Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (MCAE), formerly Pardot, utilises tracker domains to track engagement with your marketing assets. MCAE comes with the go.pardot.com tracker domain by default, but it is highly recommended that you add your own custom tracker domain due to the phasing out of third-party cookies and new limitations on the go.pardot.com domain.
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- What is a tracker domain?
- Where is the tracker domain used?
- Why can’t I use the default Pardot tracker domain?
- How do I set up a custom tracker domain?
- Need help?
What is a tracker domain?
Tracker domains are the cornerstone to how prospect activity is tracked in MCAE. Page views, link clicks and form activity are all associated to a tracker domain.
A custom tracker domain in MCAE is a subdomain of your website domain. Here are some examples of an MCAE tracker domain for www.resonantcloudsolutions.com:
- go.resonantcloudsolutions.com
- info.resonantcloudsolutions.com
- www2.resonantcloudsolutions.com
- hello.resonantcloudsolutions.com
The tracker domain acts as an alias of your website domain, in order to maintain a consistant brand across your MCAE assets and website. Assets are actually still hosted by MCAE, but their URL makes it appear that they are hosted by your website.
Where is the tracker domain used?
All MCAE assets are associated to a tracker domain. Some of the main places that you will actually see the tracker domain used are:
Email Links
When you send an email out of MCAE, the links you include in the email are re-written to tracker domain links in order to track the click activity.
Files
Files that are uploaded to MCAE will have a tracker domain link. A common use case is PDF files used for content marketing or “attachments”.
Email Preference Centre / Unsubscribe Page
MCAE makes it easy to set up Email Preference Centres, and even comes with a default unsubscribe page. All of which are hosted with a tracker domain link.
Landing Pages
Any landing pages created in MCAE will use a tracker domain URL.
Custom Redirects
Any Custom Redirects created in MCAE will use a tracker domain URL.
Website Tracking Code
Another perk of MCAE is being able to track activity on your website within MCAE. This is done using tracking code, which is associated to a tracker domain.
Why can’t I use the default Pardot tracker domain?
Browsers are starting to block third-party cookies in order to improve data protection and privacy. This means we can no longer use the go.pardot.com tracker domain for your website tracking code, without the result of lost activity tracking. However, you can utilise first-party tracking in MCAE, by using a tracker domain which is a subdomain of your website.
Secondly, MCAE released limitations on forms and landing pages using the go.pardot.com domain. Read more about that here.
How do I set up a custom tracker domain?
Tracker domains can be configured by navigating to Pardot Settings > Domain Management. Read our article here about how to set up the tracker domain in your DNS settings.
Need help?
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