Customize link domain

Who is this article for?

This article will be useful to you if are a company looking to personalize the links provided to your partners for the link's appearance and to prevent ad-blocking interference.

Custom link domain overview

PartnerStack links are initially formatted as YourCompanyName.grsm.io or YourCompanyName.partnerlinks.io. Creating a custom link domain allows you to replace grsm.io/partnerlinks.io with a personalized alternative.

To create a custom link domain you will need:

• Access to your DNS records. You may need some help from your engineers or your webmaster.
• A decision on which domain and subdomain you want to use to create your custom link domain
  • Your subdomain is the first part of the link. Many companies use the prefix “try” or “get” however, you may choose anything. For example, try.acme.com or get.acme.com.
  • Your domain is the root domain of your website, for example, acme.com
• An SSL certification for your website. Most web hosts will supply this on your behalf.
  Many browsers allow you to easily check whether or not your website has an SSl certificate such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.
• Full “Integrations” permissions for your account. If you do not have Integrations permissions, contact an Admin on your team.

To create a custom link domain

Your custom link domain can be created from within your PartnerStack dashboard in your Integrations tab by following the steps below. 

1. Navigate to your Integrations tab in your left-hand menu
   1. If you do not have access to the Integrations tab, reach out to a teammate with Admin permissions
2. Under the Custom link domain settings card, click “Add a custom domain”
3. Ensure your domain (i.e. acme.com) is correct, or enter your preferred domain
4. Select from a list of common subdomains, or enter your preferred subdomain
5. Click “Next”
6. Double-check your entered details before proceeding by clicking "Replace domain"
   
   
7. Add the given TXT record and the given CNAME record to your DNS
   1. You may need the assistance of your technical team to complete this step
8. Ensure your domain has an active SSL
   1. This can be done through most browsers i.e. Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox
9. When you have entered your records and checked your SSL, click "Verify domain"
   
   
10. Once you have verified your new custom link domain your JS snippet will be updated. If you've installed your PartnerStackJS snippet, you will need to replace it with this new version to ensure customers do not see "Ad blocker" messaging when following your links.
    1. Copy the updated JS snippet from your Integrations > Implement via PartnerStackJS snippet drop-down
    2. In your website's front-end header code, update the code to use your new PartnerStackJS snippet

If you are using the JS snippet and step 10 is not completed, customers using adblockers may see a warning before they can continue to your website which can result in lost conversions.

Once added, it may take between 10 minutes to 12 hours for your DNS records and SSL certificate to propagate and be detected by PartnerStack. Please allow a full 12 hours to pass after DNS record and SSL certificate setup before notifying your partners to replace their existing links with new ones.

Notify your partners

Once you have replaced your existing grsm.io or partnerlinks.io links with a custom domain, please notify your partners. Partners can then update their links wherever they have shared them. 

We recommend sending an email campaign to your partners or using an announcement to let them know that new links are available for your program.

While partners' original grsm.io or partnerlinks.io links will still work and track activity, users with Adblocker will see a "disable blocking and continue to the site" message. For more information on grsm.io links and Adblocker see our PartnerStack and Adblockers support guide.