Skip to content
Pitchlane

Can I use Sender Domain Matching with Instantly?

Sender Domain Matching is not available with Instantly. Here is why, and how to use it with Smartlead instead.

Updated

No. Sender Domain Matching is not available with Instantly. It only works with Pitchlane’s native Smartlead integration.

Why it doesn’t work with Instantly

Sender Domain Matching hosts each video thumbnail and link on the domain of the inbox that sends the email. If you send from myname@trymycompany.com, the video is served from trymycompany.com, so the link looks like a link to your own website.

To do that, Pitchlane needs the sending inbox’s domain at the moment the email goes out. Each lead can be sent from a different inbox, so the thumbnail embed has to include a variable that your sending tool fills in with that inbox’s domain.

  • Smartlead provides that variable (%sender-domain%), so Pitchlane can build a thumbnail embed that is served from the right domain for every email.
  • Instantly doesn’t. Its sender variables only cover the sending account’s name, first name, email address and signature. There is no variable for the sending domain, so Pitchlane can’t build a thumbnail embed that points at it.

What you can do instead

  • Use Smartlead for Sender Domain Matching. If matching the video domain to your sending domain matters for your campaigns, send them through Smartlead with Pitchlane’s native integration. Follow Setting up Sender Domain Matching with Smartlead to set it up.
  • Keep using Instantly with a Custom Domain. Your Pitchlane videos work in Instantly as normal using the thumbnailEmbed variable (see How to use Pitchlane with Instantly.ai). Videos are served from your Pitchlane Custom Domain (for example videos.mycompany.com), not from each sending inbox’s domain. Our Deliverability Guide covers other ways to protect deliverability.