Frequently asked questions about clicks
Why aren’t my clicks showing up in the click map?
There are several common reasons why a click might not show up on the click map.
- If the initial hyperlink was coded using an HTML block and has a title= attribute, it won’t display on the click map. However, it will still be recorded in the list and tabs.
- If the link was coded using an HTML block and doesn’t have alt text, it won’t display.
- If the link has a similar link name, or if it has the same URL as another link in the mailing, the click map may show those link clicks on the first instance of that link in the mailing. This creates a “bulls-eye” or layered look with the click map circles.
How do I interpret the click data in a mailing’s response?
There can be confusion around the difference between unique link clicks and unique mailing clicks found in a mailing’s response data, so we’ll define them for you here. One thing that is important to keep in mind is that when you send a mailing as both HTML and plaintext, the links are reported for each separate instance of that URL in the response data.
Unique clicks on a mailing
This refers to when a contact has clicked on any link in the mailing. For example, if your mailing has three links and a recipient clicks once on all three links, that would count as one unique mailing click.
When you see data reporting on “unique clicks”, it is referring to unique clicks on a mailing.
Unique clicks on a link
This refers to when a contact has clicked one particular link in the mailing. In the example above, if the contact clicks Link 1 once, Link 2 three times, and Link 3 seven times, that counts as three unique link clicks.
Total clicks on a link
This refers to the total number of times a contact has clicked on the links in the mailing. In the example above, the contact would show a total of one click for Link 1, three clicks for Link 2, and seven clicks for Link 3, for a grand total of eleven clicks.
My mailing has an unusually high number of clicks, what’s going on?
You may be experiencing something called server sniffing. For more information about server sniffing, please refer to this article. For more information about identifying non-human interactions in your response data, please refer to this article.
Frequently asked questions about link tracking
Are hyperlinks always trackable?
No, hyperlinks can only be tracked in certain circumstances. For more information about link tracking in the new drag and drop editor, please refer to this article. For more information about link tracking in the legacy* editor, please refer to this article.
Hyperlinks in your campaigns are trackable because the links are routed through our server on their way to their final destination, allowing us to record the click. The process happens very quickly and is virtually invisible to the person clicking the link. However, there are a few scenarios when links are not trackable, as explained in the next question.
When are links not trackable?
Links are not trackable in these conditions:
- Regardless of formatting, certain personalization tags do not track at all, such as the tags that create the manage preferences link, opt-out link, signup link, and webview link.
- Personalized URLs (PURLs) that use bracket-percent personalization do not track at all (legacy* editor only)
- Bracket-percent personalization looks like this: [% member:first_name default=”” %]
- If you want to create a trackable PURL, you must use double bracket tags instead, which looks like this: [[first_name]]
- When the linked text contains personalization tags. For this reason, buttons with personalization also will not track.
- If you are using an image map, links in that image map will not track.