Note: Please contact your account manager for specifics to your account, highlighted in yellow.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e-GvX2WWnd2rj_W8VDxnObFWSdhcTN0Nlkyuxa0-xS4/edit#

Google Postmaster Tools Set-up

Despite its name, Google Postmaster Tools does not have any direct relationship with Google’s Gmail for your school or the broader G Suite for Education. It is strictly a bulk email reporting tool.

It is likely that most of your potential students use Gmail as their primary inbox. Google Postmaster Tools (https://postmaster.google.com/) provides high-level reporting on key email deliverability statistics from a university's domain to Gmail. This data includes delivery errors, spam reports, reputation scoring, and more. The CNAME set-up below is required to ensure that you and Waybetter can work together to ensure optimal deliverability, mitigating any issues that may arise.

If Waybetter is delivering campaigns from:

• School’s bare domain (school.edu): One CNAME is required for set-up, using record 1

• School’s subdomain (apply.school.edu): Two CNAMEs are preferred for set-up, using both record 1 and 2

  • Record 2 gives Waybetter access to see deliverability reports from apply.school.edu. This will allow us to see a breakout specifically of what we send

  • Record 1 gives Waybetter access to see deliverability reports from school.edu and all the subdomains. This is less critical but will allow us to understand the interaction between our mailings and the rest of your mailing

Record 1: CNAME for GOOGLEVALUE1.SCHOOL.edu

SUBDOMAIN/HOST: GOOGLEVALUE1

CNAME DESTINATION/POINTS TO: GOOGLEVALUE2.dv.googlehosted.com

Record 2: CNAME for GOOGLEVALUE3.apply.SCHOOL.edu

SUBDOMAIN/HOST: GOOGLEVALUE3.apply

CNAME DESTINATION/POINTS TO: GOOGLEVALUE4.dv.googlehosted.com

This CNAME gives Waybetter co-administrator access to the Google Postmaster Account. Administrators can add and remove read-only accounts. It does not allow us to add, change or remove other Postmaster administrator accounts or affect other Google accounts within the Google ecosystem. The only benefit of administrator accounts is they can add/remove read-only accounts. This will allow Waybetter to bring on and take off team members and troubleshoot access issues. There is no difference in reporting between an administrator and read-only accounts.

Alternately, if you are already set-up in Google Postmaster and would prefer to control and troubleshoot access, please add the following emails: delivery@waybettermarketing.com, leec@waybettermarketing.com, katep@waybettermarketing.com, lindsayf@waybettermarketing.com, richw@waybettermarketing.com, [accountmanager]@waybettermarketing.com

Technical/FAQ

1. This CNAME acts like a TXT record and may not resolve to the target. For Google Postmaster accounts, the CNAME typically verifies easier and faster over a TXT record. If your preference is to use a TXT record instead, let your account manager know.

2. You can revoke Waybetter’s administrator and reader sub-accounts at any time by removing our CNAME record.

3. Do not remove or change other TXT or CNAME records due to this request. It might affect access for your university administrators or other important deliverability configurations

4. Google Postmaster accounts (administrator or read-only) only grants access to the bulk delivery reporting dashboards accessible from postmaster.google.com. It doesn’t have any direct relationship or access to Google Suite/Gmail for Education, Google Webmaster or any other product within the Google ecosystem

5. We use the term “administrator” as it adds clarity to this documentation. In the Google Postmaster interface, administrators are referred to as owners

6. Once approved and Gmail is receiving data for your domain, Waybetter will have access to the following dashboards, which show traffic that passed Sender Policy Framework (SPF) or DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM):¹

   • Spam Rate: Shows the volume of user-reported spam versus email that was sent to the inbox. Only email authenticated with DKIM is eligible for spam rate calculation.

   • Domain and IP Reputation: Presents data which indicates whether the Gmail spam filter might mark email from that domain or IP as spam.

   • Feedback Loop (FBL): Shows spam rates if you have implemented the Gmail FBL. Gmail FBL data is displayed in the dashboard only when the complaint rate is higher than 0.5%. The Gmail FBL was designed to help hosting companies detect bad entities on their networks. Because of this - as such, it does not operate the same as many other FBLs designed for bulk senders. The Gmail FBL may only be useful for very high volume senders with large complaint issues.

   • Authentication: Shows traffic that passed SPF, DKIM, and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC).

   • Encryption: Shows Transport Layer Security (TLS)-encrypted traffic.

   • Delivery Errors: Shows blocks and temporary failures.

Example Postmaster Dashboards

User Reported Spam

Shows the volume of user-report spam vs. email that was sent to the inbox. Only emails authenticated by DKIM are eligible for spam rate calculation.²

Domain Reputation

Domain and IP reputations give a sense of whether the Gmail spam filter might mark emails from that Domain or IP as spam or not. Keep in mind that spam filtering is based on thousands of signals, and that Domain & IP reputations are just two of them.²

Authenticated Traffic

Shows traffic that passed SPF, DKIM & DMARC, overall received traffic that attempted authentication.²

Footnotes

1. “Gmail Postmaster Tools Overview.” Return Path Help Center, help.returnpath.com/hc/en-us/articles/224779267-Gmail-Postmaster-Tools-overview.

2. “Postmaster Tools” Help Marks. Google Postmaster Tools, postmaster.google.com