NHI Clicks User Guide

What are non-human clicks and why should we track them?

When recipients open an email, they often interact with various security measures like anti-malware software, enterprise security and monitoring software, browser extensions, or antivirus firewalls. Those same systems, meant to keep email secure, may proactively investigate messages, sometimes even clicking on links within emails. While a link has been clicked, the system, not the intended recipient, is being counted in the click rate.

While not all recipients or messages are impacted, in some extreme cases, these non-human clicks can inflate total click rates by up to 10 times the actual number.

Protecting people from malware and bad actors is an important job, but email senders can find that their email reporting data is significantly affected by these systems, compromising their ability to interpret results and make business decisions.

How we identify and classify non-human clicks

The systems responsible for non-human clicks are varied and difficult to identify by design. However, we have managed to observe a number of patterns that help us detect the behavior of non-human clicks in your emails. Using the power of our network, combined with the data we can obtain from the agent clicking, our proprietary algorithm allows us to identify, manage, and classify clicks that are likely to have come from software (i.e. not a human).It is important to note that detection of these non-human interactions is an art, not a science - and is constantly evolving. However, the detection algorithms are continuously learning and adapting to improve accuracy over time.

There are several patterns and combinations that make up the full detection algorithm, but here are some of the most common:

Behavior

Result

Frequency

Significant Rate Click: The most common detection method, including multiple, sustained, fast clicks in a short period of time

Clicks of this nature are flagged as NHI. 

Included in 28% of NHI detections

Hosting Organization Clicks: A significant number of clicks identified as coming from a data center, VPN or other hosting organization. 

Clicks of this nature are flagged as NHI. 

Included in 28% of NHI detections

Shadow User Clicks: Clicks on a single link, first by a user and then quickly followed by a hosting organization.

The initial click is counted as a real click, but subsequent clicks of this nature are flagged as NHI. 

Included in 21% of NHI detections

Bait Link Clicks: A click on a link that humans don’t usually follow.

Clicks of this nature are flagged as NHI when considered alongside other behaviors and determined to likely be non-human. 

Included in 9% of NHI detections

Unique Links Scanned: Multiple unique links are clicked within quick succession (less than 30 seconds).  

Clicks of this nature are flagged as NHI. 

Included in 24% of NHI detections

A few notes to be aware of:

  • Detection is an art, not a science. We rely on trends and significant patterns in data to format and constantly improve our algorithm in order to deliver you the best possible data.

    • Sources of non-human traffic are always evolving, so the detection algorithms are always learning and adapting to improve accuracy over time.

  • The NHI algorithms are made for real-time detection and are not reliable for historical click tracking. Historical trends and patterns using non-human traffic may not be detected.

Impact of NHI on messaging performance

Real and NHI clicks will be detected on every email message sent from December 8, 2023 forward with reporting visibility available on Email Summary, Campaign Summary & Detail Reports, Stats API, and Engage by Sailthru's Business Intelligence (BI).  Connect (Event Stream and Data Exporter) will begin reporting Real and NHI click data starting January 18, 2024 forward.

Email Summary

Will have both Total and Unique click counts and clickthrough rate (CTR) metrics that can be selected as a headline metric and in the table view.  Click here for metric definitions and calculations.

Campaign Summary and Detail Reports

Will have both Total and Unique click counts and clickthrough rate (CTR) metrics that can be selected using the Toggle Columns button on the main Campaign Summary page. Click here for metric definitions and calculations.

Stats API

Real and NHI click event counts will be available using the Stats API. Click here for metric definitions and calculations.

Business Intelligence

Real and NHI click event data will be available for reporting using any of the following data sources. Click here for event definitions in the data sources and here for the calculations.




Data sources

  • Email and List Stats
  • Campaign Stats by Domain and Engagement
  • Campaign Stats by Signup Month
  • Campaign Stats by Device
  • Campaign Stats
  • Campaign Stats by URL
  • Campaign Label Stats
  • Email Stats
  • All Profile Stats data sources

Connect

Event Stream and Data Exporter, will have a new field column "is_real_click" that will display next to each click event indicating whether or not that click was Real = true or NHI = false.  Click on Event Stream or Data Exporter for additional details on the new click field. 

FAQs

How can I segment my lists using Real & NHI activity in Audience Builder?

Beginning in August 2024, you will have the ability to segment filters within Audience Builder by the new Real & NHI open and click activity. This will give you further segmentation capabilities in targeting the right audience for your messaging.

Is there a plan to limit Lifecycle Optimizer flow entries to depend on Real opens and clicks?

Yes, as part of the Real Activity Segmentation feature launching in August 2024, you will be able to segment Email Opened & Email Clicked entries and check steps by Real and/or NHI activity.

What detail can we share with our partners and our customers as it relates to NHI clicks?

Feel free to share our NHI Clicks User Guide as it gives insight into what NHI clicks are, why they are happening and what Marigold Engage by Sailthru is doing to give the reporting insight needed.

Why are Unique Real Clicks + Unique NHI Clicks not adding up to Unique Clicks?

It's possible for a message to be clicked on by both a Real user and NHI, in this case, the message will count towards both Unique Real Clicks and Unique NHI Clicks, so it's expected that these metrics won't always sum to be equal to Unique Clicks.

To get insight into the number of messages that have had both Real and NHI clicks on them, you can use the following calculation: Unique Real Clicks + Unique NHI Clicks - Unique Clicks

Am I able to see why a specific campaign has a high volume of NHI clicks just by looking at the campaign?

The why is a bit difficult as there could be multiple factors involved. We can help answer the question whether a campaign was affected by NHI clicks or not by viewing the reporting, but as to why a particular campaign has more NHI clicks is a more difficult question. There are many factors like who the audience is? Are they using personal email addresses or work addresses? Do the subscribers have anti-ware software installed? Many of those are more difficult to answer.

I attempted to pull click data from 01/01/2023-12/31/2023, but the total click numbers are not matching up?

Our NHI click detection was not enabled until December 8th, 2023. Real & NHI click data is only available from that date forward. Unique Clicks and Total Clicks are the only click metrics that were previously available as these include both Real & NHI click counts.

Will it be possible to identify which user profiles are generating NHI clicks?

Yes, as we move to identify Real & NHI users across the platform, we will bring visibility at the User Profile level through engagement level updates. For the first release, we focused primarily on reporting visibility, next we’ll be working on how to segment Real users across the platform.

How is CTR and CTOR impacted?

CTR is available for each click metric divided by delivered count. Unqiue Real CTOR has been updated in Email Summary to reflect Unique Real Clicks / Unique Real Opens.

Will Event Stream & Data Exporter have Real and NHI click data back to December 8th?

Our Connect products will only have the data going forward from the General Release date of January 18th.