How-to: Add a Tracker Domain

Tracker domains are the cornerstone of tracking prospect activity in Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (MCAE), formerly Pardot. Creating a custom tracker domain in MCAE is not only easy, but also highly recommended.

Why do you need to create a custom tracker domain, and what are they used for? Read more in our Tracker Domain article here.

Follow the steps below to set up your custom tracker domain:

Create your tracker domain in MCAE

Navigate to Pardot Settings > Domain Management, and select “Add Tracker Domain”. You want your tracker domain to be a subdomain of your website domain, in order to comply with first-party tracking. For example, a tracker domain for www.resonantcloudsolutions.com could be go.resonantcloudsolutions.com. Once a tracker domain is added, a validation key will be generated.

This allows the user to pick which brands or communication they want to be subscribed to and which ones they want to opt-out from, while also allowing them to opt-out of all email communications. This is a user-friendly way in which the user can have a say on what they’re subscribed to.

Now that you understand what an EPC does, let’s explore the benefits.

Add the tracker domain to your DNS settings

Copy the validation key generated by MCAE, and navigate to your DNS settings. There are two main steps to configuring your DNS settings:
  1. Create a TXT record with an empty host and paste the validation key as the value.
    Type Name Value
    TXT @ [pardot validation key]
     
  2. Create a CNAME record which points the subdomain to go.pardot.com.
    Type Name Value
    CNAME [subdomain, ie. go or info or hello] go.pardot.com

Validate the tracker domain in MCAE

Back within Domain Management in MCAE, click the ‘validate’ button next to your custom tracker domain. The validation status should update to be validated. You may also see the SSL Status is processing. Given some time, you should see this update to be enabled and the HTTPS Status will be HTTPS. Make your custom tracker domain the primary tracker domain for your MCAE account by selecting the cog wheel, and select ‘Set as primary’. This will ensure you don’t accidentally use the go.pardot.com domain.

Looking for more information? See the Salesforce Help Article for adding a Tracker Domain here.

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