Using .activated class for custom elements

In my app I have a bunch of ion-cards. All cards are wrapped in a-tags with click-events that push new pages to the navigation stack. Everything is working perfectly, the only problem is that I am not getting the touch feedback color that I would normally get with ion-items, etc. I assume it is because no .activated class is added when a card is clicked.

Is there an easy way to get the touch feedback attached to new elements? Or should I add the class on click myself?