Your domain configuration directly affects whether your emails reach the inbox, how recipients identify your brand, and how well your sender reputation is protected. Understanding how the different components work together helps you make the right choices before you start.

Understanding your domain configuration

A complete domain setup in Brevo involves up to three components, each playing a different role in how your emails are sent and received.

The sending domain

The part of your sender email address that comes after the @ symbol is called your sending domain. For example, if you send from marketing@yourcompany.com, your sending domain is yourcompany.com. It can be either a root domain (e.g., yourcompany.com) or a subdomain (e.g., emails.yourcompany.com).

Authenticating your domain involves adding DNS records to it. DNS records are small pieces of information stored in your domain's settings that tell email providers who is authorized to send emails on your behalf. Without authentication, your emails are more likely to land in spam, and major providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft may reject them entirely.

A few rules apply to your sending domain:

• It must be a domain you own and control. Free email service domains, such as @gmail.com or @yahoo.com, cannot be authenticated.
• It should not be used on any other platform or email service, to avoid conflicts and protect your sender reputation.
• You can add multiple sending domains to your Brevo account. Each domain is configured independently.

The branded subdomain

When you authenticate your domain, Brevo still uses its own generic infrastructure for SPF, return-path, tracking links, and image links in your emails. A branded subdomain replaces all of these with your own domain, so recipients and email providers see your brand throughout, not Brevo's.

It is a subdomain of your sending domain that Brevo uses for:

• SPF and return-path, which identify who is responsible for the email
• Tracking and click links in your emails
• Image links in your emails

Setting up a branded subdomain has three benefits:

• Full SPF alignment
  Without a branded subdomain, SPF passes via Brevo's infrastructure, not your own domain. Branding moves SPF alignment onto your sending domain, which means you can safely enforce a strict DMARC policy (p=quarantine or p=reject) and rely on two independent authentication signals instead of one.
• Brand visibility
  Links and images in your emails use your own domain instead of a Brevo domain, which builds trust with recipients.
• Reputation isolation
  If deliverability issues arise on the branded subdomain, your root domain stays unaffected.

The dedicated IP subdomain

A dedicated IP is an IP address used exclusively by you or your organization for sending emails. To associate a dedicated IP with your domain, your domain must first be fully set up with a branded subdomain. Each dedicated IP then needs a unique subdomain with an A record pointing to it and a PTR record managed by Brevo. 

If you set up your branded subdomain using managed delegation (NS records), Brevo can manage your dedicated IP records automatically within the delegated DNS zone (e.g., ip1.mail.yourcompany.com). This is especially useful if you have multiple dedicated IPs, as it eliminates the need to manually add and maintain A records for each one.

Choosing the right setup

The examples below show what your full domain configuration should look like. The right setup depends on whether you use a shared or dedicated IP. Select your option below:

⏭️ What's next?

• Set up your domain in Brevo
• About domain authentication (Brevo code, DKIM, DMARC)

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