Setting Up a Custom PeerFly Tracking Domain

December 2nd, 2015

We are very happy to announce the release of what could be our best update to our tracking platform yet, custom tracking domains.

Have you ever tried to setup a PeerFly ad campaign and have the traffic source reject your advertisement because the link was blacklisted or marked as spam? This happens pretty often on a variety of different traffic sources (Facebook, Bing Ads, and BuySellAds for example). The issue is that these companies do not really have a problem with every single affiliate offer we have on PeerFly; they have simply had too many complaints about various campaigns that have been setup using our default tracking domains.

There have been ways around this that publishers at PeerFly have been using for years. For example, you can use a meta refresh and get your PeerFly affiliate link approved on Bing Ads.

Having to create a way around this issue is not the most convenient thing for you as a publisher though and it’s our goal to provide you with all the tools necessary to be a successful publisher with us. So, we now allow you to setup your own custom tracking domains.

What is a custom tracking domain?

A custom tracking domain is a domain you own that you can use to promote our affiliate offers on PeerFly. This can be any domain that you own. By setting up your own custom tracking domain, you are able to start with a clean slate and promote our offers without having to worry about our domains being blacklisted.

How does it work?

In your PeerFly Dashboard menu you will now see a “Tracking Domains” link that you can click to be taken to your tracking domain panel.

PeerFly Custom Tracking Domain Panel

Within your panel you can see your current tracking domains (a few of mine are shown in the screenshot) and add new ones.

You can add as many tracking domains as you want and the process is fairly simple.

Adding Tracking Domains

WARNING: DO NOT use a domain that you are currently using for a blog or website as your custom tracking domain.

Click the Add A Domain tab and you’ll be shown the form to add your domain and instructions. You must replace all the A records on the domain with the PeerFly A records listed.

It is important that if you have changed the nameservers on your domain before, you will need to change them back to the defaults set by your registrar.

Updating Domain A Records with GoDaddy

Open the Domain Details in GoDaddy for whatever domain you want to use as your custom tracking domain.

GoDaddy Domain Details

Click on the DNS ZONE FILE tab and you will see the very tab where you can add and update your A Records.

GoDaddy DNS Zone File

Add the record IPs shown on the Custom Tracking Domain page (also shown in the screenshot above). Once your records update you can add the tracking domain to your PeerFly custom tracking domain panel!

Updating Domain A Records with Name.com

Another popular domain registrar is Name.com. To update the A Record in Name.com, simply open your Name.com domain details page for the domain you would like to update.

Click on the DNS Records tab and you will be taken to the page where you can update your A Records (shown below).

Name DNS Update

Once you add all the Records and your domain updates, you can add the domain to the PeerFly custom domain page and start using it on your affiliate campaigns.

Using Custom PeerFly Tracking Domains

Once your domain A Records have updated and you have successfully added the custom tracking domain to your PeerFly account, you can start using it with your campaigns.

Simply go to the offer page on PeerFly for the offer you want to run and when you scroll down to your Affiliate Link you will now see a drop down where you can select whatever tracking domain you want to use.

PeerFly Affiliate Link with Custom Tracking Domain

Select the domain you want to use and your Affiliate Link will automatically update the domain for you. Copy and paste your Affiliate Link into your traffic source or tracking software and you’re all ready to go!

It’s important to note that you can only use the custom tracking domains that are setup on your account. For example, you cannot use my tracking domains I have shown in the examples above with your affiliate link.

We have also turned off all geo-redirects on custom tracking domains. If someone from outside of the offer’s Allowed Countries clicks on your affiliate link with a custom tracking domain setup, they will be taken to a blank page. We believe this will help keep from getting your custom tracking domains blacklisted by traffic sources.

We encourage all of our publishers to setup their own custom tracking domains for their campaigns. This is a great way to help decrease the potential friction between you and a traffic source and it opens up the opportunity for you to make more money!

Let your Affiliate Manager know if you have any questions. Let’s make some money!

LukePeerFly

I am the Director of Marketing at PeerFly and have over 15 years of experience with affiliate marketing. I am also a blogger and web developer. I enjoy creating applications to help my PeerFly publishers make more money!

130 thoughts on “Setting Up a Custom PeerFly Tracking Domain”

    1. suman kumar phuyal

      This article is really useful for me. I successfully connected my domain on my peerfy account and It shows generated affiliated link.
      I have one problem.
      When I open link original offer (Affiliated link) It opens in browser.
      but affiliated link with my domain does not load in browser. Is there something setting I have to manage? Or any help please?

      Reply ↓
  7. Peter

    This is just a link cloaking method, one that will fool no ad network. Bing, Adwords or Facebook, will check manually the destination page, so I am not sure what you try to accomplish.

    I see you mentioned some used meta refresh before to accomplish the same thing. I highly doubt, because sooner or later the campaigns are manually inspected and the moment you are discovered you will get your campaign banned and your account may face the same thing.

    Also, you mentioned :”The issue is that these companies do not really have a problem with every single affiliate offer we have on PeerFly” which is incorrect. All of the companies mentioned by you clearly state they don’t accept affiliate links of any kind.

    Not sure why you guys build things that are clearly doing one thing: try to cheat ad networks!

    Reply ↓
    1. LukePeerFly Post Author

      Hey Peter. I appreciate your concern. However, we are not trying to fool any ad network. When the ad network representative goes to your PeerFly affiliate link (with or without a custom tracking domain), they will be taken to the landing page for the offer you are trying to promote. Cloaking the link is a mischievous method used to trick the ad network into approving your link by taking them to a completely different landing page than what you want to promote and then changing to the real landing page once your ad is approved. When the ad rep takes a look at your link to review it for approval, they’ll be taken to whatever the offer is you are trying to promote. The same goes for the meta refresh method I’ve been teaching for years.

      I’ve used meta refresh on all the networks I have suggested publishers use it with and never had any issues. The ad networks I referenced do not have any issue with affiliates. The issue is the products some affiliates try to promote on them as well as how they promote them. It’s not our intention to ever cheat ad networks. They are how we make the majority of our money.

      If you have any other questions about how to properly (and legally) use our custom tracking domains, don’t hesitate to ask 🙂

      Reply ↓
      1. Kwaghshi Solomon

        As a beginner I have no knowledge about all these but I own a blog which is why I signed up with peerfly hopping to promote offers on my blog but right now am getting more confused everyday with peerfly policy. E.g my custom creative banner has been approved, instead I want to use contextual promotion on my blog, I coppied the affiliate link to my blog and I started the promotion, if you click through the link on my blog it will take you to the offer landing page and what I want to promote is for ppv and the offer allows ppv in all countries. Yet all the traffic I have been getting there is not generating any money to my peerfly account I contacted my peerfly manager severally to know if what doing is wrong or not. But she don’t wanna hit a reply back. Maybe is there anyone that can full details of how to use peerfly and promote offers on my blog, please I will appreciate and I will pay for the service. Thank.
        Luke kling I will be honoured if you say something that can help me.

  8. Fred Boggs

    Same here all i get is a bad invalid syntax,

    why is this so hard to understand Im sorry but some of us are no web experts so talk english lol

    what is meta refresh

    why do they make things comlcated for
    makes me go back to easer to unstand CPA markets but I will wait a while and hoply it will get better
    for you see i see at lest 30 min to complete one thing
    then i have to complete something else just to get a link
    then have to ask there presmission to make them money dont seam right to me
    thanks this place is to compcated but i will keep trying

    Reply ↓
  10. nick creighton

    Hello I am wondering if anybody has tried this with facebook yet? I used to cloak links and do meta refresh with facebook but it has been banned for months now. Every time I try it just bans the domain I am using.

    So I am wondering and hoping that someone has tried this with facebook. Not just facebook ads but also on facebook groups and such.
    Thanks,
    Nick C.

    Reply ↓
  11. Ang

    This is great news!

    I keep having problem with LI rejecting my direct linking to some PF offers giving reason “The landing page contains an exit pop or a loading pop.”

    I just setup my Beyond Hosting by adding the record IPs A record and linked my tracking domain with PF. Hoping this will solve the problem.

    Reply ↓
  12. Robert

    In regards to this sentence – “is important that if you have changed the nameservers on your domain before, you will need to change them back to the defaults set by your registrar”-
    I Transferred hosting from ..Dreamhost ..To Namecheap some time ago, And I made the necessary DNS changes (67.228.247.10, 67.228.247.11, 67.228.247.13 at Namecheap is this correct beings that Dreamhost will always remain the registrar? Or do I need to go To Dreamhost ?

    Reply ↓
    1. CoreyPeerFly

      Hi Robert,

      Is DreamHost your original domain registrar or did you just use them for hosting? If you purchased the domain through DreamHost did you transfer the domain to NameCheap or just your hosting?

      Regards,

      Reply ↓
  13. ChrisBa

    Very cool!
    I still think that people should consider using their own domain and hosting to avoid this, but that’s just me!
    Kudos to Peerfly for stepping up on this!

    Reply ↓
    1. Chad

      Thanks Chris. A few advantages for using this feature is you won’t have to worry about iframing or creating an LP if you don’t need one. Also, there’s less redirects involved which means a higher CTR. We also allow subdomains!

      Reply ↓
  15. Wess Stewart

    This is awesome! I just wish I didn’t already have redirects set up manually on the domain name I want to use for this…kind of a pain, but it’s totally just on my end. Ah well. I have others. 😀 Looking forward to trying this out!

    Reply ↓
  16. Mike

    Hey can you post me some instructions on just how to go about using this with a sub-domain?

    I got it working with my website address, but I’m a little unsure of what to do in order to be able to use it with sub-domains. I don’t have the domain name connected to any hosting, I just simply added the a-records.

    Since we need to set the Nameservers back to our Registars default settings, does that mean we can only use a subdomain on our registars hosting package or is there another way to go about adding subdomains?

    Thanks!

    Reply ↓
  17. Daniel

    after the tracking domain, I have to hide the link of offer in facebook? they did not accept an offer after the tracking domain. this would be the problem?

    thanks for the answer-

    Reply ↓
    1. CoreyPeerFly

      Hi Amina,

      It’s not just about verifying that you own the domain. Changing the A records is the only way that tracking will work correctly.

      Please let me know if you have any other questions.

      Regards,

      Reply ↓
  19. Jhon Echegollen

    Hi Luke,

    Can i used 1 domain just for 1 offer at the time , or can be for severals offers??

    Thanks for your help

    Best Regards

    Jhon Echegollen

    Reply ↓
  20. Cindy

    Hi Luke,

    I am trying to change the Host record on NameCheap, but there’s an extra field “Target”, what am I supposed to put there because it won’t let me save and continue?

    Please advise, thank you.

    Reply ↓
  21. Mikhail

    Hi! I have replaced the A record with PeerFly records and the domain is verified now, but when I’m trying to use it I see only white screen… Please help me, is there a problem with PeerFly or it’s caused by domain registrar?
    Thank you in advance!

    Reply ↓
  22. kevin

    Hey Luke,guys

    I still cant get my link on facebook even after doing all the steps
    Whats probably the problem now?…

    “The content you’re trying to share includes a link that our security systems detected to be unsafe:

    Please remove this link to continue.
    If you think you’re seeing this by mistake, please let us know.”

    Reply ↓
  25. Andrey

    Hi, I am completely new to this, so if I cannot use my website’s domain as a custom domain, do I have to buy another domain and dedicate it as my custom domain? And when I get my custom domain set up with PeerFly, can I place my affiliate link configured with my custom domain on my main web site? I am sorry I may be getting things mixed up.

    Reply ↓
  26. thao91

    it say do not use a domain that is already being used for an active blog…WHAT?? ill changed all my a record and still no..do i have to inactive that blog?

    Reply ↓
  27. Azaman

    Hi,
    I’m newbies in this area, can you please advice me how to configure Peerfly as a tracking domain. I’m using ‘Beyond Hosting’

    Reply ↓
  28. ecarliz

    Hi, sorry I just do not understand what is the difference between using this method and redirecting to the Peerfly affiliate link from our own domain? it is basically the same thing correct?

    Reply ↓
    1. LukePeerFly Post Author

      When you use our custom tracking domain then the trkur domain is ignored completely. When you redirect through your own domain, it still goes to trkur eventually.

      Reply ↓
  29. Lark L

    Ok i figured out the answer to my last question. which you cannot use domain associated w/ a website

    Now I would like to know if I can use 1 domain for multiple offers or will I have to purchase a new domain for every offer?

    Thanks

    Reply ↓
  30. Rob

    Hello,
    I bought my domain from namecheap.com. But i have a VPS on a differnt hosting company and used my WHM to root login and add those 3 A name records.
    So why i cannot use my own nameservers? Adding the A records make sense but are you implying that you have a list of hosting registrars, like godaddy, name.com, namecheap etc..THIER nameservers and you don’t want to go adding every affiliates own nameservers to your list as it easier leaving the nameservers (that you have listed) as is and just add A records…correct?
    I think if that’s the case it is why mine wont verify as i have used my own nameservers…so i need to change them and use namecheap.com’s ones? But my domain is not hosted with them.
    PLease advise,
    Thanks
    Rob

    Reply ↓
    1. LukePeerFly Post Author

      Rob,

      Please feel free to email me about this and I can put you in contact with one of our devs to see if you guys can get a solution sorted out that works for you 🙂

      Thanks,
      Luke

      Reply ↓
  31. SamJ

    And can/should I use custom subIDs when promoting on Facebook directly?
    If I do that, should I shorten the link like on bitly?

    Reply ↓
  32. Marlene Challis

    I’m new here and I’m confused. So I can’t use my own websites that get traffic? I buy a new domain? So then what do I do? Send traffic just to a blank domain with no information on it? Do I buy a general type domain if I want to send different offers? I have travel & weigh loss websites so I wanted to promote those kind of offers. Do I get a travel related domain for the travel offers & a weight loss domain for the weight loss ones?

    Reply ↓
    1. LukePeerFly Post Author

      You can use your website to generate traffic. The custom tracking domain is just so you don’t have to our use trkur.com links to promote the affiliate offers. You can use any domain as your tracking domain that you like.

      Reply ↓
  36. keivan

    I found a much easier method to customise your affiliate link that facebook or other websites cannot recognise and filter it.
    If you want to know the method send me an email quoting “peerfly customised link”.

    Reply ↓
    3. Anna

      Hi Kevian, sorry I don’t have your email. What is the easy way you suggest to customize affiliate link? Thank you son much for any help. Just starting out. 🙂

      Reply ↓
  37. Jacob

    In the blog it says:
    WARNING: DO NOT use a domain that you are currently using for a blog or website as your custom tracking domain.

    Consider that I have a website in example.com, could I then use clicks.example.com as tracking domain?

    Reply ↓
  38. Anna

    Hi! Your comments have been so helpful but I need more guidance. once we have purchased our custom domain and are ready to build a link, can someone please give me a step by step on how to build a link and the proper way to upload to host account? Is it possible to just cut and paste the affiliate links or do we have to upload them in a certain way to our host account to ensure proper tracking? Thanks so much for any assistance with this :))

    Reply ↓
    1. LukePeerFly Post Author

      You would just need to look at HostGator where you can add an A Record. This is probably in the same spot that you update the nameservers (DNS settings).

      Reply ↓
  42. RAMI ABDU ELAWAD

    when i try to make my own domain from godaddy.com .and i put all ip:

    following A Records:
    67.228.247.10
    67.228.247.11
    67.228.247.13

    and test it for offer is not work i get error massage.
    i need help to do itin right way

    Reply ↓
  43. Ryan Coetzee

    Hey Cory,
    is it still possible to get hosting and put your own content on the domain if the A Records have been changed?
    If I don’t post content and somebody went directly to my domain after seeing it displayed in the browser bar, what would they immediately see?
    Thanks

    Reply ↓
    1. CoreyPeerFly

      Hi Ryan,

      They would be redirected to a blank page if the link does have an offer ID, not your content. You should not use a domain that you are currently using for a blog or website as your custom tracking domain.

      Reply ↓
  45. Dan

    Likely a really dumb question, but once I have a Tracking Domain and the A records are pointed to PeerFly, how do I use that domain to promote a specific offer? In other words, what link do I put in Facebook ads so that it points to the correct offer I’m promoting?

    Reply ↓
  46. HMArif

    Hey Cory,
    Can you help me please how can i approved my domain in peerfly.how can i add a custom tracking domain?
    i added a domain in peerfly but still not approved.i using namecheap’s domains.
    waiting for your response…
    Thanks

    Reply ↓
  47. Ievgen

    Hey guys,

    looks like you are not redirecting from the domain after the user arrived.
    whiterabbit.host is the domain.
    Could you help please?
    three @ entries are in place as required

    Reply ↓
  52. Abel

    Hello there, I got my tracking domain approved and uploaded an html page to my own hosting server, but when clicking on the page it redirects to the trkur.com domain. What can be causing that? Thanks in advance.

    Reply ↓
      1. Abel

        Thank you very much Corey, I’m fortunate to have deep linking on the offer I’m promoting and no longer need tracking domains by now. Let’s have a great year having success with Peerfly!

  54. Lizza Nelson

    My domain hosts (I tried both godaddy and google) only allow one A record to be changed. I can’t add in 2 extra A records. It won’t let me. How do I fix it?

    Reply ↓
  55. Aliakbar

    Wow, thanks for the guides for adding our own domain as Tracking, Just wandering is it possible to use a Sub domain for offers tracking insead of root domain?
    As if i already have a blog on my root domain and want to use track.mydomain.com for offers tracking,
    Can it be done? via cName or other records?
    please do let me know..

    Reply ↓
  56. Reaz Ahmed

    So, it sounds like an alternative way of Iframing offer? We don’t need to create any custom landing page for offer, right?
    We can use the custom Tracking domain to promote offers in FB ads / Adwords campaign?

    Reply ↓
    1. Lauren Hostert

      With sources like Facebook and Adwords, you’re most likely going to need to create a custom landing page to get a campaign approved. More on that here.

      Reply ↓
  60. frank

    this is what i have been looking for thank you so much. so i need to open a site and domain with go daddy then i should be able to run adds with adwords after? thank you

    Reply ↓
    1. Lauren Hostert

      Adding a custom tracking domain to PeerFly means that you would set your domain to point to our tracking links by updating your A Records. If you have any questions, please reach out to your AM. 🙂

      Reply ↓
  62. TJ

    When it comes to the extension of your custom domain (.com, .net, .org., etc.), is it preferable to have a .com over a Namecheap domain?

    I’ve seen websites blacklist entire domain suffixes (like the free domains & cheap ones). I’d like to know if experienced affiliates or AMs have experienced sudden-poor CTR performances in the life of their campaigns using Namecheap & other low-cost domains as custom trackers.

    Reply ↓
  63. sarit

    Hi, I did the things you said to do on Godaddy and got nothing. I don’t know what to do after I put the tracking Domains from peerfly on Godaddy

    Reply ↓
    1. Lauren Hostert

      Please email your AM the domain you’re attempting to add to PeerFly and he or she can assist you with your specific issue.

      Reply ↓
  66. Aditya

    Hey Luke,

    I was looking up for some guidance on setting up a custom PeerFly and landed on your blog post.
    Thankew. It worked.
    Newbies will find this little difficult to set up.

    Reply ↓
  72. PATRICK PATOLYSIS

    hello, please i want to know if this is same as using clickmagic to cloak my offer link?
    i mean can i use cloaked link from clickmagic on any offer here on peerfly
    will there be any harm on offer conversion?

    Reply ↓

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