Mitigating Bot Clicks in Eloqua Email Campaigns: Conditional Form Logic Needed

We've been observing significant bot activity on our promotional email sends, which is causing major issues. Leads are being inadvertently scored due to bot-triggered link clicks, and when these leads are handed over to sales, it creates confusion—since the leads haven't actually engaged with the emails.

To address this, I'm considering a solution that involves embedding a hidden link within the email. When clicked, this link would trigger a blind form submission in Eloqua. If this hidden link is clicked, I plan to suppress further engagement processing—such as lead scoring or sending the lead to Salesforce.

The challenge is differentiating bot activity from genuine human engagement. One idea is to use a time-based filter: if a legitimate link click occurs more than 30 seconds after the hidden bot mitigation link is clicked, we can assume it's human activity. Conversely, if both actions happen within a short window (e.g., under 30 seconds), it's likely bot-driven.