CNAME / White labeling

A CNAME (also called a True Name or Canonical Domain Name) is used to map one domain to another domain, creating an alias for the second domain. We use this alias to help to improve deliverability and flexibility as well as improve the reader's experience as your links will appear to be coming from your domain and allows email inbox filters to see and recognize content that's authentic to a publisher. If a publisher decides to update the IP address of one A Record, then any CNAME record pointing to that host will also update.

We recommends that publishers white-label their ad URLs by using a CNAME.

CNAMEs

By using your own domain, the links in your emails will share the same domain reputation, your email will have a better non-SPAM score, and is less likely to be filtered out of your subscriber's inboxes. This all leads to better email deliverability.

If you are interested in setting up a CNAME for your ads, follow the instructions and let your account representative know once the setup is complete.

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CloudFlare

If you use Cloudflare to manage your DNS settings, there may be additional instructions at the bottom of the instructional page that need to be followed.

Should you wish to stop using your primary domain, we recommend either using a secondary domain that you own, or OpenWeb can set up a custom domain specific to you. Note that this custom domain will start with no reputation which may hurt your deliverability.

AdServer Security

When setting up a CNAME, your security audit software may notice our AdServer infrastructure uses Azure load balancing and is detected as a Web server. This software is used for load balancing traffic and managing SSL certificates. It does not act as a peer to peer service or a database. Its purpose is to serve images and redirect clicks to advertisement landing pages. In addition, our frontend infrastructure is configured to only expose HTTP/HTTPS services on two ports (80, 443) and block all other external traffic.

If you have any additional questions, please reach out to your account representative.