Overview
This feature enables you to configure a custom domain to be used in the messages instead of the standard MoEngage Domain. A custom domain is a personalized domain name that lends your brand credibility and authority and differentiates you from the competition. Oftentimes, it becomes your brand's online identity. For example, it is common for customers to say Google it when they mean Google Search. Google's domain name is Google.com, and it is everyone's favorite moniker for the company's search feature!
The custom domain feature enables you to use your custom domain in the URLs sent in the message body of SMS, WhatsApp, or Email.
For SMS & WhatsApp campaigns, any URL or link added to your message body is shortened with the chosen brand in the settings. For example, if the link used in the SMS or WhatsApp campaign is www.xyz.com/products/mobiles and the custom domain selected is yourbrand.com, then the link will be displayed as yourbrand.com/1234.
For Email campaigns, any URL or link in the Email’s body is wrapped with the chosen Custom Domain. For example, if the selected domain is yourbrand.com in the Email Campaign and the Email has a link as www.xyz.com/products/mobiles, then the URL will be rendered as www.yourbrand.com/abc.
Glossary
| Terms and Definitions | Applicable for SMS & WhatsApp, Email | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domain: A domain is that part of the URL that directs your users to a web server to fetch the web page content they are looking for. To visit your webpage, users must type the domain name containing the location of your site's files. A domain is the principal part of the URL that denotes to whom this URL belongs. This helps the user identify the brand sending them this URL in their communication. | All | |
| Domain Name: a unique string owned by the brand that can reflect the brand name without confusing the user. Examples: moengage.com, google.com, wikipedia.org. A custom domain is a purchased domain that allows you the flexibility to choose the name. For example, if you wish to name your domain YourBrand.com, you must purchase the domain name. | All | |
| DNS: Domain Name System. It is popularly referred to as the phonebook of the internet. It maps the domain name to the actual address of the resource and helps the browser load the requested web page. For example, if you were to type google.com on your browser, the DNS server would look up the actual location where the website's pages are located and return them to the browser. The browser would then fire a request for that specific location and get the webpage to be displayed. For more information, refer to DNS. | All | |
| CNAME: A canonical name or CNAME record is a type of DNS record that maps an alias name to a true domain name. For more information, refer to CNAME Record. | All | |
| Click Tracking: A feature that tracks which users have clicked on the links added in the message. MoEngage's proprietary technology facilitates this. When a user clicks on a URL in the message body, the click action is tracked, and this event is logged. This is helpful in understanding click behavior and engagement. | All | |
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MoEngage Standard Tracking Domain |
SMS & WhatsApp |
ux.mnge.co The 'X' in the API Endpoint URL refers to the MoEngage Data Center (DC). MoEngage hosts each customer in a different DC. You can find your DC number (value of X) and replace the value of 'X' in the URL by referring to the DC and API endpoint mapping here. |
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For DC1: email-10.moengage.com For DC2,3,4,5,6, and 100: api-0X.moengage.com The 'X' in the API Endpoint URL refers to the MoEngage Data Center (DC). MoEngage hosts each customer in a different DC. You can find your DC number (value of X) and replace the value of 'X' in the URL by referring to the DC and API endpoint mapping here. |
How do CNAME Records work?
If your domain name is yourbrand.com and you add the following link to your SMS or WhatsApp message body: http://www.yourbrand.com/producregistrationpage and shorten it using MoEngage’s default URL shortening, the URL will appear as ux.moengage.com/register. If you want your shortened URL to be YourBrand instead of ux.mnge.co, you should add a CNAME DNS record to your DNS, as shown below. The shortened URL would then be: yourbrand.com/register.
| Name | Type | Value |
| YourBrand | CNAME |
ux.mnge.co The 'X' in the API Endpoint URL refers to the MoEngage Data Center (DC). MoEngage hosts each customer in a different DC. You can find your DC number (value of X) and replace the value of 'X' in the URL by referring to the DC and API endpoint mapping here. |
When you request a web page, here’s what happens:
- A DNS request is created to look up the actual location where the resource is located for the domain name in the URL.
- The DNS resolver finds the actual location mapped to the domain name (this is called resolving the DNS) by fetching the CNAME record.
- This CNAME is returned to the browser. The CNAME helps the user's app/browser understand the server domain that needs to be requested.
- The browser sends a new DNS request for the IP/domain mapped to the CNAME, and the web page for the requested resource is located and returned
If your domain name is yourbrand.com and you add the following link to your Email body: www.xyz.com/products/mobiles, the URL will appear as api-0x.moengage.com/abc. If you want your URL to be YourBrand instead of api-0x.moengage.com, you should add a CNAME DNS record to your DNS, as shown below. The URL would then be: yourbrand.com/register. The URL would then be: yourbrand.com/abc
| Name | Type | Value |
| YourBrand | CNAME |
bapi-0X.moengage.com The 'X' in the API Endpoint URL refers to the MoEngage Data Center (DC). MoEngage hosts each customer in a different DC. You can find your DC number (value of X) and replace the value of 'X' in the URL by referring to the DC and API endpoint mapping here. |
When you request a web page, here’s what happens:
- A DNS request is created to look up the actual location where the resource is located for the domain name in the URL.
- The DNS resolver finds the actual location mapped to the domain name (this is called resolving the DNS) by fetching the CNAME record.
- This CNAME is returned to the browser. The CNAME helps the user's app/browser understand the server domain that needs to be requested.
- The browser sends a new DNS request for the IP/domain mapped to the CNAME, and the web page for the requested resource is located and returned.
Prerequisites
| info |
Information If you have Certificate Authority Authorization (CAA) records set up for your domain to control the Certificate Authorities (CAs) that can issue SSL certificates for their domain, please add http://sectigo.com/ to the same before trying to set up a custom domain in MoEngage. |
You need to set up a custom domain before configuring it in MoEngage. To set it up, do the following:
- Look up a popular domain registrar (A domain name registrar provides domain name registrations to the general public. For example, GoDaddy and Google Domains)and look for a domain name that is not used.
- Purchase the domain name. You can also purchase a custom domain from your web hosting provider. In case you have a custom domain, you can go ahead and skip to the next step.
- Add a CNAME Record in your DNS to point to the MoEngage domain. For more information, refer to How CNAME Records Work.
- Set the Time To Live (TTL) to 30 minutes for this record.
Note: If your DNS provider doesn’t support 30 min TTL, select the minimal TTL time frame supported by your DNS provider.
- Once the records and details are successfully added and verified on your DNS, you can add the custom domain in MoEngage.
info Information
You can use the same custom domain for SMS and WhatsApp. For Email, you need to set up a different custom domain.
Configuring a Custom Domain
| info |
Information We've revamped our dashboard settings. This article describes the steps to be followed to configure a Custom Domain for the SMS, WhatsApp, and Email channels in the revamped settings UI and the older UI. |
Revamped UI
Navigate to the MoEngage Dashboard and select Settings -> Advanced Settings -> Custom Domain. You can create custom domains for SMS & WhatsApp or Email by clicking the respective tabs on the Custom domain screen.
Follow the below steps to configure custom domain for SMS & Whatsapp:
- Make sure to follow the provided Pre-requisites to ensure that your custom domain is verified.
- Add the custom domain name in the Custom domain name field and click Verify. You must not add http://,https:// or www. to the domain name. Add the name as added in the CNAME record.
- After verification, you get a message stating that the custom domain is verified, as shown below.
- Toggle Shorten and track URL by default to enable shortening and tracking of links added to SMS and WhatsApp messages using the custom domain. This will turn on the shortening and tracking of the URL for all SMS and WhatsApp campaigns. This ensures that tracking is automated and never missed. Also, it can be unchecked in the campaigns or turned off in the settings here when you do not wish to track clicks.
You can add multiple custom domains for email campaigns. Follow the below steps to configure a custom domain for email campaign:
- To add a custom domain, click the Add custom domain button.
- In the Add custom domain popup that appears,
- Make sure to follow the provided Pre-requisites to ensure that your custom domain is verified.
- Add the custom domain name in the Custom domain name field.
- Select Mark this domain as default option, if you want this domain as your default domain.
- Select the acknowledge option, to recognize that the prerequisites are met and click tacking is turned off.
- Click Verify & save to verify and save your custom domain.
info Information
The maximum supported depth of the domain that can be added is six.
For example, the depth of the sub1.sub2.sub3.sub4.sub5.sub6.com domain is six.
- After successfully verified and saved, your custom domain is listed under the Custom domain screen with a Verified tag against that custom domain.
- Click the ellipsis icon (
) against any of your custom domains, to mark it as Default or Delete.
- When you delete a custom domain, any campaign that is active and uses the deleted custom domain falls back to the new default custom domain.
Old UI
Navigate to the MoEngage Dashboard and select Settings -> SMS & Connectors. Select the Custom Domain tab and do the following:
- Ensure that the points mentioned in the prerequisites are completed. This would mean that you have a custom domain that has been registered.
- Add the custom domain to the Custom domain name field and click Verify. Do not add http:// or https:// to the domain name. Add the name as added in the CNAME record.
- Once verified, you get a message stating that the custom domain is verified, as shown below.
- Toggle Shorten & track URL by default to enable shortening and tracking of links added to SMS messages using the custom domain. This will turn on the shortening and tracking of the URL for all SMS campaigns. This ensures that tracking is automated and never missed. Also, it can be unchecked in the campaigns or turned off in the settings here when you do not wish to track clicks.
Navigate to the MoEngage Dashboard and select Settings > WhatsApp. Select the Custom Domain tab and do the following:
- Ensure that the points mentioned in the prerequisites are completed. This would mean that you have a custom domain that has been registered.
- Add the custom domain to the Custom domain name field and click Verify. Do not add http:// or https:// to the domain name. Add the name as added in the CNAME record.
- Once verified, you get a message stating that the custom domain is verified, as shown below.
- Toggle Shorten & track URL by default to enable shortening and tracking of links added to WhatsApp messages using the custom domain. This will turn on the shortening and tracking of the URL for all WhatsApp campaigns. This ensures that tracking is automated and never missed. Also, it can be unchecked in the campaigns or turned off in the settings here when you do not wish to track clicks.
Campaign Previews
For SMS & WhatsApp, when you add a link to the message body and the Shorten and Track URLs option is selected, the preview will display a shortened link, as shown below.
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Note
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Troubleshooting
If you get the error "Unable to verify. Check domain settings where this domain is managed and retry." then, make sure the DNS & CNAME mapping is done correctly in your specific Domain Registrar. To verify the same, follow the steps mentioned by your registrar. If you don't have the required access, you can share these details with your IT admin and they can help you in setting these up:
| info |
Information The Unsubscribe URL added in the Email Settings will not be a branded link if the unsubscribe URL is customized and not MoEngage’s default unsubscribe URL. |