When should I use a dedicated IP for multiple brands?
Matthew Whittaker
Co-founder & CTO, Suped
Published 10 May 2025
Updated 16 Aug 2025
8 min read
When managing email programs for multiple brands, particularly in a scenario like having 14 distinct brands under a single Salesforce Marketing Cloud business unit sending a combined 200,000 emails per month, the choice between a dedicated IP address and a shared IP can be complex. Each brand (with its own "From" domain, DKIM, and SPF authentication) needs to maintain a strong sender reputation. While individual brands might not hit the typical volume thresholds for a dedicated IP on their own, the aggregate volume necessitates a careful evaluation. My experience tells me that leveraging a dedicated IP for all these brands can offer significant advantages, provided the right strategy is in place.
The key is to understand how internet service providers (ISPs) assess sending reputation and how an IP's performance impacts deliverability across multiple sender domains. This decision directly influences your ability to land emails in the inbox, rather than the spam folder.
Understanding dedicated versus shared IPs
The fundamental difference between a dedicated and a shared IP address lies in who else uses it. A shared IP address is used by many different senders, often hundreds or thousands. This means your email sending reputation is tied to the practices of others. If another sender on the shared IP engages in poor sending habits, it can negatively impact your deliverability, even if your own practices are stellar. Conversely, a dedicated IP address is exclusively yours, giving you full control over its reputation.
For individual brands that send low volumes of email or have inconsistent sending patterns, a shared IP can be a good starting point. Many email service providers (ESPs) maintain a pool of pre-warmed shared IPs, which can help ensure decent deliverability without the need for an intensive IP warm-up. This approach can be suitable if each of your 14 brands, when considered in isolation, sends fewer than 100,000 emails per month.
However, when you aggregate the volume from multiple brands, even if they're distinct entities, the total volume can quickly reach a point where a dedicated IP becomes more advantageous. For instance, a combined 200,000 emails per month often crosses the threshold where a dedicated IP offers more control and stability. The key is to understand that with a dedicated IP, any problems you encounter are directly related to your sending practices and can therefore be directly addressed by your team, rather than being influenced by unknown third parties on a shared pool.
Shared IP
Cost effectiveness: Typically less expensive, as the cost is distributed among many users.
Automatic warm-up: ESPs manage the IP reputation, often pre-warming the IP for you.
Good for low volume: Suitable for senders with inconsistent or small sending volumes, where building a dedicated IP's reputation is difficult.
Disadvantages
Shared reputation risk: Your deliverability can suffer due to the poor sending practices of other users on the same IP.
Less control: You have limited influence over the IP's overall reputation.
Blacklisting risk: Higher chance of the IP appearing on a blocklist (or blacklist) due to the actions of others.
Dedicated IP
Full control: Your sending reputation is solely based on your practices.
Stable reputation: Easier to maintain a consistent sender score, leading to better inbox placement.
High volume suitability: Ideal for senders with large, consistent email volumes who can manage their IP reputation effectively. Learn more about the benefits of dedicated IP addresses versus shared in this article from Luxsci.
Disadvantages
IP warm-up: Requires a dedicated process to build a positive sending reputation from scratch.
Responsibility: Any mistakes in sending practices can directly harm your IP's reputation.
The challenge of managing multiple brands on a single IP
The situation with 14 brands sharing a single dedicated IP is a common scenario for agencies and companies with diverse product lines. While the IP reputation is shared across all brands using it, it is crucial to remember that ISPs also build a reputation for each sending domain or subdomain. This means that even if you use a single dedicated IP, each of your 14 brands (and their respective sending domains) will develop its own independent sender reputation based on its engagement metrics, spam complaint rates, and bounce rates.
This setup, where multiple known brands share an IP, is often preferable to using a shared IP pool where you have no visibility into the sending habits of other users. By consolidating your brands onto a single dedicated IP, you gain greater control and transparency. You know exactly who is influencing the IP's reputation, which simplifies troubleshooting and risk management. This allows for a more cohesive approach to deliverability management, even if each brand operates somewhat independently.
However, it also means that a significant issue with one brand's email program (e.g., high spam complaints) could potentially impact the deliverability of other brands on the same IP. Therefore, consistent monitoring and adherence to best practices across all 14 brands are essential. This is a common implication of sharing a dedicated IP address for multiple domains within the same company.
IP reputation versus domain reputation
While an IP address has its own reputation, each sending domain or subdomain (e.g., brand1.example.com and brand2.example.com) also accumulates its own reputation. ISPs consider both when determining inbox placement. Therefore, even if you consolidate brands on one dedicated IP, individual brand domains still need to establish and maintain their own positive sending history. There is no concept of a purely "aggregated" domain reputation across disparate brands, but the shared IP performance will act as a baseline.
IP warm-up and reputation for multi-brand environments
IP warm-up is a critical process for any new dedicated IP. It involves gradually increasing your sending volume over a period of weeks or months to build a positive reputation with ISPs. For a multi-brand setup, you don't need a separate warm-up program for each of the 14 brands individually. Instead, you'll conduct one comprehensive IP warm-up program for the dedicated IP itself, combining the sending volume of all brands. This combined volume is what builds the IP's overall reputation.
During this warm-up, it is important to send to your most engaged subscribers first across all brands. ISPs observe engagement rates, spam complaints, and bounce rates to assess the trustworthiness of the IP. Even with sporadic sending patterns (e.g., newsletters to 70-100K recipients twice a month), a consistent warm-up approach is necessary. The goal is to establish a strong, positive sending history for the IP before ramping up to full volume. A helpful resource on how to do an email warm-up for a new IP or domain is available from Litmus.
While the IP builds its collective reputation, each brand's domain or subdomain will still be building its individual reputation. This means consistent, clean sending practices for each brand are paramount. Consider that you might need more dedicated IPs if your sending volume grows significantly, or if certain brands have vastly different sending profiles (e.g., transactional versus marketing emails, or very different audience engagement rates). Here's a simplified example of a warm-up schedule:
Example IP warm-up schedule
Day 1-3: 1,000 - 5,000 emails/day
Day 4-7: 5,000 - 10,000 emails/day
Week 2: 10,000 - 20,000 emails/day
Week 3-4: 20,000 - 50,000 emails/day
Beyond: Gradually increase as engagement and inbox placement remain strong.
This schedule is a general guideline; actual warm-up speed depends on engagement and response from ISPs. Monitoring your IP and domain reputation during this period is critical to adjust sending volumes. Sometimes, deliverability degradation can occur if the warm-up isn't managed carefully, leading to a need to consider multiple dedicated IPs.
Deciding on your IP strategy for multiple brands
Given your combined volume of 200,000 emails per month and the fact that the dedicated IP option has the same pricing as shared, opting for a dedicated IP appears to be the more strategic choice. This gives you complete transparency and control over your sending infrastructure. You won't be susceptible to the unknown sending practices of other companies on a shared IP.
Even though each brand's domain reputation is distinct, the underlying IP reputation provides a solid foundation. If a specific brand experiences deliverability issues, you'll know that the problem is isolated to that brand's content or list quality, not a shared IP problem. This allows for more targeted and efficient problem-solving.
Ultimately, the decision comes down to your level of control and the aggregate volume. For companies sending over 100,000 emails per month, a dedicated IP is often recommended, regardless of how many brands are using it. You can review what email volume justifies using a dedicated IP address in more detail. Here's a quick comparison:
Requires a structured warm-up process for the single dedicated IP.
Blacklist (or blocklist) risk
Higher risk due to unknown co-senders' behavior.
Lower risk if good sending practices are consistently followed across all brands.
Visibility of other senders
Unknown senders, can't track or mitigate their impact.
You control all senders on the IP (your own 14 brands).
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Maintain strong list hygiene across all brands to minimize bounces and complaints, especially when sharing a dedicated IP.
Segment your audience effectively for each brand to ensure relevancy and boost engagement rates.
Actively monitor IP and domain reputation for each brand using tools like Google Postmaster Tools.
Adhere to a consistent sending cadence, especially during IP warm-up, even if volumes fluctuate across brands.
Ensure all 14 brands comply with email authentication standards like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
Common pitfalls
Assuming individual brands don't need IP warm-up because their volume is low, despite a new dedicated IP.
Neglecting to monitor deliverability metrics for each brand, assuming overall IP health is sufficient.
Sending inconsistent, bursty volumes after warm-up without gradually re-establishing trust with ISPs.
Not having a clear strategy for managing spam complaints and unsubscribes across all brands.
Failing to understand that each domain's reputation is distinct, even when sharing an IP.
Expert tips
For multiple brands on one dedicated IP, the IP warm-up should be a single, combined effort to establish the IP's reputation.
Even with a dedicated IP, each brand's sender domain or subdomain needs to build and maintain its own reputation.
When offered at the same price as a shared IP, a dedicated IP is generally a better choice for control and troubleshooting.
A total monthly volume of 200,000 emails across multiple brands is sufficient to justify a dedicated IP.
Knowing who you're sharing an IP with (even if it's your own brands) is a significant advantage over unknown shared IP pools.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says that for a combined sending volume of 200,000 emails per month, a dedicated IP is generally the best approach, assuming there are no other unusual factors.
2022-05-13 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks mentions that some ESPs have minimum daily sending thresholds, around 40,000 emails per day, to qualify for a dedicated IP.
2022-05-14 - Email Geeks
Key takeaways for multi-brand email deliverability
For organizations managing email for multiple brands, a dedicated IP addresses offers a significant advantage, particularly when the aggregate sending volume justifies it. While individual brand domains will build their own unique reputations, a single dedicated IP allows for centralized control and transparency over your sending infrastructure. The initial IP warm-up will be a collective effort across all brands, followed by continuous monitoring and adherence to best practices for each brand's email program.
This approach ensures that you have the maximum influence over your deliverability, minimizing the risks associated with unknown co-senders on shared IP pools. By taking ownership of your IP reputation, you empower your multi-brand email efforts to consistently reach the inbox.
