By default, your referral program is hosted on a subdomain of referral-factory.com. These domain settings affect your campaign join link as well as your users' unique referral links.

Here's an example of a campaign join link showing the subdomain "example" and the domain "referral-factory.com" 👇

Screenshot of a referral program join link showing the domain and subdomain

And here is an example of a user's referral link 👇

Although not necessary to launch your referral program, hosting it on your own domain offers several advantages. One of the main benefits is that it provides brand consistency by removing referral-factory.com from the URL. This allows you to white-label your referral program and maintain a cohesive brand experience for your users. It also means your competitors won't know you're using our referral software 🤫

How To Add Your Own Domain

Step 1: Add Your Own Domain In Referral Factory

→ From the Settings Tab, select Emails and Domains.

→ Enter your domain with a subdomain. For example: referrals.website.com

→ Click Save.

💡 Are you running multiple campaigns? Once you've set up your own domain, you have the option to create a Domain Holding Page! Learn more.

Step 2: Configure Your DNS Records

For the next step of the process, you'll need to log in to your DNS provider to access your DNS records. If you don't have access or are unsure how to do this, reach out to your IT team or contact your DNS provider directly.

→ Log into the hosting platform you use to host your website/domain.

→ Go to the domain settings of the custom domain you have added to your Referral Factory account.

→ Find and click on the Manage button, and from there you should be able to navigate to your DNS settings (this could be called DNS Settings or Manage DNS).

→ In the DNS Manager section, look for the CNAME (Alias) records, then click Add Record.

→ Fill in the form fields with the following values:

Type = CNAME
Host Record = The subdomain you want to publish your campaigns to - this will be a subdomain on your own website. For example: if your custom domain added in Referral Factory is referrals.website.com, the Host Record value must be referrals).
Points To or Will Redirect To value = redirect.referral-factory.com
TTL can be left as-is or set to a default of 4 hours, or 14400 seconds.

→ Click Save to add the record.

Here is an example of what you will see 👇

set_referral_campaign_on_your_own_domain

❗️ Please note that a change to a DNS record can take up to 72 hours to propagate worldwide, although it typically takes a few hours.

Step 3: Check Your DNS Record Using NSLookup

→ Open the Terminal application on your computer.

→ Type in the command nslookup followed by a space and the url on which you would like to host your referral program. This should be the same url you entered in Referral Factory in Step 1. For example:

nslookup referrals.example.com

→ Press enter.

→ If your DNS records have been correctly configured, the returned response will show redirect.referral-factory.com as the canonical name of your url. If you do not get this response, please ensure that you have followed the instructions in Steps 1 and 2 correctly, and that you have waited at least 72 hours for the change to propagate.

nslookup-command-check-your-dns-redirect-referral-factory

❗️ Once you have received the correct response via the nslookup command, please send our support team an email, letting them know you have added your own domain to your subscription and updated the DNS settings. It will take up to 48 hours for your new domain to be enabled by Referral Factory.

Examples of DNS Settings For Different Providers

There are many domain hosting providers and all of them have their own user experience and setup. Below are some of the most common providers with examples of what the DNS settings should be for each.

DNS Settings for CloudFlare

🔗 Read about how to configure DNS records on Cloudflare in their knowledge base.

Type = CNAME
Name = The subdomain you want to publish your campaigns to - this will be a subdomain on your own website. For example: if your custom domain added in Referral Factory is referrals.website.com, the Host Record value must be referrals).
Target = redirect.referral-factory.com
TTL = Auto

❗️ Make sure the Proxy Status to off “DNS Only” otherwise Cloudflare will attempt to redirect it incorrectly.

DNS Settings for NameCheap

🔗 Read about how to configure DNS records on NameCheap in their knowledge base.

Type = CNAME
Name = The subdomain you want to publish your campaigns to - this will be a subdomain on your own website. For example: if your custom domain added in Referral Factory is referrals.website.com, the Host Record value must be referrals).
Value = redirect.referral-factory.com
TTL = Auto

DNS Settings for cPanel

🔗 Read about how to configure DNS records on cPanel in their knowledge base.

Type = CNAME
Name = The subdomain you want to publish your campaigns to - this will be a subdomain on your own website. For example: if your custom domain added in Referral Factory is referrals.website.com, the Host Record value must be referrals).
TTL = Auto
CNAME = redirect.referral-factory.com

DNS Settings for Google Domains

🔗 Read about how to configure DNS records on Google Domains in their knowledge base.

Type = CNAME
Host Name = The subdomain you want to publish your campaigns to - this will be a subdomain on your own website. For example: if your custom domain added in Referral Factory is referrals.website.com, the Host Record value must be referrals).
Data = redirect.referral-factory.com
TTL = 3600

Referral Factory was voted the #1 software for referral marketing to use in 2023, by Influencer Marketing Hub. Marketers across the globe use Referral Factory to build, launch, and run powerful referral programs at scale. If you want to get referrals and grow your business then you've come to the right place ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️