Eloqua form spam protection feature overview.

Eloqua Blog · Forms

Eloqua Feature: Eloqua Form Spam Protection

How Eloqua form spam protection helps reduce junk submissions, and what you need to update for responsive forms, classic forms, external forms and blind submit links.

📅 First published: Jun 3, 2021

⏱ Reading time: 8 minutes • 👤 Author: Greg Staunton • 🎯 Focus: Eloqua forms, spam protection, blind submits, form security

There is spam, and then there is the place where your lead queue fills up with promises of bitcoin riches, SEO miracles and other nonsense. That is exactly the kind of mess Eloqua form spam protection is designed to reduce.

Eloqua's form spam protection feature is a proactive way to minimise spam and limit form submissions from unverified sources. It helps Eloqua users combat malicious spambots or individuals before their junk creates bad contacts and noisy campaign data.

So get yourself a coffee, come back, and let's sort the spambots out.

What Is Eloqua Form Spam Protection?

Eloqua form spam protection is a per-form feature that checks whether a submission looks genuine before Eloqua accepts it as a normal form submit.

It is intended to stop automated submissions from unverified sources while still returning a success-style message to the person or process submitting the form. That means bad submissions are not encouraged to keep trying.

Spam submissions are captured separately from valid submissions, and they will not create new contacts in Eloqua.

Enable Spam Protection On A Responsive Form

Open an existing Eloqua form in the Design Editor, or create a new one. Select the gear icon to access the additional settings.

Enable the Eloqua spam protection option. It is disabled by default to reduce the risk of someone turning it on for an externally embedded form without updating the external HTML.

Remember to click Save.

Admin Permissions

Eloqua administrators control which users can enable form spam protection. If you do not see the option and you need it, ask your Eloqua admin to enable the permission for your user group.

Admins can manage this under Settings, Security, Group Overview, then Action Permissions. In the Forms section, update the Form Spam Protection Status permission.

Blind Form Submits And External Forms

If you enable spam protection for a form used by an existing blind form submit link in an email, re-save the email. Otherwise, the existing blind submit URL may not contain the updated protection data and submissions can be marked as spam.

If spam protection is enabled for an external Eloqua form, replace the HTML on the external webpage with the updated Eloqua form HTML. If you leave the old HTML in place, all submissions can be treated as spam.

What Happens To Spam Submissions?

The feature can be enabled on an individual per-form basis. When a user completes a form, they still receive a success response so the system does not reveal whether the submission was marked as spam.

Spam submissions are captured separately from valid submissions and will not create new contacts in Eloqua. This protects the database from junk records and keeps reporting cleaner.

Classic Forms

Enabling Eloqua form spam protection is also simple for classic forms built in the older Eloqua form editor.

Click the Actions dropdown.
Select the Spam Protection checkbox.
Click Done, then Save.

Remember to update any existing external form HTML here as well.

Functional Details

Eloqua form spam protection is configured on a per-form basis, so you can roll it out where it is needed without changing every form at once.

Per-form control

Enable protection for individual forms and phase the change into active programs carefully.

Quiet response

The submitter still receives the success response, so suspicious traffic is not told that it has been flagged.

Clean database

Spam submissions are captured separately and do not create new Eloqua contacts.

How Eloqua Form Spam Protection Works

The feature uses a few checks together to decide whether a form submission looks trustworthy.

Check 1

Timestamp Validation

Eloqua generates a token when the form loads. If the token cannot be decrypted or falls outside the accepted timing window, the submission is treated as spam.

Check 2

Honeypot Field

A hidden honeypot field is generated when the form is saved. If that field fails validation, Eloqua can separate the submission from legitimate form activity.

Check 3

Authenticity Hash

Blind form submit links include an authenticity hash in the URL. If the hash fails validation or the URL has been changed, Eloqua marks the submission as spam.

These checks help protect both ordinary Eloqua forms and blind form submit links from automated or manipulated submissions.

Roundup

Eloqua form spam protection is a useful feature for reducing junk submissions before they pollute your lead queue and contact database.

The important implementation detail is remembering where the form lives. If the form is embedded externally, update the external HTML. If the form is used through a blind form submit link, re-save the email so Eloqua can add the updated protection values.

Eloqua Blind Form Submit

A companion walkthrough for blind form submit links and the setup details that matter before enabling spam protection.

Read article

Google Analytics tracking on Eloqua forms

A companion article for tracking form activity and keeping attribution clean.