Custom domain for tracking

Why you need a custom tracking domain

Custom tracking domain is essential for tracking. Such giants as Google, Facebook, or Bing do not accept default tracking domains, thus, using a custom tracking domain prevents your campaigns from being blocked.

Using custom tracking domain helps you to:

• Control your traffic better.
• Protect you from being blocked by the traffic channel.
• Have more control over the cases when your custom domain is compromised so you can easily update it to the new one.

How you add a custom tracking domain to RedTrack

Important before you start

To add the custom tracking domain, you will need to have a purchased domain. It can be obtained from anywhere. Examples of the most commonly used domain registrars are Godaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, etc.

You don’t need a separate custom tracking domain for each website/online store/client. It’s enough to use one custom tracking domain for all the websites you integrate with RedTrack or use many for each.

Adding a domain

1. Add a CNAME record in your registrar. Settings will depend on the system you are using. Below are the most commonly used:

GoDaddy

Cloudflare

Namecheap

Shopify

1. Domains → Portfolio → choose the needed domain and click on it:

2. DNS → Add New Record → fill in the mandatory fields → Save:

• Type: CNAME
• Name: type in one word with no spaces or special characters

This word will become the subdomain and appear at the beginning of your full domain. For example, if you enter insight and your main domain is trackingfan.online, the final domain that you should add to RedTrack in the URL field of the domain form will be insight.trackingfan.online:

• Value: your RedTrack dedicated domain

To get your RT dedicated domain, go to RedTrack → Tools → Domains → New:

• TTL: the lowest possible

Follow this guide for more details on the CNAME record in GoDaddy.

1.  Select the domain where you want to add the CNAME record → DNS → Add record:

2. Fill in the details:

• Type: CNAME
• Name: type in one word with no spaces or special characters

This word will become the subdomain and appear at the beginning of your full domain. For example, if you enter example and your main domain is tracking domain, the final domain that you should add to RedTrack in the URL field of the domain form will be example.tracking.domain.

• Target: your RedTrack dedicated domain

To get your RT dedicated domain, go to RedTrack → Tools → Domains → New:

• Proxy status: DNS only
• TTL: the lowest possible

When managing your DNS with Cloudflare, make sure to use the “DNS only” Proxy status instead of “Proxied“:



If “Proxied” is on, that means the traffic will not go to RedTrack directly but first to the Cloudflare servers. In that case, RedTrack is not responsible for the domain’s proper work. Click here to learn more about DNS records management in Cloudflare.

1.  Domain List →  Manage:

2. Advanced DNS → Add new record:

Fill in the needed details:

• Type: CNAME
• Name: type in one word with no spaces or special characters

This word will become the subdomain and appear at the beginning of your full domain. For example, if you enter example and your main domain is tracking domain, the final domain that you should add to RedTrack in the URL field of the domain form will be example.tracking.domain.

• Value: your RedTrack dedicated domain

To get your RT dedicated domain, go to RedTrack → Tools → Domains → New:

• TTL: the lowest possible

Click here for more info about DNS management via Namecheap.

Follow the dedicated Shopify guide.

The domain will be updated and ready to use once the data replication is completed. In general, it takes about an hour, but in the case of some registrars, it can take up to 24 hours.

▸ Make sure there isn’t an already created CNAME record for the same host, as it will lead to a conflict.
▸ Do not remove the CNAME record from your DNS settings as long as you are using it, as without it, your custom tracking domain won’t work properly.

2. Once the CNAME record is added, add the custom tracking domain to RedTrack.

Tools → Domains → New:

Fill in the fields:

Fields explained:

(1) URL

(2) Root domain

(3) Install the SSL

In the URL field your custom tracking domain consisting of:

1. The word you typed in the Name field when adding your CNAME (in our example it’s insight):

2. Name of the domain you have purchased in your registrar and for which you added the CNAME (in our example it’s trackingfan.online).

Put the URL visitors will be redirected to in case of a direct entry to the domain URL, or you can leave it blank.

If you decide to put the root domain after all, remember to type in https:// in front of it.

• To issue SSL certificate enable the Free SSL toggle:

RedTrack provides free SSL certificates for all paid clients, where everything can now be done in one click.

We are extra cautious about our service, so RedTrack generates certificates using open-source Let’s Encrypt technology, which claims to be free, automated, and open certificate authority (CA) run for the public’s benefit (it is a service provided by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG)).

• To reissue an SSL certificate press the Reissue button:

You can reissue the certificate for 2 reasons:
– If the first one failed to issue for some reason.
– If your certificate is about to expire. In this case you don’t need to wait till the very expiration day, but reissue the certificate in advance.

If for some reason the certificate issue persists, email [email protected].

Check out our video tutorial on how to add your custom tracking domain.