How to set up link branding

Setting up link branding requires changes to your DNS records. Before you proceed, do the following:

• Identify your domain provider.
• Confirm who has access or permission to change DNS records with your provider.
• Add a TLS certificate to the domain or subdomain that serves your links, or use Auto provision SSL Certificate during setup to have Twilio SendGrid provision and renew one for you.
• To use EU-pinned domains or link branding, your account must be on the Email API Pro (or higher) plan or the Marketing Campaigns Advanced (or higher) plan. Learn more about how to send Emails with Twilio SendGrid on EU servers.

To set up and verify link branding:

1. Log in to the Twilio SendGrid console.
2. Go to Settings > Sender Authentication. The Sender Authentication page appears.
3. Go to Link Branding section, click Brand Your Links. The Brand Your Links page appears.
4. From the Which Domain Name Server (DNS) host do you use? dropdown menu, select your domain service provider.
5. Click Next. The Create a Branded Link page appears.
6. Type the domain from which you plan to send email messages in the Domain You Send From box.
   • Type the domain that you want your links and images to use in this box.
   • Only enter the name of your root domain and not a specific hostname like www or http://www. - This domain must match the domain of your from address on the emails you sending. For example: To brand with the domain example.sendgrid.com, set the link branding domain to be sendgrid.com.
7. Click Advanced Settings.
   • To create a custom subdomain:
     1. Click Use a custom link subdomain. The Return Path box appears.
     2. Type the label for your custom domain into this box. If you don't provide a label, Twilio SendGrid creates one for you.
   • To assign this link branding to a subuser:
     1. Click Assign to a subuser. The Subuser dropdown menu appears.
     2. Select a subuser from the menu.
   • To limit your domain to the European Union, click Make link EU-pinned.
     • EU email subusers must pin their domain to the EU region.
   • To encrypt this link using Transport Layer Security (TLS or SSL), click Auto provision SSL Certificate. Twilio SendGrid configures SSL for your branded link.
     • Twilio activates this setting for added branded links. To add SSL to your existing branded link, re-run this setup and turn on Auto provision SSL Certificate.
8. Click Next. The Install DNS Records page appears.
9. Add all the Canonical Name (CNAME) records on this screen to your DNS host.
10. The Manual Setup tab displays the DNS records for your DNS host provider.
    • This table includes two pairs of CNAME records: the CNAME hostname in the Host column and the domain to which that CNAME must point in the Points To column.
    • If you turned on Auto provision SSL Certificate, this table includes two additional records: a CNAME record and a TXT record. Twilio SendGrid uses these to issue and renew your SSL certificate.
    • If you want to set a custom subdomain for the first of these records, return to the Create a Branded Link page and add a custom link subdomain.
11. To add the records displayed, follow the instructions for your DNS provider.
12. After adding the DNS records to your domain, return to the Twilio SendGrid console.
13. Select I've added these records.
14. Click Verify.
    • If verification succeeded, you should see the records.
    • If only Twilio SendGrid verified half of your records, wait. It's also possible that you entered one of your records incorrectly.
    • If you need help, see Troubleshooting Sender Authentication.
15. Any time that you send an email with a from address where the domain matches your branded link domain, Twilio SendGrid applies that domain to your email. If you want to update the domain from which you send email, update your branded link.

Links and images in your email messages appear to originate from your custom domain. To update the domain that appears in the links in your email, update your link branding.

GoDaddy appends your domain to added DNS records. This results in a CNAME record incompatible with link branding.

For example: If you entered url1234.example.com as a CNAME entry, GoDaddy would store this value as url1234.example.com.example.com.

To match the expected result given in the previous example, change your CNAME values to resemble the following entries:

Don't change the value for the Points to field.

When configuring CNAME records in CloudFlare, set CNAME Flattening to Flatten CNAME at root on DNS settings page.

You can't change any branded link created before 2015. To change or update it, delete the branded link and recreate it using an authenticated domain.

• How to set up domain authentication
• How to set up reverse DNS
• Troubleshooting