An event tracking domain is a way to make Instant’s tracking more reliable by sending events through your own domain instead of a shared third-party one.

This feature was called first-party tracking before.

This helps ensure that important shopper activity, like product views, sign-ups and checkout events, are less likely to be blocked by ad blockers or browser privacy tools.

How tracking normally works (without an event tracking domain)

When a shopper interacts with your site:

  1. The Instant Pixel detects the event
  2. The event is sent to a shared Instant domain
  3. Instant processes the event and triggers flows or reporting

Some browsers and ad blockers treat shared tracking domains as third-party traffic, which can result in events being blocked or dropped.

How an event tracking domain works

With an event tracking domain set up:

  1. The Instant Pixel detects the event
  2. The event is sent to a subdomain on your site (e.g. inst-tk.yourstore.com)
  3. That subdomain securely forwards the event to Instant

From the browser’s perspective, tracking stays within your site, so it is first-party by default.

How to set up an event tracking domain

  1. In your Instant AI dashboard, go to Configuration > Domain.
  2. Under Event tracking domain, click Set up domain.
  3. Click ⋯ > View DNS records.
  4. At your DNS provider, add the record that Instant shows:
    • Type: CNAME
    • Name: inst-tk
    • Value: track.instant-events.com
    • If your DNS is on Cloudflare, set the record to DNS only (grey cloud).
  5. Go back to Instant. Click ⋯ > Verify integration. Instant also keeps checking automatically.

Why this matters

An event tracking domain helps ensure fewer blocked events, higher shopper identification, higher overall event volume, and more reliable long-term tracking. This results in more accurate data and more consistent behaviour across browsers.

The same domain also carries the click and open tracking for your Instant AI emails. Without it, the links in your emails go through a tracking domain that many senders share, so they share its reputation with spam filters. With it, your links use your own domain.

Is an event tracking domain required?

An event tracking domain is optional, but strongly recommended for all merchants. Instant will continue to work without it, however some events may never reach Instant and identification rates may be lower.

You’ll benefit most if:

  • You rely on sign-up and behavioural flows
  • Your audience uses ad blockers or privacy-focused browsers
  • You want future-proof tracking as privacy rules evolve

In practice, this applies to most merchants.

Is this safe and best practice?

Yes. This is considered modern best practice for web tracking. Platforms like Meta, Google and Shopify all send tracking through the store’s own domain because third-party tracking is becoming increasingly unreliable. An event tracking domain does not collect additional data or bypass privacy rules.

What can you expect after you set it up?

Once it is set up, you may see more shoppers entering your flows and higher total event counts. There’s no ongoing maintenance or changes after initial set up.