A mailto link is not your click

Answer A mailto link is not your click. RFC 6068 defines the mailto URI scheme. A link in that scheme, when a reader follows it, asks the reader's own mail program to open a new message. The message can be aimed at an address the link names. The reader can edit it or abandon it. Nothing in that handoff is a request to your website. A tracker sitting on your site, or on a redirect in front of it, does not see a click, because the click never came.

The note that started this: RFC 6068, The mailto URI Scheme, RFC 6068.

Solo ad creatives sometimes hide the ask behind reply to this mail, or behind a button that is only a mailto. The button looks like every other button. The report the next day is empty, and the argument starts. If you buy solo ads on a per-click deal, read the creative's action before you fund it. A compose window is a real action a person might take. It is not the action your tracker knows how to count.

The scheme can carry suggestions, such as who the message is to and what the subject might be. Suggestions are not visits. The reader is free to change them, and some mail programs will ignore pieces of the link or will not open a composer at all. Webmail in a browser is a common place for a mailto link to do nothing useful. Test the creative in the kind of mailbox you claim to be buying. A test on your laptop's mail app is a different product from a test in a web mailbox.

What does a mailto link do?

RFC 6068 defines the mailto URI scheme. Following the link opens the reader's own mail program with a new message, addressed as the link suggests. It does not load a page on your site.

Opens is already a hopeful verb. The link asks the system to open a composer. The system might ask the reader which app to use. The reader might cancel. None of those steps fetch your landing page, fire your affiliate link, or create a session in your analytics. The first time your infrastructure hears about it is if a message actually arrives in the mailbox the link named. Arrival is a reply, or a new letter, depending on how you set it up. It is still not a click.

Treat the named mailbox as a public inbox you are willing to receive. People will write unexpected things, including things that are not about your offer. Have a person watch it. An unwatched reply address is how a creative pretends to be responsive. Responsive means someone answers.

• The button's action is named in the order as web link or mailto.
• A mailto creative is priced on replies, or it is rebuilt around a web link.
• The reply mailbox is watched by a person.
• The creative is tested in a web mailbox, not only in a desktop app.

Will a click tracker count a mailto link?

No. A tracker counts a request to a web address it can see. A mailto link hands the moment to the reader's mail program. If that is the creative's main action, the tracker will not see a click.

This is a measurement fact, not a trick. Do not move the offer into a mailto to escape a tracker, a network rule, or a refund clause that depends on clicks. You will also escape the evidence that the send did anything. Sellers and buyers then argue from silence. Silence has no denominator. If the deal is clicks, the action has to be a web request you both can see. If the deal is replies, write replies into the order and attach a definition. A definition is a message received at a named address during a named window.

Redirect trackers and affiliate links live on the web. They inherit the same limit. A mailto does not pass through them. An affiliate manager who expects a tracked click will see a zero and may void the campaign. Show them the creative before the drop, not after the zero.

How should a buyer count a solo ad whose action is reply?

Count replies you actually receive, and say that in the order. Do not call a compose window a click. If you need clicks, put the action on a web link you control and keep reply as a second door.

A second door is a fair offer to a person who would rather write than browse. It is a poor only door when you paid for a click report. Put the web link in the letter where the eye lands, and put the reply address in the signature where a person who wants a human can use it. Then the report and the inbox tell two true stories. You can compare them. A single mailto story gives you one inbox and a seller who insists the clicks were high.

RFC 6068 made a mail link a real link, with a defined meaning. The meaning is a composer on the reader's side. Your click is a fetch on your side. A mailto link is not your click. Choose the action that matches the way you agreed to count.