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Advertiser CNAME tracking domains

Track on a subdomain of the advertiser's own website (track.advertiser.com) that points at your tracking domain, without a separate click-tracker certification.

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An advertiser CNAME is a hostname on the advertiser's own final-URL domain — for example track.shop.com — that is a DNS CNAME to one of your brand's tracking domains. Clicks on https://track.shop.com/c/… are handled by TrackCrown exactly like clicks on your own domain. Because the hostname belongs to the advertiser's website domain, Google treats it as part of the advertiser's site, so it does not need its own click-tracker certification.

Requirements#

The hostname is checked when you add it:

RuleError you see when it fails
A subdomain on a public domain, not the main domain itself"Use a subdomain (e.g. track.shop.com), not the advertiser's main domain."
Its registrable domain (eTLD+1, e.g. shop.co.uk) is one of the workspace's allowed destinations"<domain> is not one of this workspace's allowed destinations (…). The CNAME must be on the advertiser's own final-URL domain."
No internationalised (xn--) domains"Internationalised (look-alike prone) domains cannot be used as advertiser CNAMEs."
Not within one character of a protected name (your brand's domains, Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Meta, Microsoft, Bing, Apple, Amazon, PayPal, TikTok, Twitter, Netflix)"<domain> looks like <name> — look-alike domains are refused."
A CNAME record already points at one of the brand's active, brand-wide tracking domains"<host> has no CNAME record yet." or "<host> is a CNAME to …, not to …"

"Allowed destinations" means the union of Settings → Workspace → Tracking → Allowed destination domains, every non-archived offer's allowed domains and every offer's destination host. If the list is empty you are told to add the advertiser's final-URL domain to the workspace allowlist first.

Set it up#

  1. Make sure the advertiser's website domain is an allowed destination (workspace allowlist or an offer's destination/allowed domains).

  2. At the advertiser's DNS provider, create the CNAME. The dialog shows the target, e.g.:

    DNS
    track.shop.com.   CNAME   trk.yourbrand.com.

    If you use Cloudflare for the advertiser's zone, keep the record DNS only (grey cloud).

  3. In TrackCrown open Tracking → Tracking domains and click Advertiser CNAME.

  4. Enter the Hostname (track.shop.com) and click Add CNAME. TrackCrown looks up the CNAME before adding.

  5. Publish the ownership record shown after adding:

    FieldValue
    TXT name_arctrack-verify.track.shop.com
    TXT valuearctrack-verify=<64 hex characters> (copy it from the dialog)

    The record name and value prefix are fixed technical identifiers of the tracking engine, the same for every brand.

  6. Wait. The worker re-checks pending domains every minute; the domain turns active once the DNS check (the hostname resolves to the platform's servers) and the TXT record both pass. The HTTPS certificate is issued automatically on the first request.

The success message reads "<host> added as an advertiser CNAME (→ <target>). It needs no separate Google certification." The domain appears in the domains list with its final-URL domain and CNAME target, and you can use it like any other workspace tracking domain — as the default, in domain assignments and in Google Ads templates.

Who can add one#

Admins and owners (permission to manage domains). The action is audited as domain.advertiser_cname with the hostname, final-URL domain and CNAME target.

Use it in Google Ads#

Use the CNAME host in the tracking template only for campaigns whose Final URLs are on the same registrable domain (shop.com in the example). The transparent-link rules are unchanged: one 302 to exactly the url= value.

Related#

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