Set up a subdomain

In this video, we’ll guide you through setting up a dedicated subdomain for your email campaigns, which is essential for protecting your brand’s reputation and improving deliverability. A subdomain is a separate section of your main domain. It helps organize and isolate different types of email traffic, like marketing communications and transactional emails, into their own IP pools, which speeds up IP warming and reduces risk. For example, if your primary domain is mybrand.com and you’re using it to send both transactional and promotional messages, you can streamline your setup with dedicated subdomains. You can use info.mybrand.com for transactional emails, like order confirmations or password resets, and marketing.mybrand.com for promotional campaigns and prospecting emails. If your marketing subdomain gets blocked or flagged, it won’t impact your corporate or transactional emails, keeping your critical communications safe and deliverable. Let’s jump into the process of delegating a subdomain. To get started, head over to the Channels section in the Administration menu, and then click Subdomains from the left panel. Here you can see a list of all the subdomains you’ve created, along with their status. Now let’s click the Setup Subdomain button on the canvas. When configuring your subdomain, you’ll have two setup methods to choose from. The first, and recommended option, is Fully Delegated. This method gives Adobe full control over the DNS settings needed to deliver, render, and track your email messages. It’s the easiest and most efficient way to ensure everything runs smoothly. The second option is the CNAME Setup, which allows you to create a subdomain and point it to Adobe’s DNS records using CNAMEs. In this case, DNS management is shared between you and Adobe, giving you a bit more control but also more responsibility. Let’s start by selecting the Fully Delegated option. Next, go ahead and enter the subdomain you’d like to delegate. In this example, we’ll use marketing.info.com. Now let’s talk about DMARC. This is a critical email authentication protocol that helps protect your brand from phishing and other email-based attacks. It also plays an important role in improving deliverability with internet service providers. If Journey Optimizer detects an existing DMARC record for your subdomain, you can keep those values or update them based on your organization’s requirements. If this section is left blank, default values will be automatically applied. Once you enter your subdomain, Adobe will automatically generate the necessary DNS record. To complete the setup, you’ll need to add this record to your domain hosting provider, either by copying and pasting it manually, or by downloading it as a CSV file and uploading it through your hosting platform. After you’ve added the DNS records to your hosting site, just check the box to confirm they’ve been created. Then click the Submit button. Before you can start using your subdomain to send messages, Adobe will first run a series of verification checks. This process can take up to three hours to complete. When all checks have successfully passed, the subdomain delegation status will show success, and it will be ready for use in Journey Optimizer. By delegating and configuring your subdomain, you’re not only improving email deliverability, but you’re also protecting your brand’s reputation and ensuring your messages reach the right audience at the right time. Thanks for watching.