ActiveCampaign Platform Help

Step 1 — Gather context

1. What area of ActiveCampaign do you need help with?
   • A) Automations — visual workflow builder (triggers, branching, goals, split actions, wait steps)
   • B) Email Marketing — campaigns (broadcasts), A/B testing, conditional content, predictive sending
   • C) CRM / Deals / Pipelines — customizable pipelines and stages, deal tracking, tasks, win probability
   • D) Lead Scoring — AI-powered contact and deal scoring, multiple scoring models
   • E) SMS — automated SMS in workflows, SMS campaigns, two-way SMS
   • F) WhatsApp — WhatsApp messaging channel in automations
   • G) Landing Pages — 56 templates, drag-and-drop builder, form integration, custom domains
   • H) Forms — inline, floating bar, modal, floating box, conditional fields
   • I) Site Tracking — track website visits per contact, trigger automations based on site behavior
   • J) Transactional Email — Postmark-powered transactional email add-on
   • K) Segmentation — tag-based, list-based, engagement-based, behavioral, deal-based
   • L) Reporting — campaign analytics, automation reports, deal reports, attribution, custom reports
   • M) AI / Active Intelligence — predictive content, predictive sending, autonomous marketing workflows
   • N) Conversations — live chat and chatbot (legacy, being sunset)
   • O) API / Integrations — REST API, webhooks, 900+ integrations
   • P) Account / Billing — plans, pricing, contact-based billing
   • Q) Something else — describe it
2. What's your role?
   • A) Small business owner / solopreneur
   • B) Email / lifecycle marketer
   • C) Developer / engineer
   • D) Agency / freelancer
   • E) Sales / revenue operations
   • F) Other
3. What are you trying to accomplish? (describe your specific goal or question)

Step 2 — Route or answer directly

• General email marketing strategy / best practices ->

  /sales-email-marketing

• Cross-platform email deliverability (not ActiveCampaign-specific) ->

  /sales-deliverability

• Email open/click tracking strategy ->

  /sales-email-tracking

• Lead scoring strategy / models (not ActiveCampaign-specific) ->

  /sales-lead-score

• Connecting ActiveCampaign to other tools via middleware ->

  /sales-integration

• Klaviyo-specific questions ->

  /sales-klaviyo

• Customer.io-specific questions ->

  /sales-customerio

• Mailchimp-specific questions ->

  /sales-mailchimp

• Postmark-specific questions ->

  /sales-postmark

Step 3 — ActiveCampaign platform reference

Automations

• What they are: Visual workflows triggered by events — email opens/clicks, site visits, purchases, form submissions, deal changes, tag additions/removals, dates, custom events
• Builder: Drag-and-drop canvas with trigger, if/else branching, wait steps (fixed duration or until conditions), goals, split actions, and action nodes
• Triggers: Email events (open, click, reply, forward, bounce), site visits (visited URL, time on site), purchases, form submissions, deal changes (stage move, field update, won/lost), tag added/removed, date-based, custom events
• If/else branching: Conditional paths based on contact fields, tags, list membership, deal properties, lead score, site visits, email engagement, or custom conditions
• Wait steps: Wait a fixed duration, wait until a specific date, or wait until a condition is met (e.g., contact visits a URL or reaches a lead score threshold)
• Goals: Define a target action within an automation — contacts who achieve the goal can skip ahead in the automation, and goal completion rates are tracked for reporting
• Split actions: A/B split testing within automations — divide contacts into multiple paths (up to 5) and measure which path performs better
• Key strength: Most powerful automation engine in the mid-market — deeper conditional logic, more trigger types, and more granular control than most competitors at this price point

Email Marketing

• Campaigns: One-time broadcast sends to lists or segments — schedule or send immediately
• A/B testing: Test up to 5 variants of subject line, from name, or email content. Winner selected by open rate or click rate after a test period
• Conditional content: Show/hide content blocks within a single email based on contact fields, tags, or custom data — personalize without creating multiple emails
• Dynamic personalization: Merge tags for contact fields, deal fields, and custom fields — fallback values for missing data
• Send time optimization: Predictive sending (Pro+) analyzes each contact's engagement history and sends at the time they are most likely to engage — optimized per-contact
• Predictive sending: Available on Pro plan and above — uses machine learning to determine optimal send times per recipient

CRM / Deals / Pipelines

• Pipelines: Customizable sales pipelines with unlimited stages — drag-and-drop deal cards between stages
• Deals: Track deal value, expected close date, assigned owner, custom fields, and associated contacts/organizations
• Tasks: Create tasks tied to deals or contacts — due dates, assignments, reminders
• Win probability: Automatically calculated based on deal stage and historical conversion rates
• Sales automation: Trigger automations when deals change stage, are created, updated, won, or lost — automate follow-ups, task creation, notifications
• Add-ons: "Pipelines" add-on ($68/mo, B2C-oriented) and "Sales Engagement" (Pro+, B2B-focused with prospecting, sequences, and engagement tracking)
• Unlimited pipelines: All CRM add-ons include unlimited pipelines and stages

Lead Scoring

• AI-powered scoring: Automatically score contacts and deals based on engagement and behavior
• Multiple models: Create multiple scoring models per account — e.g., one for email engagement, one for purchase readiness, one per product line
• Score factors: Email engagement (opens, clicks, replies), site visits (pages viewed, frequency), form submissions, tag additions, custom field values, deal activity
• Deal scoring: Separate scoring for deals based on pipeline activity, task completion, and engagement
• Automation triggers: Use lead score thresholds to trigger automations — e.g., when a contact reaches score 50, notify sales or move to a new pipeline stage

SMS Marketing

• Automated SMS: Send SMS messages as steps within automations — triggered by any automation event
• SMS campaigns: Broadcast SMS to lists or segments, similar to email campaigns
• Two-way SMS: Receive and respond to SMS replies within ActiveCampaign
• SMS in workflows: Combine email and SMS in a single automation — e.g., send email, wait 24h, if not opened, send SMS

WhatsApp

• WhatsApp channel: Send WhatsApp messages as automation steps
• Templates: Use pre-approved WhatsApp message templates
• Rich media: Send images, documents, and interactive buttons via WhatsApp

Landing Pages

• Templates: 56 pre-built landing page templates for lead capture, webinars, product launches, and more
• Builder: Drag-and-drop editor with text, image, video, button, form, and custom HTML blocks
• Form integration: Embed ActiveCampaign forms directly into landing pages — submissions trigger automations and add to lists
• Custom domains: Publish landing pages on your own domain
• Available on: Plus plan and above

Forms

• Types: Inline (embedded), floating bar, modal (pop-up), floating box
• Conditional fields: Show/hide form fields based on previous answers or contact data
• Custom CSS: Full CSS customization for advanced styling
• Automation triggers: Form submissions trigger automations, add tags, add to lists, update contact fields
• Available on: All plans

Site Tracking

• Contact-level tracking: Track which pages each contact visits on your website — see full browsing history per contact
• Behavior triggers: Trigger automations based on site behavior — visited a specific URL, visited any page, time on site, number of visits
• Setup: Add ActiveCampaign's site tracking JavaScript snippet to your website — automatically associates visits with known contacts (identified via email link clicks)
• Use cases: Score contacts based on site activity, trigger sales notifications when a lead visits the pricing page, personalize emails based on pages viewed

Transactional Email

• Postmark-powered: ActiveCampaign acquired Postmark in 2022 — transactional email is powered by Postmark as a separate add-on
• Separate add-on: Not included in any ActiveCampaign plan — requires a separate Postmark subscription
• Use cases: Order confirmations, password resets, shipping notifications, account alerts — any email triggered by a user action that is not marketing
• Do not confuse: Marketing automation emails (sent via ActiveCampaign) are different from transactional emails (sent via Postmark add-on)

Segmentation

• Tag-based: Segment contacts by tags — tags can be added manually, via forms, automations, or API
• List-based: Contacts belong to one or more lists — segment by list membership
• Engagement-based: Segment by email engagement (opened/clicked in last X days), inactive contacts, highly engaged contacts
• Behavioral: Segment by site tracking data (visited URL, pages viewed), form submissions, event attendance
• Custom field-based: Segment by any custom field value — date fields, dropdowns, text fields, checkboxes
• Deal-based: Segment contacts by deal properties — pipeline, stage, value, status (won/lost/open)

Reporting

• Campaign analytics: Opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes, forwards, social shares, revenue attribution per campaign
• Automation reports: Contacts entered, completed, currently active, goal completion rates, per-step metrics
• Deal reports: Pipeline value, win/loss rates, average deal duration, revenue by pipeline/stage/owner
• Goal tracking: Define goals within automations and track completion rates over time
• Custom reports: Available on Pro+ — build custom reports with filters, date ranges, and multiple metrics
• Attribution reporting: Track which campaigns and automations drive conversions and revenue

AI / Active Intelligence

• AI campaign suggestions: AI analyzes your audience and suggests campaign content, subject lines, and send times
• Audience insights: AI-powered analysis of your contact base — engagement trends, growth patterns, segment recommendations
• Predictive content: Automatically select the best-performing content variant for each contact based on their profile and behavior
• Predictive sending: Machine learning determines the optimal send time per contact (Pro+)
• Autonomous marketing workflows: AI-assisted automation creation — describe your goal and AI suggests trigger, steps, and conditions

Conversations (Legacy)

• Live chat: Embeddable live chat widget for your website
• Chatbot: Rule-based chatbot for automated responses
• Status: Being sunset — consider alternatives for live chat needs

Data model

API quick reference

• Base URL:

  https://{account}.api-us1.com/api/3/

  (unique per account — replace

  {account}

  with your account name)
• Authentication:
  • API key:

    Api-Token

    HTTP header with your API key — used for all endpoints
  • OAuth 2.0: Available for third-party integrations — scoped access tokens
• Format: RESTful JSON — resources returned as objects with nested relationships
• Rate limits: 5 requests per second per account — significantly lower than most competitors. Custom limits available on request for high-volume accounts
• Webhooks: 25+ event types with at-least-once delivery (may fire more than once — implement idempotency)
  • Contact events: subscribe, unsubscribe, update
  • Email events: open, click, bounce, reply, sent, forward, share
  • Deal events: deal_add, deal_update, deal_stage_add, deal_pipeline_add, deal_task_add, deal_task_complete, deal_note_add
  • Tag events: contact_tag_added, contact_tag_removed
  • SMS events: sms_sent, sms_reply, sms_unsub
  • List events: list_add
  • Note events: subscriber_note
• Key endpoints:

  • POST /api/3/contacts

    — create a contact

  • PUT /api/3/contacts/{id}

    — update a contact

  • POST /api/3/contactSync

    — create or update (upsert) a contact by email

  • GET /api/3/contacts

    — list contacts (supports search and filtering)

  • POST /api/3/contactTags

    — add a tag to a contact

  • GET /api/3/deals

    — list deals

  • POST /api/3/deals

    — create a deal

  • PUT /api/3/deals/{id}

    — update a deal

  • GET /api/3/dealPipelines

    — list pipelines

  • GET /api/3/dealStages

    — list pipeline stages

  • POST /api/3/dealTasks

    — create a deal task

  • GET /api/3/automations

    — list automations

  • POST /api/3/contactAutomations

    — add a contact to an automation

  • GET /api/3/campaigns

    — list campaigns

  • POST /api/3/webhooks

    — create a webhook

  • GET /api/3/webhooks

    — list webhooks

  • GET /api/3/scores

    — list lead scoring models

  • POST /api/3/fieldValues

    — set a custom field value for a contact
• Docs: developers.activecampaign.com

Integrations

Pricing (USD, as of March 2026 — verify current pricing at activecampaign.com)

• Send limits are multipliers of your contact count, NOT unlimited — a 5K-contact Plus plan gets 50K emails/month
• All contacts count toward billing (Nov 2025 change) — unsubscribed, bounced, and unconfirmed contacts all count for new users. Clean lists aggressively
• CRM is a paid add-on — "Pipelines" ($68/mo, B2C-oriented) or "Sales Engagement" (Pro+, B2B-focused)
• Transactional email is a separate Postmark add-on — not included in any plan
• Add-ons: Enhanced CRM Pipelines ($68/mo), Transactional Email (Postmark), SMS credits purchased separately

Step 4 — Actionable guidance

1. Building an automation workflow with lead scoring:
   1. Navigate to Automations > Create an Automation > Start from Scratch (or choose a template)
   2. Set the trigger — e.g., "Submits a Form" for a lead capture form, or "Tag is Added" for a specific lead source tag
   3. Add an action to adjust the contact's lead score: Contacts > Adjust Score > select your scoring model and add points (e.g., +10 for form submission)
   4. Add a wait step: "Wait for conditions" > wait until the contact's lead score reaches your threshold (e.g., score >= 50)
   5. Add an if/else condition: check the contact's score — if score >= 50, route to the "sales-ready" path; otherwise, continue nurturing
   6. On the sales-ready path: create a deal in your pipeline (Actions > CRM > Add a Deal), assign it to a sales rep, send a notification email to the rep
   7. On the nurture path: send a series of educational emails with wait steps between them, adding lead score points for each email opened (+5) or link clicked (+10)
   8. Add a goal: "Deal is Won" — contacts who purchase skip ahead to the end of the automation
   9. Monitor: check automation reports for contacts entered, goal completion rate, and average time to goal
2. Setting up a CRM pipeline with sales automation:
   1. Navigate to Deals > Pipelines > Add Pipeline
   2. Define your stages — e.g., "New Lead", "Qualified", "Proposal Sent", "Negotiation", "Won", "Lost"
   3. Set stage widths (win probability) — each stage represents a percentage likelihood of closing (e.g., New Lead = 10%, Qualified = 30%, Proposal = 60%)
   4. Create custom deal fields for your business: deal source, product interest, contract length, etc.
   5. Build automations triggered by deal events:
      • "Deal Stage Changes to Qualified" > send a personalized email to the contact, create a task for the sales rep to schedule a call
      • "Deal Stage Changes to Proposal Sent" > wait 3 days > if deal is still in "Proposal Sent" stage, send a follow-up email and notify the rep
      • "Deal is Won" > add a "Customer" tag, move to onboarding automation, send a welcome email
      • "Deal is Lost" > add a "Lost Deal" tag, wait 30 days, send a re-engagement email
   6. Set up deal task templates: standard tasks for each stage (e.g., "Schedule discovery call" when entering Qualified stage)
   7. Monitor: use deal reports to track pipeline value, win/loss rates, and average deal duration per stage
3. Creating a conditional content email campaign:
   1. Navigate to Campaigns > Create a Campaign > Standard
   2. Select your target list or segment
   3. In the email designer, add a content block and click "Make Conditional"
   4. Define the condition: e.g., "Contact tag contains VIP" > show a VIP-exclusive offer; otherwise, show a standard offer
   5. Add multiple conditional blocks in the same email — e.g., different product recommendations based on custom fields (industry, product interest, location)
   6. Use dynamic personalization tags:

      %FIRSTNAME%

      ,

      %DEAL_VALUE%

      , or any custom field with fallback values for missing data
   7. Set up A/B testing: test up to 5 subject line variants — ActiveCampaign sends each variant to a percentage of your list, then sends the winner to the rest
   8. Enable predictive sending (Pro+): let ActiveCampaign determine the optimal send time for each individual contact
   9. Review and send: preview conditional content for different contacts, verify personalization renders correctly, and schedule or send

Gotchas

Best-effort from research — review these, especially items about plan-gated features and integration gotchas that may be outdated.

1. CRM is a PAID ADD-ON — "Pipelines" ($68/mo) or "Sales Engagement" (Pro+). Don't assume CRM features are included in base plans. The Starter and Plus plans do not include CRM/deals/pipelines by default. You must purchase the "Pipelines" add-on ($68/mo, B2C-oriented) or upgrade to Pro with the "Sales Engagement" bundle (B2B-focused). If your user mentions deals or pipelines, verify they have the CRM add-on before advising on CRM features.
2. Send limits are multipliers (10x/12x/15x contact count), NOT unlimited. A 5K-contact Plus plan gets 50K emails/month. Exceeding the limit triggers overage charges. Unlike competitors that offer unlimited sends, ActiveCampaign caps email volume relative to your contact count. Calculate your monthly send volume before choosing a plan.
3. All contacts count toward billing (Nov 2025 change) — unsubscribed, bounced, and unconfirmed contacts all count for new users. This is a significant change from the previous model. Clean your lists aggressively by archiving or deleting contacts who have unsubscribed, bounced repeatedly, or never confirmed. Failing to clean lists means you pay for contacts you cannot email.
4. Transactional email is a SEPARATE Postmark add-on — not included in any plan. Do not confuse marketing emails (sent via ActiveCampaign automations/campaigns) with transactional emails (order confirmations, password resets, etc.). Transactional email requires a separate Postmark subscription. If a user needs transactional email, direct them to the Postmark add-on or

   /sales-postmark

   .
5. API rate limit is only 5 req/sec — significantly lower than competitors (Klaviyo, Mailgun, etc.). Batch operations carefully and implement retry logic with exponential backoff for HTTP 429 responses. For bulk imports or syncs, use ActiveCampaign's bulk import tools in the UI rather than hitting the API one contact at a time. Custom rate limits are available on request for Enterprise accounts.

Step 5 — Related skills

• /sales-email-marketing

  — Opt-in email marketing strategy across tools

• /sales-deliverability

  — Cross-platform email deliverability (SPF/DKIM/DMARC, warmup, inbox placement)

• /sales-email-tracking

  — Email engagement tracking strategy

• /sales-lead-score

  — Lead scoring models and strategy

• /sales-integration

  — Connect ActiveCampaign to CRM, e-commerce, or other tools

• /sales-cadence

  — Multi-touch sales cadence design and optimization

• /sales-klaviyo

  — Klaviyo platform help (primary ActiveCampaign competitor for e-commerce)

• /sales-customerio

  — Customer.io platform help (primary competitor for behavior-driven automation)

• /sales-mailchimp

  — Mailchimp platform help (primary competitor for email marketing)

• /sales-postmark

  — Postmark platform help (powers ActiveCampaign's transactional email)

• /sales-do

  — Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install:

  npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skills sales-do

Examples

Example 1: Automation workflow with lead scoring

1. Sets up a lead scoring model with point values: form submission (+10), email open (+5), link click (+10), pricing page visit (+20), webinar attendance (+15)
2. Creates an automation triggered by form submission — adds the contact to a nurture sequence and starts accumulating score
3. Sends a 4-email nurture series with wait steps (3 days between emails), each email building on the last: intro/welcome, educational content, case study, product demo invite
4. After each email interaction (open, click), the automation adjusts the lead score via score-adjustment actions
5. Adds a "Wait for conditions" step: wait until lead score >= 50 — contacts who engage heavily reach this threshold faster and skip remaining nurture emails
6. On the sales-ready path: creates a deal in the sales pipeline, assigns it to a rep based on round-robin or territory rules, sends the rep a notification with the contact's score breakdown and engagement history
7. Sets a goal of "Deal is Won" so contacts who convert early exit the automation cleanly Result: User has a complete lead nurturing and scoring automation that qualifies leads based on engagement, automatically creates deals for sales-ready contacts, and tracks the entire funnel from first touch to closed deal

Example 2: CRM pipeline setup with deal automation

1. Confirms the user has the CRM add-on (Pipelines or Sales Engagement) — if not, explains the add-on options and pricing ($68/mo for Pipelines, Pro+ for Sales Engagement)
2. Creates a pipeline with stages mapped to their B2B SaaS sales process: "Inbound Lead" (10%), "Discovery Call Scheduled" (20%), "Discovery Completed" (35%), "Proposal/Demo" (55%), "Negotiation" (75%), "Closed Won" (100%), "Closed Lost" (0%)
3. Sets up custom deal fields: Annual Contract Value, Product Tier (Starter/Pro/Enterprise), Decision Maker Name, Expected Start Date, Competitor Mentioned
4. Builds stage-change automations: when a deal moves to "Discovery Call Scheduled", create a task for the rep to send a pre-call questionnaire and add a calendar reminder; when a deal enters "Proposal/Demo", send the contact a personalized case study email based on their industry (using conditional content)
5. Creates a stale-deal automation: if a deal has been in any stage for more than 14 days without activity, notify the deal owner and send the contact a re-engagement email
6. Configures a "Closed Won" automation: tag the contact as "Customer", remove from marketing nurture automations, trigger an onboarding email sequence, notify the customer success team
7. Sets up a "Closed Lost" automation: tag with "Lost Deal" and the loss reason, wait 60 days, then enter a re-engagement nurture sequence Result: User has a fully automated B2B SaaS sales pipeline with stage-based follow-ups, stale-deal alerts, and post-close workflows for both won and lost deals

Example 3: Conditional content email campaign

1. Creates a campaign targeting the full subscriber list (or a broad segment)
2. In the email designer, adds a conditional content block: condition = "Contact tag contains VIP" — shows a 30% exclusive VIP discount with personalized copy ("As one of our most valued customers...")
3. Adds the else branch: standard 15% promotion with general copy for non-VIP contacts
4. Adds a second conditional block for product recommendations: condition = custom field "Product Interest" equals "Software" shows software products; "Hardware" shows hardware products; default shows best-sellers
5. Inserts dynamic personalization:

   %FIRSTNAME%

   in the greeting (with fallback "there"),

   %CITY%

   in a location-relevant line (with fallback that omits the line)
6. Sets up A/B testing with 3 subject line variants: "Your exclusive deal inside", "Don't miss this, %FIRSTNAME%", and a curiosity-driven subject — test with 30% of the list, send winner to 70%
7. Enables predictive sending (Pro+) so each contact receives the email at their optimal engagement time Result: User sends one campaign that dynamically personalizes content, offers, and product recommendations per contact — increasing relevance without creating multiple separate campaigns

Troubleshooting

Automation contacts stuck in a wait step and not progressing

Lead scores not updating after contact engagement

Site tracking not recording visits for known contacts

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