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Jeremy_Nunez
Jeremy_Nunez
Level 2
March 24, 2017
Question

False positive Email delivered?

  • March 24, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 5027 views

Hi all,

Has anyone encountered a Marketo where an email is getting marked as sent/delivered when in fact it has bounced? We had a situation where someone received an email, clicked on the email and it changed her score within our scoring system, according to Marketo, but it turns out that the email address hasn't been in use for years when we contacted the company.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

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2 replies

SanfordWhiteman
SanfordWhiteman
Level 10
March 24, 2017

If you never received an out-of-band bounce in the activity log, then it didn't "bounce."  Most likely a mail scanner checked the links (resulting in a spurious Click Link) and then the email went to a catch-all mailbox for obsolete addresses.

    Jeremy_Nunez
    Jeremy_NunezAuthor
    Level 2
    March 24, 2017

    Thank you Sanford, this makes a lot of sense. I figured that just because the email wasn't in use doesn't mean that it automatically means it should bounce.

    Josh_Hill13
    Josh_Hill13
    Level 10
    March 24, 2017

    Yes, Servers are not required to tell you anything about the Delivery.

    A
    Anonymous
    March 24, 2017

    I saw this happening as well--an unusually large number of clicks on an email, but no corresponding visit to the landing page.  Upon resarch, I came across this article, which suggests that its specifically Baracuda's email security will generate a false click on every link in an email.

    Barracuda clicking all links in emails - Word to the Wise

    If you want to be sure that a click on an email is legitimate (assuming the link is to a landing page), use a combination filter--clicked on link in email AND visited the corresponding web page. 

    SanfordWhiteman
    SanfordWhiteman
    Level 10
    March 24, 2017

    It's not just Barracuda. This functionality is standard in enterprise mail protection now, and there are many discussions on the Community about it.

    Using Clicked Link + Visit Web Page doesn't offer a full solution -- not only because it doesn't apply to offsite and binary links but because there's no reason to believe, without additional constraints, that the CL was not automated (and the VWP was unrelated). You need to also check that Referrer matches your tracking domain, that mkt_tok exists in the URL, or (preferred) that UTM tags match a given campaign. Still, there will be false positives that remain.

      Dan_Stevens_
      Dan_Stevens_
      Level 10
      March 25, 2017

      Is there anything Marketo can do on their end to prevent these false positives from being recorded?  I believe you wrote about this somewhere, Sandy. And until that happens, what are the best combination filters (when used with CL trigger) to achieve the most accurate activity/results?  Would love to see some specific screenshots of actual smart lists.

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