a customer opened/read an email in CRM, but I no longer get those status changes inside their record. I have everything enabled and I am sending the email from CRM. The experience center has the status' enabled as well. Any

• Product and Service

  Hi guys, there is a difference between layout of product and service if Long Description field have some kind of text. Please see screenshot 1 for Service here: https://prnt.sc/7xWwPKd29nWP for Product here: https://prnt.sc/LGmtVd_U6H7q As you can see

• The Urgent Need for Native Brazilian Payment Integrations: PIX and Direct Bank Connections

  Hello Zoho Team, I am writing to emphasize a critical functionality gap for Zoho Books in the Brazilian market: the lack of modern, native payment gateway integrations. The current options are insufficient. The Mercado Pago integration, for instance,

• Better implementation of Item Category on Invoices and Estimates

  1) I have added Item Category as a custom field. Honestly, this should be a native part of the item itself, and either required, optional, or not used.  2) When entering an item on an invoice, you have to enter the first character(s) of the item, otherwise

• Try CRM for everyone button in the way of workflow

  Please consider using the bottom bar for offers. Using the top bar for offers like "Try CRM for everyone" really gets in the way of my day to day workflow.

• Zoho CRM email formatting issues

  I have been having a hard time with formatting email templates. It feels like Zoho email is "fighting my edits." It refuses to change size, font, etc. Sometimes, the template looks great, then when the email gets sent, it looks completely different- some

• Weekly Tips : Seamlessly collaborate with Share Drafts in Zoho Mail

  Ever found yourself stuck wondering how to get input on an important email draft without actually sending it? Maybe you want a teammate’s feedback or approval from your manager—without exposing sensitive info. Or perhaps you are working across different

• How to Share a workdrive folder outside organization ?

  Hi, Earlier we were using Google Suite and were able to share the google drive folders with external organization ( Auditors , marketing collaterals ) as most of them had a personal gmail account they were able to access it without any issue. How can

• Zoho CRM Account Duplication via Credit Application Form

  Hi, We send a credit application link to our customers via email, which is managed through Zoho Campaigns. When a customer submits the form, it automatically creates a new account in Zoho CRM. We would like to know how to stop this from creating duplicate

• Multi file upload

  Hi, I just wonder if one could upload multiple files in one shot, say between one and three files, without adding multiple File Upload fields? Thanks, Alalbany

• Flexible Milestone Invoicing

  If your Zoho Projects portal is integrated with Zoho Invoice/Books, you can now create an invoice for your milestones. You can enable it under Integration Preference and invoice milestones regardless of the project's billing type. For instance, consider

• The get records i am getting produts that show in the show in the sub form item list field

  The get records i am getting produts that show in the show in the sub form item list field if(input.Department != null) { // Get filtered records once creator_ptid = zoho.creator.getRecords("harshadgroup","item-master","All_Products","Department == \""

• Incorrect Handling of XLSX data

  Trying to import an XLSX schedule of bills into Zoho Books I ran across the problem of date formatting. To replicate: Build a CSV file with bill dates in whatever format you like and import it - this should work if you match the "dd/MM/yyy" etc. format

• Add Zoho Form Submission as Attachment to Zoho CRM Deal using Zoho Deal ID

  Hi Zoho team, I have a Zoho Form in which one of the fields will be hidden but will be defaulted with the Zoho Deal ID. Once the form is submitted, I want to reattach the submitted form (and another uploaded file field) into Zoho CRM Deals record. The crazy part is that Deal Name and Stage are the only two fields available for mapping. I have the actual Deal ID. Why can't I just use that. Can you please fix it so that I can properly attach the submission using Zoho Deal ID instead of name/stage (which

• Workdrive on Android - Gallery Photo Backups

  Hello, Is there any way of backing up the photos on my android phone directly to a specific folder on Workdrive? Assuming i have the workdrive app installed on the phone in question. Emma

• Displaying related quotes in sales order and back

  Hi, My colleague liked to see to which sales orders, the quote has been converted. Quote shows Invoices, but not SO. Same, they would like to see the quotes in the sales order, as they can see invoices, packages, shipment, How can we achieve this ? Thank

• Payment link showing as malicious

  We've had a few customers who have been unable to pay invoices as the payment link (the domain is zohosecurepay.eu) is showing as a malicious website in their browser. Could anyone help with this please?

• Side bar menu

  It would be great if you could stop the auto collapse of expanded menus when selecting a different module. It would save a lot of mouse clicks for a lot of users that frequently switch between sales & purchases as we do, it's easier to collapse them manually when not required !

• Export Invoices to XML file

  Namaste! ZOHO suite of Apps is awesome and we as Partner, would like to use and implement the app´s from the Financial suite like ZOHO Invoice, but, in Portugal, we can only use certified Invoice Software and for this reason, we need to develop/customize on top of ZOHO Invoice to create an XML file with specific information and after this, go to the government and certified the software. As soon as we have for example, ZOHO CRM integrated with ZOHO Invoice up and running, our business opportunities

• Multiple Respondents for One Survey Submission?

  Does anyone know of a way to allow multiple respondents to complete only one  survey and then also see (while completing the survey) the responses for their fellow colleagues who already answered that question? The situation is that our new customers have within their own organization, multiple employees that will need to assist in the one survey response. Since we don't always know which new respondent is the "who" that will have the answer, we need multiple respondents to be able to view the response

• Can you remove the title from the forms?

  I am placing the iframes for my forms on my website.  Is it possible to remove or hide the title of the form so that it doesn't show up on the website? Is it possible to place text in the form like "clicking submit will take you to paypal." thanks

• Zoho CRM's custom views are now deployable from sandboxes

  This feature is now available for users in the AU, JP, and CN DCs. Hello everyone, We're excited to announce that you can now deploy custom views from sandboxes to your production environment to ensure a smoother transition and save valuable setup time.

• Create static subforms in Zoho CRM: streamline data entry with pre-defined values

  Last modified on (9 July, 2025): This feature was available in early access and is currently being rolled out to customers in phases. Currently available for users in the the AU, CA, and SA DCs. It will be enabled for the remaining DCs in the next couple

• Allowing vendors to Upload Purchase Invoices against Purchase Order

  Work Flow: Once Project is executed, We send Purchase order to every Vendors asking them to Share the invoice against the same. Most of the time Vendors Send invoices through Mails but our Finance Team miss to book those Purchase Invoices in Zoho Books.

• Next Page