Security infrastructures at many companies pre-click links and pre-open emails to scan for threats. This bot activity artificially inflates open and click-through rates, making these standard metrics inaccurate for gauging genuine user engagement and campaign performance.
As AI overviews and user habits discourage clicks, marketers should provide standalone value directly within emails and social posts. This 'no agenda marketing' builds brand equity and top-of-mind awareness with the 95% of your audience not currently in-market, so they think of you when they are ready to buy.
Marketing automation often scores leads based on engagement. However, contacts opening and clicking every single email are almost certainly security bots, not avid followers. Including this fake activity in lead scoring provides false positives, creates unreliable data, and frustrates sales teams with unqualified leads.
Since security bots artificially inflate open and click rates, failing to meet basic benchmarks (e.g., 20% open, 1% click) is a critical warning. This poor performance, despite bot activity, indicates either a massive deliverability issue landing you in spam folders or completely irrelevant content.