Introducing Verified Clicks: Accurate email engagement metrics

In the evolving world of email marketing, understanding true engagement is more challenging than ever. Earlier this year, we observed a significant rise in bot-generated clicks, which are often caused by ISPs and anti-phishing software scanning emails. This creates inflated click metrics, making it harder to gauge genuine audience engagement.

To address this, we’ve spent months developing a sophisticated data platform that filters out bot activity with precision. By analyzing dozens of signals — such as IP addresses, user agents, and click patterns — beehiiv can confidently identify and exclude bot clicks using our Verified Clicks process.

For example, if a recipient registers multiple clicks within seconds of opening an email, those are likely bot interactions. Our platform cross-verifies this with additional data points to ensure accuracy. The result? Cleaner, more reliable data you can trust.

---

Common challenges with email engagement metrics

In the email ecosystem, engagement metrics are often distorted for legitimate reasons, including:

• Inflated Click Rates: Bots and anti-phishing tools scan email content and test links for potential threats, artificially increasing click counts.
• Authentication Changes: Platforms like Gmail and Yahoo require DMARC records for authentication, adding automated scrutiny that may further skew engagement data.

While these measures enhance security, they can significantly distort click metrics depending on your audience's email platform.

---

Our Solution: Verified Clicks

We built Verified Clicks to provide accurate, actionable data you can trust. 

Here’s how it works:

• Our Verified Clicks metric: Verified Clicks combines first and third-party data models to filter out bot activities and noise.
• Transparency and flexibility: We provide both unfiltered click data and verified metrics, allowing you to choose what works best for your needs.

Click metrics breakdown

With Verified Clicks, your click data is categorized into clear, actionable metrics:

• Total Clicks: All recorded clicks, including potential bot interactions.
• Verified Total Clicks: Clicks verified as genuine, filtered for accuracy.
  
  
• Unique Clicks: The number of individual users who clicked, regardless of frequency.
• Verified Unique Clicks: Individual verified users who clicked.
  
  
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of recipients who clicked on any link.
• Verified Click-Through Rate: The percentage of recipients verified as genuinely engaging.

By leveraging Verified Clicks, you’ll gain confidence in your email metrics while maintaining full visibility into all click interactions. This transparency allows you to make data-driven decisions with clarity and precision.

---

Where to view Verified Clicks for a post

1. From the left panel, go to Posts. Click on one of your published posts to open its dashboard, then click on the Performance tab. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Navigate to the Click Through Rate box and click the arrow next to Show Verified Clicks. A dropdown will reveal the Verified Click Rate, Verified Unique Clicks, and Verified Total Clicks for the post.

---

Where to view Verified Clicks for a subscriber

1. From the left panel, go to Audience > Subscribers. Click on one of your subscribers to open their dashboard/profile.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Navigate to the Click Through Rate box and click the arrow next to Verified CTR. A dropdown will reveal the Verified Clicks percentage.