As an Agency Partner, you can use your own domain to rebrand the URL of all your paid resold client accounts. To do this, you would need to create a CNAME for each account you create. Each account will use a subdomain of your domain. Instead of the default youraccount.activehosted.com URL, you can use something like client1.yourowndomain.com. Any links generated from your account will reflect your domain alias.
NOTE: It is not possible to set up a CNAME for sandbox accounts.
Take note
In order to set up a CNAME, you must adhere to the following acceptance criteria for CNAME values to ensure compliance with RFC 1123, RFC 952, and RFC 2181 standards:
- CNAME fields must include a domain and top-level domain (e.g., name.gov). Single-word hostnames without a domain and top-level domain (TLD) will no longer be accepted, as they are not routable outside of your immediate network. If the CNAME field validation fails, an inline error message will be displayed
- The validation will be applied to all new accounts, and any changes to an existing account
Step 1: Set up a CNAME
In order to use a custom domain name with ActiveCampaign, you would first need to set up a DNS record for a CNAME (or Canonical Name) with your domain registrar or hosting provider.
To illustrate, we will be using a Godaddy account to add a CNAME. The instructions below are specific to Godaddy and your own hosting provider may have a different set of instructions.
- Log into your Godaddy account.
- Click “Domains.”
- Click the “Manage DNS” link.
- Click Add and select CNAME from the dropdown list.
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Complete the fields listed:
- Name: the sub-domain of the site. Ex. if your site is yourdomain.com, you can type in newsletter under host to have the newsletter.yourdomain.com URL.
- Value: type in your ActiveCampaign.com account. Ex. acdemo.activehosted.com.
- TTL: Time to Live, you can put in 43200 (for seconds) or 12 (for hours).
- Click “Save.”
Step 2: Add the CNAME to your ActiveCampaign account
- Log in to your Agency Dashboard. Look for the account and click the down caret on the right of the account. Click on the “Change” link.
- Type in the Domain Alias you created from Step 1 under the Custom Domain/CNAME field. Then, click the “Update” button.
Note that it can take up to 48 hours for changes to take effect. If your CNAME does not work right away, it probably has not propagated yet.
About wildcard domains
You can use a wildcard domain for accounts that share the same domain. If you use a wildcard domain (for example, "*.activehosted.com"), then you will need to configure where it points to in your DNS.
Add a new CNAME with a wildcard domain
Note that these steps are for GoDaddy. Steps may vary with your DNS provider.
- Log into your GoDaddy account.
- Click “Domains.”
- Click “Manage DNS.”
- Click Add and select CNAME from the dropdown list.
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Complete the fields listed:
- Host: The host name should be set to the wildcard (" * ").
- Points to: This is the URL you are setting as the destination for the host. You will need to type managed-cname-fallback.activehosted.com in this field.
- TTL: Time to Live, you can put in 43200 (for seconds) or 12 (for hours).
- Click “Save.”
Fix your existing CNAME
Note that these steps are for GoDaddy. Steps may vary with your DNS provider.
- Log into your GoDaddy account.
- Click “Domains.”
- Click “Manage DNS.”
- Click the pencil icon.
-
Complete the fields listed:
- Host: The host name should be set to the wildcard (" * ").
- Points to: This is the URL you are setting as the destination for the host. You will need to type managed-cname-fallback.activehosted.com in this field.
- TTL: Time to Live, you can put in 43200 (for seconds) or 12 (for hours).
- Click “Save.”