How to Configure AWS SES Event Destinations: Step-by-Step Methods

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Setting Up Amazon SES destinations

Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) allows users to send, receive, and monitor emails at scale. One powerful feature is its ability to send event data (e.g., bounces, complaints, and delivery notifications) to various destinations. In this tutorial, we'll guide you through setting up SES destinations with the following services:
  • Amazon Notification Service SNS
  • Kinesis Data Firehose
  • Amazon Pinpoint

SNS as Destination

Create an SNS topic

Log in to the AWS Console and search for Simple Notification Service (SNS). Select it from the results. Navigate to the Topics section and click Create Topic. Choose Standard as the topic type, optionally add tags, and then click Create Topic to complete the setup.


Type of SNS topic

Configure the destination in SES

Navigate to Simple Email Service (SES) and choose the configuration set where you want to add a destination. Click Add Destination, select the desired event types, and proceed to the next step. Under Destination Options, select Simple Notification Service (SNS). Enter a destination name and choose the previously created topic.


Different destination options

Review the settings and click Add Destination to finalize the configuration.

Kinesis Data Firehose as Destination

Create an Kinesis data firehose

Go to Kinesis and select Amazon Kinesis Firehose. Navigate to the Kinesis Firehose Stream section. Set the source to Direct PUT, which is typically chosen when a producer application writes directly to the stream. In this case, SES acts as the producer, sending events directly to Kinesis Data Firehose.

Under Destination, several options are available, such as S3, Redshift, and Snowflake. For this tutorial, we'll use S3 as the destination.




Creation of Firehose Stream

Next, in the Destination Settings, choose the bucket where events should be stored. If a bucket already exists, select it; otherwise, create a new bucket and attach it.


List of Firehose streams

Configure Data Firehose in SES 

Navigate to Simple Email Service (SES), go to the Configuration Set, and select Kinesis Firehose Stream as the destination type. Choose the stream you created and click Add Destination.

Amazon Pinpoint as Destination

Create Pinpoint Project

In the AWS Console, search for Amazon Pinpoint and create a new project.


List of projects in pinpoint

Configure Pinpoint project in SES

Go to Simple Email Service (SES), select the Configuration Set, and navigate to Destination. Choose Amazon Pinpoint as the destination type, select the project you created, click Next, and add the destination.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we walked through setting up various Amazon SES destinations, including SNS, Kinesis Data Firehose, and Pinpoint. Configuring these destinations enables better monitoring, real-time event tracking, and seamless integration with other AWS services.

By setting up the right destination for your use case, you can gain deeper insights into your email delivery performance, handle bounces and complaints more effectively, and create event-driven workflows to enhance your business operations.

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