Why is Senderscore showing a subdomain I don't recognize?
Summary
What email marketers say12Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Quora suggests that if you are using an Email Service Provider (ESP) like SendGrid or Mailgun, it's likely the subdomain is part of their infrastructure for managing bounces and feedback loops. Consult your ESP's documentation or support for details.
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares that senderscore is likely picking up your return-path domain. You can confirm this by checking the source code of your emails and looking at the headers.
Email marketer from Sendgrid explains that the unrecognized domain might be related to a third-party vendor of some kind. It may have been set up for specific tracking or other purposes, and you need to review integrations to identify where this is coming from.
Email marketer from Email Geeks advises to confirm the headers first. If all looks good, leave it as is since it’s authenticating. As long as the organizational domain aligns, that is the most important part. She then makes an analogy to snail mail envelopes.
Email marketer from Litmus explains that it's crucial to check your domain's SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records when seeing unfamiliar subdomains. Improperly configured records can lead to these discrepancies.
Email marketer from EmailGeeks Forum answers that an unfamiliar subdomain could be related to a new marketing campaign or test. If you've recently made changes to your email strategy, verify these against your records and authentication settings.
Email marketer from Stackoverflow answers that the subdomain could be part of your email provider's infrastructure for handling bounce messages or tracking. It’s important to ensure your SPF records include this subdomain for proper authentication.
Email marketer from Reddit shares that if you're using a dedicated IP address with your ESP, the subdomain could be automatically configured by them for bounce processing or reputation management. Contact your ESP to confirm the purpose of the subdomain.
Email marketer from ReturnPath Blog explains that unrecognized subdomains in Sender Score could indicate your email infrastructure is not properly identified or that someone is spoofing your domain. They recommend investigating SPF records to ensure they accurately reflect sending sources.
Email marketer from EmailOnAcid notes that incorrect domain alignment in SPF, DKIM, and DMARC can lead to unexpected subdomains showing up in sender reputation tools. Domain alignment ensures that the return-path and from domains match, or are at least related.
Email marketer from Mailjet Blog shares that the subdomain might be a result of using a third-party email service with its own dedicated bounce domain. This setup can improve deliverability by isolating bounce traffic. Ensure your SPF records include this subdomain.
Email marketer from Gmass says that an unrecognized subdomain might be related to your email provider’s specific bounce handling procedures. Check if they have a dedicated system for this that uses a separate subdomain.
What the experts say5Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks explains that based on the name 'bounce', it is probably the return path / bounce domain for some part of your mail stream.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that different domains are used for different purposes. The domain used in the 5321.MailFrom (Return-Path) is often different from the domain in the 5322.From (the address displayed to the user). This is a common practice for handling bounces and protecting sender reputation. An unfamiliar subdomain could be the Return-Path domain used by your ESP.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests that SenderScore is mostly a vanity score that doesn’t affect anything at all. And if your mail is delivering you shouldn’t care about what Validity is telling you.
Expert from Email Geeks recommends contacting postmaster@proofpoint and also reaching out to the SFMC deliverability team for specific advice about fixing delivery problems. She emphasizes the importance of mailing engaged addresses.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that there are two from addresses in a message. The 5321.from which is authenticated by SPF, and the 5322.from which is the domain most people think of as the from address, further clarifying that it is likely the 5321.from address is bounce.whatever.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from SparkPost states that unexpected subdomains can appear due to variations in SPF and DKIM alignment. If your authentication isn't correctly aligned across all sending domains, it can lead to confusion in Sender Score.
Documentation from Validity Support explains that the return-path domain is often different from the sending domain and is used for handling bounces and feedback loops. The subdomain might be a designated bounce domain used by your email service provider or marketing automation platform.
Documentation from DMARC.org clarifies that strict DMARC policies can cause issues if your sending domains are not properly aligned. The subdomain may be a discrepancy in DMARC alignment between your sending and return-path domains.
Documentation from Google Admin Help explains that if your SPF record is not correctly configured to include all sending sources, including the subdomain used by your ESP for bounces, Sender Score might flag the subdomain as unrecognized.
Documentation from RFC-Editor explains that 5321.MailFrom (return-path) is often configured differently than the 5322.From (display from) to handle bounces and prevent spoofing. It's legitimate for these domains to differ.