What is Email Authentication
Email authentication helps systems trust your email. This will help get your email delivered to your subscribers inbox, leading to more opens, clicks, and conversions.
Major email providers like Gmail have even indicated that authenticated email will soon be required if a business wants to keep their email out of the spam folder.
How it works
Email authentication recommended for security and deliverability, so that your brand’s email sending domain (such as example.com) can be optimized to send email with AdRoll. This one-time setup process will have you update some information within your DNS management tool with two kinds of information:
- SPF, to show which IP addresses that your brand domain allows to send email from.
- DKIM, to protect the integrity of your email content as it travels the internet.
When email authentication is set up successfully, your AdRoll-sent email will also be able to pass DMARC — an email security policy that your business might enforce.
Overview
Video walkthrough
How to setup Email Authentication
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Specify your email sending domain
Go to Email Settings, then choose Email Authentication. Or, navigate manually by logging in and navigating to either Email Newsletters or Automated Emails, Email Settings, then Email Authentication.
If you’ve already setup your pixel on your website, the sending domain field will be pre-filled with this, but you can also “Delete Configuration Data” to specify any sending domain that you choose. You can delete or update a new sending domain at any time. -
Specify “CNAME” or “TXT” configuration data
By default, AdRoll supplies and recommends a “CNAME” style for email authentication setup. However, if your website domain has been purchased from Shopify, or if email authentication is otherwise limited to “TXT”-styled configuration methods, click “Delete Configuration Data” and choose the “TXT” option.
Either way, click “Generate” to see the configuration data you’ll need to copy over. -
Copy Email Authentication Data over to your DNS Provider
The generated configuration data needs to be copied over to your DNS Provider, which is typically where you purchased your website domain (e.g. Godaddy).
Here is a complete guide to setting up email authentication at your DNS Provider. If you’re not familiar with DNS, or who your DNS Provider is, work with your IT person to complete this step. -
Return to AdRoll and Verify Setup
Once copied over, return to AdRoll and click “Verify”. Be patient, it may take up to an hour for your DNS Provider to get your email authentication data published across the internet, so set this aside and come back if it doesn’t immediately Verify.
If some records are verified, but not others, double check whether the data you copied over to your DNS Provider is accurate. When you see "Yes" for each item under the Valid column, you’re done. -
Congratulations! You are now set up!
The best way to confirm successful setup is by sending an email. Navigate over to Automated Emails or Newsletter Emails to send yourself a preview to check.
“TXT” Option for Website Domains Purchased from Shopify
Please note that if you purchased your domain from Shopify, you'll need to select the "TXT" configuration method, versus the default "CNAME" configuration method. If you prefer a CNAME configuration method, Shopify only offers the workaround to migrate your Shopify DNS to another DNS provider. To select the "TXT" configuration method, you'll need to select the red "Delete Current Configuration Data" button, then choose the "Use TXT DNS records" option.