WinRed Custom Subdomains

How to Create a Custom Subdomain in WinRed

Updated over a week ago

To comply with the restrictions put in place by Apple and Facebook as it relates to pixel events, organizations can now create a WinRed subdomain on their website (eg winred.yourdomain.com).

Each organization will be allowed one WinRed subdomain. The only permitted subdomain will be winred.yourdomain.com.

The millions of one-click users who are logged in on secure.winred.com may not be automatically logged in on your subdomain due to browser (eg Safari) restrictions on cookies. These logged-in users convert far higher than non-logged-in users. So, we recommend only sending Facebook traffic to this subdomain.

Set Up Your Subdomain

Setting up your subdomain requires 3 parts.

To begin, Add your domain in the WinRed Settings under the Pages section.

From there, you will need to add a CNAME record to your DNS (additional details below).

To finalize, WinRed will make a technical update.

Part 1 - Add Your Domain to WinRed Settings

To begin to add your Domain to the WinRed Settings within your account, navigate to your account. From here, jump into Settings and then click into Pages.

Once you are in your Pages settings, scroll to the bottom where you will see the option to toggle 'Yes' to Create a WinRed Subdomain.

Enable the 'Yes'.

Next, you will enter your custom domain and then click Save.


Part 2 - Add a CNAME Record to Your DNS

You should be able to add a CNAME wherever you keep your domain’s DNS. Below are step-by-step instructions for 3 of the most popular options: GoDaddy, AWS, Cloudflare.

GoDaddy

To begin, Find your domain and click DNS. Please note, you may need to click on Manage Domain and then click on DNS. From here, click into the Records then select 'Add'.


Here you will fill in the new record by entering the following information.

  • Type = CNAME

  • Host = “winred”

  • Points to = “secure.winred.com”

After you have entered this information, Save.

Let WinRed know that you’ve added the CNAME record to your domain.

Now, let WinRed know that the CNAME record has been added to your domain.

AWS

  1. Go to Route 53

  2. Go to Hosted Zones

  3. Click on your “Domain Name”

  4. Click “Create Record”

  5. Fill in the new record:

    1. Record Name = “winred”

    2. Record Type = CNAME

    3. Value = “secure.winred.com”

  6. Click on “Create Records”

  7. Tell WinRed that you’ve added the CNAME record to your domain

Once you have Created the Record, let WinRed know that the CNAME record has been added to your domain.

CloudFlare

  1. Choose your Domain and click “DNS”

  2. Click “Add Record”

  3. Fill in the new record:

    1. Type = CNAME

    2. Name = “winred”

    3. Target = “secure.winred.com”

  4. Click “Save”

  5. Go to “SSL/TLS”

    1. If the value is “Full” then stop. Tell WinRed that you’ve added the CNAME record to your domain

    2. If the value is “Flexible” or “Full (Strict) then continue on the steps 6-11

  6. Go to Rules

  7. Create a Rule

  8. Fill in the Rule:

      1. NOTE: Do not forget the trailing “/*”

    1. Then the settings are: “SSL”, “Full”

  9. Click “Save”

  10. Verify the Rule is turned On

  11. Tell WinRed that you’ve added the CNAME record to your domain

If the value is “Full” then stop. Tell WinRed that you’ve added the CNAME record to your domain.

If the value is “Flexible” or “Full (Strict)” then continue on the steps 6-11

Once you have created the Rule and verified that it is on, let WinRed know that the CNAME record has been added to your domain.

Part 3 - WinRed Will Make a Technical Update

After you have let WinRed know that the CNAME record has been added to your domain, then WinRed will make a technical adjustment.

This adjustment will allow WinRed donation pages from your account to be populated on winred.yourdomain.com

How to Find URL for Each Page

  1. Edit a page

  2. Click on the “Advanced” tab in page builder

  3. Click the “Yes” toggle for Show WinRed Subdomain URL

  4. Copy the URL

5. Once you have created the record, let WinRed know that the CNAME record has been added to your domain.

Subdomains for State Level Accounts

When using the custom subdomain for a state-level account, you should drop the candidate slug from the custom domain link.

For example, this is your normal WinRed link:

secure.winred.com/candidatename/example

This is what your link will look like with your custom domain:

winred.candidatename.com/example

This change just applies to state-level links.

Updating Google Tag Manager

If you are firing your Facebook pixel through Google Tag Manager, remember to update the domain that you are firing your pixel on from secure.winred.com to Winred custom subdomain.

You can find more information on how to integrate your Facebook pixel and Google Tag Manager here.

Reporting

When using the filtering tool, you will input the base page (secure.winred.com) url and expect a result. However, after creating a subdomain, you should be inputting the winred.candidatename.com URL instead for results.

Click here to learn more about the filtering tool.

Facebook

Now that you have set up your WinRed subdomain you can set up 8-pixel events to optimize your Facebook ads. To do that you’ll verify your domain with Facebook and add pixels events via Google Tag Manager. If you have questions please reach out to your Facebook representative.

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