Every Page you publish in ActiveCampaign lives on a domain. You can either use the subdomain we provide, or you can use a custom domain. In this article, you'll learn how subdomains are created for your landing pages and how to connect custom domains.
About ActiveCampaign landing page subdomains
When you use Pages, a subdomain is created for you on your ActiveCampaign account. It will look something like this: youractivecampaignaccountname.ac-page.com
For example, if your ActiveCampaign account URL is: delightful.activehosted.com
the subdomain automatically created for you would be: delightful.ac-page.com.
All pages you publish will go under the URL, delightful.ac-page.com.
If you create a page named "About" your page would live at delightful.ac-page.com/about.
Here, "about" in the URL is the page slug.
Connect your custom domain to ActiveCampaign Pages
If you don't wish to use the subdomain we provide, you can connect your custom domain to Pages and then use that domain for your landing pages.
To do so, you must first log into your hosting provider and add a CNAME record pointing to your landing page domain. You only need to set up a given custom domain once.
Note that it's not possible to use "activecampaign" or "ac-page" in your custom subdomain.
To connect your custom domain to Pages:
- Log into your domain hosting provider and add a CNAME (or Canonical Name) record that points to your landing page domain <accountname>.ac-page.com and set a TTL (Time To Live) of 12 hours (if possible).
- Open a new tab or window in your web browser and log into your ActiveCampaign account.
- Once you're logged into your ActiveCampaign account, click Website on the left menu.
- Click the "Pages" option.
- Click the "Domains" tab.
- Click the "Add a custom domain" button.
- A modal window will appear. Click the "Next" button.
- On the next screen, click the option that best describes where you are in the process of creating a custom domain. Then click the "Next" button.
- If you selected the "I do not have a CNAME record or waited 24 hours" option, follow the prompts in the next screen then click "Close" when finished.
- If you selected the "I created a CNAME record that has been live for at least 48 hours" option, enter the domain into the field provided then click the "Next" button. On the next screen, click "Close."
When finished, we'll display your domain on the Pages > Domains page. From here you can see the status of the CNAME you provided. The new domain will be pending until it's successfully connected, or there is an error. To test the connection, click the "Test connection" button.
Configure your DNS settings
Here is a list of guides for popular domain providers:
General guide to adding your domain
If your domain's provider is not in the list above, follow these steps:
- Open a new tab in your web browser and log into your domain provider's website.
- Go to the part of their website where you manage your DNS settings (you might have to go an advanced settings section).
- Now find where you can edit or add CNAME Records. Sometimes called "Host" records or "Alias" records.
- If there are any existing records where the "Host" value is the same as your subdomain (i.e. www), you will need to delete those before adding your CNAME of the same "Host" value.
- Add a new CNAME record with the "Host" and "Value or Points to" values you were given above.
- Save your changes.
If you use "www" as your page's subdomain, add a redirect in your DNS settings that point the root domain (i.e. delightful.com) to www.delightful.com. This will ensure your visitors access the proper subdomain, even without typing in "www."
Verify your domain
If there is a yellow "!" next to your custom domain in ActiveCampaign, our system is still trying to verify that you've created a CNAME record pointing to our servers.
If your DNS was set up incorrectly, and you've returned to fix the mistake, click "Verify DNS Settings" to resend a request to verify the new changes.
After your domain is verified, you will see a green checkmark.
It can take up to 48 hours for all Domain Name Servers (DNS, the internet's phone book) to point your domain to your new pages. This is standard across all website hosting sites and is out of our control.
If your custom domain has not been verified after 48 hours, it may be an issue with your domain provider. Since our Customer Experience Team cannot see your DNS settings, contact your domain provider's support team. Our Customer Experience Team cannot log in to your DNS account on your behalf.
Publish your page using a CNAME
Now that you've added your domain to Pages and added the CNAME record in your DNS settings, you can use this domain for any new landing page you create.
- From the Pages section in your ActiveCampaign account, hover over the draft landing page and click "Edit Design."
- Click the "Publish page" button.
- A modal window will open. Click the "Domain" dropdown and click the custom domain you wish to use with your landing page.
- Click the "Publish" button.
Remove a custom domain
If any pages use the custom domain you're removing, you must first edit the URL for each page to use a different domain before removing the domain.
To remove a domain:
- From the Pages section in your ActiveCampaign account, click the "Domains" tab.
- Hover to the right of the domain you want to remove.
- Click the trash icon.