Smart Mail activity shows up in a few different places in ARTERNAL — the Dashboard, individual contact cards, and Smart Mail reports. Sometimes those numbers don't look identical, and that's usually expected. This article explains why the same activity can appear differently depending on where you're looking and how to sanity-check what you're seeing.
Where Smart Mail activity shows up
Smart Mail activity lives in three main places:
Dashboard — Recent Smart Mail Clickthroughs widget. A real-time snapshot of the latest activity that matches your Dashboard filters (date range and user).
Contact card — Thread Activity view. The full chronological history of opens and clicks for every Smart Mail thread with that contact.
Smart Mail report — Opens and Clickthroughs. Totals for a specific Smart Mail send.
Each view is meant for a different job, so the numbers are counted and filtered differently.
Why can the numbers look different?
The Dashboard is filtered
The Dashboard only shows activity that matches the filters you have set — most importantly the date range and the user. If you're looking at a different date range or a different user than a report or a contact card, the activity will not match.
The Dashboard is a snapshot, not a total
The "Recent Smart Mail Clickthroughs" widget is meant to surface the latest activity in the workspace, not a full historical total. For lifetime numbers on a specific Smart Mail, open the Smart Mail report.
Contact card activity is contact-level
Thread Activity on a contact card only shows activity from that contact's threads. It won't include other recipients of the same Smart Mail.
Some clickthroughs come from email security scanners
Some clickthroughs are not real recipient actions — they are automated link checks performed by email security tools (Proofpoint, Mimecast, Microsoft, Google, AWS). These can inflate your click totals. See Smart Mail Clickthroughs Triggered by Email Security Scanners for how to tell the difference. Recent product updates have improved bot filtering, so numbers may look different than they did in the past.
Opens vs clickthroughs are counted differently
Opens can be under-reported because many mail clients (especially on iOS) block open tracking pixels.
Clickthroughs are generally more reliable but can be over-reported by security scanners.
How to sanity-check a specific Smart Mail
Open the contact card for the recipient you want to verify.
Click View Thread Activity.
Review the full chronological list of opens and clickthroughs.
Look for signals of a real reader vs. a scanner:
Likely real: Clicks that happen minutes or hours after delivery; only one or two links clicked; clicks paired with a later reply.
Likely a scanner: Every link in the email clicked within seconds of delivery; clicks before a realistic open.
Notes and limitations
The Dashboard is real-time, but network and mail-provider delays mean opens and clicks can lag by a few seconds to a few minutes.
Metrics accuracy around bots and security scanners continues to improve. Older sends may show higher click counts than newer sends of similar messages.
Clickthrough numbers are considered reliable overall, even when opens are distorted by privacy tools.
❓FAQs
Q: My Dashboard shows fewer clickthroughs than my Smart Mail report. Why?
A: The Dashboard is filtered by your current date range and user. The report totals every clickthrough for that send. Widen your Dashboard date range and confirm the correct user is selected.
Q: Every link in my email was clicked at the same second. Is that real?
A: Almost always no — this is the classic fingerprint of an email security scanner.
Q: Opens look really low compared to clickthroughs. Is something broken?
A: Not necessarily. Many mail clients block the tracking pixel that measures opens, so opens under-report while clicks stay more reliable.
Q: Can I filter scanner-driven activity out of my numbers?
A: ARTERNAL's metrics filtering has improved and continues to improve. If you're seeing a pattern of obvious scanner clicks in your data, share a screenshot with support so we can investigate.
Q: Where should I look for the most accurate view of one specific email?
A: The recipient's contact card > Thread Activity is the source of truth for a single conversation.