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4. Setting up all the necessary DNS records
4. Setting up all the necessary DNS records
Chris Traczyk avatar
Written by Chris Traczyk
Updated over a year ago

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There are 3 DNS records which you need to set up for your domain in order to ensure your inbox is authorized to send messages from your domain: SPF, DKIM and DMARC. We also recommend setting up a CNAME record for safe click tracking.

First, check which DNS records are not yet set up for your domain.

  • You can check if the SPF and DKIM records are there by performing a GlockApps test. Just go to Settings → Integrations and click on Actions → Perform deliverability test. The test results will populate in another tab and under Sender Authentication will show if the domain has those two records set up.

  • You can also go to this website and enter your domain name to see if the records are there.

Once you know which records are yet to be added, log into your domain provider's website, find the DNS settings for your domain and add the records according to the instructions below.

The instructions are prepared for:

For Gmail email accounts, set up the following records:

  1. SPF record:
    - Record type: TXT
    - Record name: @ (or leave it blank - it should point directly to your domain)
    - Record value: v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all

  2. DMARC record:
    - Record type: TXT
    - Record name: _dmarc
    - Record value: v=DMARC1; p=none; pct=90; sp=none

  3. CNAME record:
    - Record type: CNAME
    - Record name: track
    - Record value: trackgb.com

Setting up the DKIM record takes a couple more steps:

  1. First, go to your Admin console homepage, go to Apps-> Google Workspace-> Gmail.

  2. Click Authenticate email. Your primary domain is selected by default. Click on your primary domain name and select another domain where you’ll be using DKIM.

  3. Click on Generate new record and the following options will be displayed:

    • Select DKIM key bit length —If your domain host doesn't support 2048-bit keys, change the key length to 1024.

    • Prefix selector—The default prefix selector for the Gmail domain key is google. We recommend keeping it as it is.

    • Click Generate.

  4. Now log in to your DNS provider and go to the DNS management tab:

    • Add a new TXT record including the data generated in your Google Admin page in the previous step:

    • In the Name field, enter the text displayed in the Google Admin console under ‘DNS Host name’.

    • In the Value field, enter the text string displayed in the Google Admin console under ‘TXT record value’.

    • Save your changes.

  5. Turn on DKIM signing in Google Admin Console to start adding a DKIM signature to all your outgoing messages:

    • From the Admin console homepage, go to Apps->Google Workspace->Gmail.

    • Click Authenticate email.

    • Select the domain where you want to start email signing. The page displays the status of email signing for the selected domain.

    • Click Start authentication. When the DKIM setup is complete, "Authenticating email" displays.

Here's a video showing how to set up the DNS records for Gmail and Cloudflare (the process is very similar for other domain providers):

For Outlook email accounts, set up the following records:

  1. SPF record:
    - Record type: TXT
    - Record name: @ (or leave it blank - it should point directly to your domain)
    - Record value: v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all

  2. DMARC record:
    - Record type: TXT
    - Record name: _dmarc
    - Record value: v=DMARC1; p=none; pct=90; sp=none

  3. CNAME record:
    - Record type: CNAME
    - Record name: track
    - Record value: trackgb.com

Setting up the DKIM record takes a couple more steps:

  1. Log in to https://security.microsoft.com/dkimv2

  2. Click on the custom domain you're setting up the DNS records for. In the details flyout that appears, change the Sign messages for this domain with DKIM signatures setting to Enabled.

  3. Once you do that, a pop-up window will appear, saying that there is a Client error. This is good news - it also informs you specifically what two CNAME records you need to add in your domain's DNS settings, so read it carefully and use the information mentioned here to create the records:
    ​

  4. Go into your domain's DNS settings and add the two CNAME records according to the pop up which appeared in your Microsoft admin page.
    The two records will look pretty much like this:
    ​
    1st CNAME record:
    Record type: CNAME
    Record name: selector1._domainkey
    Record value: selector1-yourdomain-com.domainkey.YOURDOMAINGUID.onmicrosoft.com
    ​
    2nd CNAME record:
    Record type: CNAME
    Record name: selector2._domainkey
    Record value: selector2-yourdomain-com.domainkey.YOURDOMAINGUID.onmicrosoft.com


    ​

  5. Once the two records are added, go back to this page, click on the domain once again and click the toggle to enable DKIM signing. Once you do that, make sure to click on Rotate DKIM keys at the bottom of the flyout (it might be necessary to refresh the page first).

Here's a video showing how to set up the DNS records for Outlook and GoDaddy (the process is very similar for other domain providers):

For other email providers, use the following instructions to set up the DNS records:

  1. Find out who your domain provider is.

  2. Locate your domain management page.

  3. Go to the DNS records section.

  4. Add SPF, DKIM, DMARC and CNAME records according to the instructions below:

SPF:

  1. Create your SPF: For other mailbox providers, the fastest way to check what the SPF should look like will be by searching on the Internet. The general rule is:
    a. Start with v=spf1 and add the IP addresses that your emails will be sent from. For example, v=spf1 ip4:1.2.3.4 ip4:2.3.4.5
    b.If you use a third party app to send messages on your behalf, you have to add an “include” part in your SPF record (for example, include:third_party.com). It can be your email client (Gmail, Outlook etc.) or some other email-sending platform (Mailgun). It's best to check what SPF record they recommend on their help page.
    c. End your record with an “~all” or “-all” part.
    ​
    ​Here’s an example of a correct SPF:
    v=spf1 ip4:1.2.3.4 ip4:2.3.4.5 include:thirdparty.com -all
    ​
    ​Note: Growbots is not a third party app sending emails on your behalf. We only trigger the sending, the messages are going out from your email client's servers. There's no need to include Growbots in your SPF record.

  2. Publish your SPF: This step varies depending on your domain provider. The general instruction is:
    a. Go to the domain settings.
    b. Add a TXT record with the SPF that you created.

You can always ask your domain administrator for help with publishing!

DKIM:

Below, you'll find the guides to the most common email service providers (ESP):

For other providers (if no specific instructions were provided):

  1. Generate DKIM: here are third-party tools that you can use to generate the DKIM record, for example, Sparkpost. Recommended selector: “dkim”.

  2. Publish: You can do so by adding a TXT (or CNAME, for some providers) record with the generated DKIM to your DNS settings.

DMARC:

It’s based upon the results of SPF and/or DKIM, so at least one of those has to be in place for the email domain.

In order to set it up, simply go into your domain's DNS settings and add a TXT record in your domain settings with a name _dmarc and value v=DMARC1; p=none; pct=90; sp=none.

CNAME:

In order to set it up, simply go into your domain's DNS settings and add a CNAME record with the name track and value trackgb.com. Afterwards, go to your Growbots account, go to Settings → Organization, click on I have set up my CNAME domain and add the record looking like this: track.yourdomain.com.

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