Branded short URLs are condensed links that are customized to include a brand’s name or related keywords. Unlike generic short URLs, they promote brand consistency, trust, and higher click-through rates (CTR). These URLs offer a clean and concise way to share content, track clicks, and maintain brand recognition, making them an invaluable asset in any digital marketer’s toolkit.
To enable a trustworthy and branded experience for end-users, you can use your specific domains to shorten your long links. With Insider’s URL shortener interface, you can efficiently serve this experience to WhatsApp recipients.
This guide aims to answer these questions:
Shorten URLs for WhatsApp
In the Design step of your campaign, you can shorten the URL you send in your WhatsApp message. It will help you decrease the character count of your messages, prevent sending your messages in multiple parts, and enhance your messaging experience by using your domain to create branded shortened URLs.
To enable this option:
1. Go to the Design step of your WhatsApp campaign.
2. Scroll down to the Short URLs section and check the Enable Short URLs box.
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Configure DNS settings for shortened URLs
To set up a branded shortened URL with the assistance of the Insider One team, follow the steps below:
- Share Your Domain/Subdomain: Share your brand domain/subdomain. Ensure that this domain is new and not currently connected to or redirecting to any existing website or service, as the nameservers for this domain will be changed during the process. Please make sure that the domain or sub-domain you will use for the WhatsApp branded URL is SSL-enabled.
- Request DNS CNAME Records: Send a request to the Insider One team to generate the CNAME record for this domain/subdomain.
- CNAME Record expiration TAT: Once you request a CNAME record, your MDS will receive a request and share the CNAME record with you. Make sure that the shared record is added within 24 hours. Otherwise, the record will expire and cannot be verified.
- Confirmation: After adding the record, please confirm with your MDS to verify the information.
- Configuration: Your MDS will add the verified URL to your account settings to configure this verified domain or subdomain.
- Testing: Insider highly recommends that you perform testing to ensure the shortened URL functions correctly.
DNS Setup
See below for the responsibilities of Insider and Customer for DNS setup.
| Option | Description | Insider Responsibilities | Customer Responsibilities |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subdomain Configuration | The customer configures the subdomain/domain (example.useinsider.com) to Insider. In this scenario, Insider controls and maintains all aspects of CNAME that are required for delivering, rendering, and tracking WhatsApp campaigns, and can deliver the campaign as a managed service. | Complete management of the Domain/subdomain and all DNS records required for the Insider WhatsApp campaign | Proper and accurate configuration of the subdomain to Insider |
| Use of CNAMEs | The customer creates a subdomain and uses CNAMEs to point to Insider-specific records. Using this setup, both Insider and Customer share responsibility for maintaining DNS | Management of DNS records required for the Insider campaign | Creation and control of the subdomain and creation/management of the CNAME records required for the Insider campaign |
Required DNS Records
See below for the required DNS record(s).
| Record Type | Purpose | Examples of the record/content |
|---|---|---|
| CNAME | Provides an alias to another domain name | x1.email.example.com is an alias for x1.email.example.campaign.insider.com |
Configure CNAME records
The following is an example case for the verycoolbusiness.com domain (root domain) and email.verycoolbusiness.com subdomain configured on GoDaddy.
Keep in mind that your own DNS records will differ from the sample DNS records of the example case, and that you should adapt the following to your own domain and subdomain.
To configure your DNS records, follow these steps:
1. Log in to your domain registrar or DNS Host Zone. In this example case, the GoDaddy panel is used.
2. Navigate to the DNS Management section for your root domain. In this example, the root domain is verycoolbusiness.com.
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Below is the DNS record for the example Sub domain email.verycoolbusiness.com.
| Type | Host Name | Value |
|---|---|---|
| CNAME | _a2a78d0b862f13d3354a106a3e2bd1ba.email.verycoolbusiness.com. | _483f4c7e24c5deb65b1666cf10c4f0ab.mhbtsbpdnt.acm-validations.aws. |
| CNAME | email.verycoolbusiness.com | insdr.io |
3. Click the Add New Record button to add the first CNAME record as follows, and click the Save button.
Type: CNAME
Host: _a2a78d0b862f13d3354a106a3e2bd1ba.email
Value: _483f4c7e24c5deb65b1666cf10c4f0ab.mhbtsbpdnt.acm-validations.aws.
TTL: 1/2 Hour
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4. Click the Add New Record button to add the second CNAME record as follows, and click the Save button.
Type: CNAME
Host: email
Value: insdr.io.
TTL: 1/2 Hour
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Once you complete the required changes, please confirm with Insider One team for further verification and the configuration process.