Configure a Custom Domain for Campaign Links
Guide to configure your own domain to host links to your landing pages and external promos
A Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) is a complete domain address (e.g., www.example.com or subdomain.domain.tld), in this guide a
FQDN
refers to the address including the subdomain and adomain
refers to the address without the subdomain.
You can use a domain that you own and manage for the OptiPub Campaign links you promote to customers. Campaign links host your landing pages and external url redirect links.
We recommend configuring a custom domain for your campaign links for the obvious benefits of brand recognition, uniqueness, and simplicity.
This guide will help you create DNS records to map your chosen FQDN to point to your OptiPub Account Domain.
(e.g., secure.yourdomain.com -> [client].app.optipub.com)
This guide uses
secure
as the example subdomain, andyourdomain.com
as the example domain, resulting insecure.yourdomain.com
as the example FQDN (the complete domain address).
Choose a Subdomain
- Select a domain that you currently own and have access to manage DNS records with your DNS Provider.
- A good choice is to use a domain hosting an existing website with a good reputation.
- If you are not confident in the reputation of your website domains, a better choice may be to use a fresh domain not currently used for anything.
- You should use Campaign links in your emails when linking to your internal and external promotions. Campaigns are an important layer of organization to analyze promotion and partner performance and engagement of subscribers added by the campaign.
- Links in emails are an important factor contributing to inbox placement and your sender reputation with email providers. A provider will block email that includes links to a domain they have blocklisted.
- Choose a subdomain that is not used currently under the domain address.
- You can use a single letter for the subdomain or a descriptive word such as 'secure' or 'offers'. The only requirement is that the subdomain is not currently in use and does not have any existing DNS records.
Add and Verify the Domain in OptiPub
OptiPub > Administration > Domains
- Navigate to Domains and click on the button [Create] in the top right.
- Enter in the FQDN you chose. Even if 'yourdomain.com' already exists, you still need to add and verify the new FQDN with the subdomain separately (e.g., secure.yourdomain.com).
- Click [Save]
- Retrieve the TXT record provided by OptiPub.
- Click on the button [Settings Wheel] in the top right of the page to display the available columns of the Domains table.
- Click the checkbox next to Record to display the column.
- Copy the TXT record which will look like
optipub=EN9OIlMXJmeT8mDa6oAvXXXXXXXXXXXX
- Add the TXT record to your DNS provider to verify domain ownership.
- Manage the DNS records for 'yourdomain.com'.
- Create a new TXT record:
- Name = include the subdomain and your DNS Provider should append the managed domain.
- Value = paste in the TXT record copied from OptiPub
- TTL = 86400 (the exact number is not important, but a large number is good because the record will not need to be updated)
Notes:Domain verification can take up to an hour.
Once verified, the OptiPub Domains table will have a green checkmark in the Verified Ownership column for your domain.
If the domain isn't verified after an hour, review your work then contact OptiPub support with your FQDN.
Configure an ANAME / CNAME (alias) Record
We can't use a normal CNAME record, because normal CNAME records must exist as the only DNS record for the FQDN. OptiPub domain verification requires a TXT record to exist for your FQDN, so attempting to add a CNAME record afterwards will fail.
Most DNS Providers support a proprietary CNAME(like) record type as a workaround for this issue, but they call it by different names:
- CloudFlare paid plans support CNAME Flattening records.
- DNSMadeEasy supports ANAME records.
- AWS Route 53 supports Alias records.
Refer to the links above for directions when using one of these DNS Providers. If using a different DNS Provider, google How to create an ANAME / CNAME Alias using [insert DNS Provider]
. The process should be similar to adding any other DNS record type.
DNSMadeEasy Example ANAME Record
- Manage DNS for the domain 'yourdomain.com'.
- Create a new ANAME record for the FQDN.
[secure]
.yourdomain.com ANAME[client].app.optipub.com
3600 TTL
AWS Route 53 Example Alias Record
AWS Route 53 documentation is surprisingly lacking for Aliases. The main rule is Route 53 Aliases must point to an AWS Resource. This AWS Resource will be an extra step between your custom FQDN Alias and the OptiPub Account Domain. AWS Route 53 will handle this extra step behind the scenes.
secure.yourdomain.com(Alias) -> secure-target.yourdomain.com(AWS Resource) -> [client].app.optipub.com
- Open the Hosted Zone for your domain in Route 53, and click the button Create Record.
- First create a target CNAME DNS record to use as the AWS Resource.
- Create a CNAME record for your domain with any unused subdomain, let's use 'secure-target' and point that to your OptiPub Account Domain.
secure-target
.yourdomain.com CNAME[client].app.optipub.com
3600 TTL - Use 'Simple routing'
- Create a CNAME record for your domain with any unused subdomain, let's use 'secure-target' and point that to your OptiPub Account Domain.
- Next create a Alias record to point to the AWS resource CNAME record 'secure-target.yourdomain.com'.
- Select a 'CNAME' record type, toggle 'Alias' to enabled, choose 'Alias to another record in this hosted zone', and select the target FQDN.
secure
.yourdomain.com Aliassecure-target.yourdomain.com
- Use 'Simple routing' and disable 'Evaluate target health' so this Alias is always seen as healthy.
- Select a 'CNAME' record type, toggle 'Alias' to enabled, choose 'Alias to another record in this hosted zone', and select the target FQDN.
Check that your DNS Records are Created
Ensure both the TXT and ANAME / Alias records are correctly added to the same FQDN before moving on to the next section to prevent any holdups.
- Check that your DNS records are found using DNS Checker: DNS Lookup.
- Input your custom FQDN and click the button Lookup DNS for both
TXT
andCNAME
Record Types. - Some ANAME / Alias records resolve to the IP address(es) of the target domain, so also check the
A
Record Type.
- Input your custom FQDN and click the button Lookup DNS for both
- You can also try navigating to your FQDN in a browser. Since the domain isn't fully setup, seeing these errors actually confirms the previous steps were successful up to this point.
- If you navigate to your FQDN in a browser you will get an SSL error until a new SSL certificate is attached in the next section.
- If you are able to 'proceed anyway' passed the error, you should see an OptiPub page displaying "Domain is not configured".
Contact OptiPub to create an SSL Certificate for the Domain in Your OptiPub Account
Contact OptiPub and provide the FQDN that you are setting up, and describe any questions or issues if you have any.
OptiPub will:
- Confirm the previous steps were completed successfully, and guide with correcting any issues found.
- Create a new AWS certificate for client's OptiPub Account.
- Provide the client a DNS CNAME record for client to create to verify domain ownership with AWS.
As the client you will:
- Login to your DNS Provider and create a new, CNAME record using the provided DNS values.
- Once the verification CNAME record is propagated, the new certificate will enable within a couple minutes.
- Navigate to your custom domain FQDN to confirm the SSL error no longer exists.
Add CNAME verification record to your DNS Provider:
Follow these steps to create the AWS verification CNAME record correctly.
- Exclude the managed domain portion from the end of the record
Name
if it is already appended to the record by your DNS Provider.- Name:
_fa502e8b0965507e26ed4b07c91a0e3e.demo
.optipub.com.
- Name:
- DNS record domains conclude with a trailing period (
.
) to indicate the absolute root of the FQDN. If the trailing period is not included the DNS Provider may append the managed domain to your record.
This record points toacm-validations.aws
so requires a trailing period.- Value:
_490e00b1ee801b5b28716bcc634b61a3.auiqqraehs.acm-validations.aws.
- Value:
You can continue with the next steps while we are implementing the new SSL Certificate.
Update Publication URLs in OptiPub
OptiPub > Administration > Publications
-
Navigate to Publications.
-
Edit a publication and click Next until you reach the Additional Information section.
-
Update the following URLs under URLs:
- Advertorial URL -
https://secure.yourdomain.com/o/adv
- Promo URL -
https://secure.yourdomain.com/o/web
- Landing Page URL -
https://secure.yourdomain.com/o/op
- External Offer URL -
https://secure.yourdomain/o/ext
Ensure all URLs start with
https://
, target your custom FQDN, and use these same paths. - Advertorial URL -
-
Save your changes.
Confirm the Custom Domain is Working Correctly
OptiPub > Marketing > Campaigns
Retrieve an effort link from an active Campaign or Generate a new Campaign Link.
-
Navigate to Campaigns and View an active Campaign for the Publication configured with the custom domain.
-
Scroll down to the Campaign Efforts table and click on an
ID
to view the Effort'sCampaign Link
. -
Confirm the campaign link uses the custom domain, then click the link to open the campaign link in a new tab.
- Preferably test with an
Order Page
orPromo
campaign link. Clicking the link should open a new tab and load your landing page successfully using the custom domain. - If testing with an
External
campaign link, clicking the link should successfully open a new tab and redirect to theExternal URL
. This is enough to confirm the custom domain is set up.
- Preferably test with an
Congratulations! Your custom domain is now active and configured to host landing pages in OptiPub.
Updated 24 days ago