Publishing Your Campaign Using a Custom Domain

ALL PLANS

Overview

Using a custom domain for your ShortStack campaign gives your contest or promotion a professional look and helps reinforce your brand. Instead of a ShortStack-generated URL, you can have something like https://contests.my-company.com/april-2025. This guide walks you through everything you need to know—even if you’ve never worked with DNS before—to get a custom domain pointing to your ShortStack campaign.

1. Understanding the Parts of a URL

Before diving into DNS setup, it helps to know what each part of a URL means. Let’s break down this example:

https://contests.my-company.com/april-2025

1. Protocol (https://)

   • This tells your browser how to talk to the server. In almost all cases, you’ll use https:// so that the connection is encrypted. You don’t need to configure anything special for this—it’s handled automatically by ShortStack when you publish.

2. Subdomain (contests)

   • A subdomain is a “prefix” added to your main (root) domain.

   • In this example, contests is a separate section of your website devoted to ShortStack campaigns.

   • Common subdomains include www, blog, shop, etc.

3. Root domain (my-company.com)

   • The root (or “apex”) domain is the main address you own.

   • Everything that comes before “.com” (for example, “my-company” in my-company.com) is chosen by you when you register your domain.

4. Path (/april-2025)

   • The “path” comes after the slash following your domain.

   • In ShortStack’s case, this usually corresponds to the specific campaign name or ID.

   • You’ll choose or confirm the path when you set up each individual campaign inside ShortStack.

Putting it all together: when someone visits https://contests.my-company.com/april-2025, their browser looks up “contests.my-company.com,” finds where that points on the internet, then asks for whatever content lives at “/april-2025” on ShortStack’s servers.

2. High-Level Steps

1. Configure DNS for Your Custom Domain.

   • You’ll log into your domain registrar or hosting provider and create DNS records so that “my-company.com” (or “contests.my-company.com,” etc.) points to ShortStack’s servers.

   • This step only needs to be done one time for each domain or subdomain you want to use.

2. Tell ShortStack About Your Domain.

   • Inside the ShortStack campaign builder, when you reach the “Publish” step, you’ll click to customize the URL.

   • Select (or type in) the exact domain or subdomain you already pointed via DNS.

3. Publish and Verify.

   • Finish publishing your campaign.

   • Visit the new URL in a browser (e.g., https://contests.my-company.com/april-2025) to confirm that it’s live.

3. Configuring DNS: Step-by-Step

DNS (Domain Name System) can sound technical, but it’s really just a way to tell the internet, “When someone looks up this address, send them to that server.” Below are three common scenarios. Pick the one that matches your needs.

Tip: If you’re unsure where to find your DNS settings, log in to the website where you registered the domain (for example, GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, or whoever you purchased “my-company.com” from). Look for a section labeled “DNS Management,” “DNS Settings,” or “Zone File.”

Scenario A: Use Your Root Domain (plus Optional “www”)

• Use Case:
  You want your campaign to live at https://my-company.com (and, optionally, https://www.my-company.com). This is common if you don’t have another website already on the root domain. (Note: Use Scenario B below if you only want to support "www" and not the root domain for your campaign)

• What to Do:

  1. Create an A Record for the Root Domain

     • Record Type: A

     • Host/Name: @ (some providers use “@” to mean the root domain)

     • Value/Points to: one of ShortStack’s IP addresses (see section below)

     • TTL: leave at default (often 3600 seconds)

     This A record tells browsers, “If someone visits my-company.com, send them to ShortStack’s server at this IP.”

  2. (Optional) Support “www”

     • If you also want www.my-company.com to redirect to the same ShortStack campaign (so both “www” and non-www work), add a CNAME record:

       • Record Type: CNAME

       • Host/Name: www

       • Value/Points to: my-company.com

       • TTL: default

     That CNAME says, “If someone visits www.my-company.com, treat it exactly like my-company.com.”

  3. Save Your Changes.

     • DNS changes can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours to fully propagate. You can use tools like DNS Checker (if you want) to see when your new A record is live around the world.

Scenario B: Use a Subdomain

• Use Case:
  You want to use a subdomain with your root domain, for example, contests.my-company.com or giveaways.my-company.com. (Note: If you will be primarily using the "www" subdomain, but also want the root domain to work, use Scenario A above).

• Option 1: Wildcard Subdomain (One Record for All Subdomains)
  This is the easiest option if you will be using your root domain only for ShortStack campaigns.

  1. Create an A Record for the Root Domain (see the instructions in Scenario A above)

  2. Add a Wildcard CNAME

     • Record Type: CNAME

     • Host/Name: * (an asterisk means “any subdomain not explicitly defined elsewhere”)

     • Value/Points to: my-company.com

     • TTL: default

     Now anything.my-company.com (that isn’t otherwise specified) will resolve to the same place as my-company.com—ShortStack’s servers. This is handy if you plan to spin up lots of subdomain campaigns and don’t want to create a new record manually each time.

• Option 2: Individual Subdomains

  1. For each distinct subdomain (e.g., contests, giveaways):

     • Record Type: A

     • Host/Name: contests (or giveaways, etc.)

     • Value/Points to: one of ShortStack’s IP addresses (see section below

     • TTL: default

     Repeat for each subdomain you want to use. Now, when someone visits contests.my-company.com, DNS will see the A record to ShortStack’s servers.

4. Choosing the Right IP Address

ShortStack maintains multiple server locations to give you low-latency performance. You only need to pick one IP address (not all three). The general rule is to choose whichever is geographically closest to your primary audience. Here are the current options:

• 52.73.46.134 (N. Virginia, USA)

• 13.211.199.127 (Sydney, Australia)

• 3.69.157.158 (Frankfurt, Germany)

For example:

• If most of your customers or entrants are in North or South America, use 52.73.46.134.

• If your primary audience is located in the Asia-Pacific region, use 13.211.199.127.

• If Europe or Africa is your focus, use 3.69.157.158.

Note: You cannot mix and match IPs for a single domain (e.g., you shouldn’t add two different A records). Pick one and stick with it. If you’re truly global, choose the region with the highest traffic or run an A/B test to see which gives fastest load times in practice.

5. Publishing Your ShortStack Campaign

See Publishing a Campaign for step-by-step instructions.

6. Troubleshooting Tips

• DNS Propagation Takes Time

  • Once you save your DNS records, it can take anywhere from 10 minutes to up to 48 hours for every DNS server worldwide to see the update. Usually, it’s less than an hour, but be patient.

• Check Your DNS Settings

  • Use a tool like DNS Checker to see if your A record or CNAME record is live.

  • Enter the domain or subdomain (e.g., contests.my-company.com) and look for the IP address you set.

• Verify You Picked the Correct Record Type

  • If you see a message like “No records found,” it often means you created a CNAME when you needed an A record, or vice versa.

  • Double-check your “Host/Name” field: an A record for a subdomain should literally say “contests” (not “contests.my-company.com”).

• SSL/HTTPS Not Working?

  • ShortStack automatically provisions SSL certificates once (1) you’ve pointed DNS correctly and (2) you've published your campaign to your custom domain. If you test your domain in your browser before publishing your campaign, you will see a SSL error.

  • If you still see a security warning in your browser, reach out to ShortStack Support with a screenshot of the error.

7. Example DNS Configurations

Below are three quick examples to make things concrete. You’ll have to enter similar values into your own DNS manager.

Example 1: Root Domain + “www”

• my-company.com and www.my-company.com both serve your ShortStack campaign.

Example 2: Individual Subdomains (Root Used Elsewhere)

• In this case, the root is pointed at a different IP (your main website). Only contests.my-company.com is sent to ShortStack.

Example 3: Wildcard Subdomain

• With a wildcard, promo.my-company.com, event.my-company.com, and any other subdomain will automatically route to ShortStack without further changes. You can also use the root domain without a subdomain, if you wish.

8. Glossary: DNS Terms for Beginners

• DNS (Domain Name System):
  Like the internet’s phonebook. It translates human-friendly domain names (e.g., my-company.com) into IP addresses (e.g., 52.73.46.134) that computers use to connect.

• A Record:
  Stands for “Address” record. It points a domain (or subdomain) directly to an IP address.

  • Example: contests.my-company.com → 52.73.46.134

• CNAME Record:
  Short for “Canonical Name.” It points one domain (or subdomain) at another domain name instead of an IP. The DNS system will then look up that second domain’s A record.

  • Example: www.my-company.com → my-company.com

  • Helps avoid duplicating A records if you want “www” to match your root.

• TTL (Time to Live):
  The amount of time DNS servers should “cache” (remember) your record before checking for updates again. The default (often 3600 seconds = 1 hour) is fine for most users.

• Propagation:
  Once you save a DNS change, it can take time for every server worldwide to see the new value. When you add or edit an A/CNAME record, allow up to 24 hours for truly global consistency—though in practice, most servers update within an hour.

9. Additional Resources

• DNS Lookup Tools (Free):

  • DNS Checker – see live global propagation.

  • WhatsMyDNS – another propagation monitor.

• ShortStack Support:

  • If you run into SSL errors, configuration issues, or need help verifying records, contact our support team.