Creating a Subdomain


When running a campaign or creating a landing page for a client that may not have a content management system (CMS) to host landing pages, setting up a subdomain to host custom landing pages that TSL can build and manage is a necessity to get campaigns into market.

What is a subdomain? – A subdomain is an Internet domain which is part of a primary domain such as “” Typically, you can set them up at no extra cost with your current domain manager.

Reasons Why a Subdomain is Required

A subdomain enables TSL to build and maintain landing pages without bottlenecks from clients. We may need to create a subdomain to host new landing pages for the following reasons:

  • The client will not allow us to create landing pages on their website.
  • There isn’t a website or HubSpot account to host landing pages.
  • Their Hubspot subscription has been eliminated/cancelled/reduced and landing pages are not an option.

Reasons to Have a Branded Subdomain

TSL Marketing advocates for the use of branded subdomains. For example, this means that if we’re running a survey for Google, we recommend the use of a subdomain like “” instead of a random domain such as “” Using a subdomain of the client’s main domain will establish credibility which is important when we are asking people to submit personal information about themselves and their company.

With more credibility, we find that:

  • The conversion rate will be higher,
  • People will be more likely to submit accurate information instead of fake answers,
  • The ad quality score can improve which can reduce the cost of running ads and increase the frequency at which your ad is displayed to potential leads.

How to Set up a Subdomain with Clients to Use Unbounce

What you'll need:

  • A domain.
  • Administrative access to your domain's DNS.
  • Owner/Administrative access to your Unbounce account.
Step # Owner Time (mins) Action
1 Project Lead/Manager 1 Are the following statements true for your project?
  • Customer will not allow TSL to create landing pages on their website.
  • There is not a website or Hubspot account to host landing pages.
  • Customer's Hubspot subscription has been eliminated/cancelled/reduced and creation of landing pages is not an option.
If yes, continue to Step #2. Customer needs a subdomain. If no, go to END. Customer does not need a subdomain.
2 Project Lead/Manager 1 Does customer have a domain? (Do they have a website?)
  • If yes, go to Step #3.
  • If no, go to END. Customer cannot get a subdomain OR customer will need to use the default Unbounce subdomain.
3 Project Lead/Manager 15 Choose a subdomain.
  • Choose a name like "" or "" depending on if you are running surveys or promoting eBooks.
4 Project Lead/Manager 1 Send subdomain recommendation to customer and receive customer approval.
5 Project Lead/Manager 1 Tell strategist about the new subdomain choice.
6 Strategist 1 Adding your name in the Unbounce account Log into Unbounce
7 Strategist 1 Select the customer under which you would like to add the subdomain.
8 Strategist 0.5 Open the "Domains" tab from the side navigation bar.
9 Strategist 0.5 Click "Add a Domain" or "Add your first domain"
10 Strategist 0.5 Enter the domain name (either a root domain or a subdomain).
11 Strategist 0.5 Click "Create Domain" to confirm. The domain has been added in the Unbounce account.
12 Project Lead/Manager 0.5 Send client the instructions for the customer's domain DNS setup with Unbounce.

1) Sign in to your domain hosting service.

2) Navigate to your DNS management page.

3) Find the CNAME record settings.

4) Create a new CNAME record.

5) Enter a value for your subdomain in the host field. (For example, you'd enter "try" if you wanted to set up "".)

6) Type in the "CNAME" field.

7) Enter as the destination or the address.

8) Save the changes to your DNS records.

13 Project Lead/Manager 1 Once subdomain is connected, we will see that it is connected in our Unbounce account.