How to start an ActiveCampaign automation from a lead's tag

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An ActiveCampaign automation can start when a contact gets a tag. Qualiform adds each website lead who says yes to emails to ActiveCampaign, with a tag for their priority. You start your automation on that tag. These steps are for a business that takes inquiries through a Qualiform form and uses ActiveCampaign.

What do you need before you start?#

You need three things.

An ActiveCampaign plan that runs the Tag is added trigger. ActiveCampaign's help lists this trigger on Starter, Plus, Pro, and Enterprise. On Starter, an automation can have up to five actions. Send an email is one action, so a first email fits. ActiveCampaign's pricing page shows those four paid plans and a 14-day free trial.

An Admin in Qualiform. Only an Admin can connect a tool. If you are not an Admin, ask one to do the connecting step below.

A form with an Email question. Without an email address, nobody can be added to ActiveCampaign.

How do you add OK to email them to the form?#

Only leads who say yes to OK to email them are added to ActiveCampaign. A form without this question sends nobody.

1. Open your form and go to its Questions tab.
2. Press Add a question to open the library.
3. Pick OK to email them. It sits beside Email and Phone. The line under it reads: "Asks if you may email them. Only a yes goes to your email tool."
4. Press Save at the top of the page to keep your changes.

The AI asks it once, near the end, after the email address: "Can we email you now and then?" It takes yes or no and moves on. It never asks twice, and it never pushes after a no.

The question is never scored, so a no does not lower a lead's score. On the lead page and in the CSV, the answer shows as OK to email: Yes or OK to email: No. It is blank when the question was not asked.

How do you connect ActiveCampaign on the Integrations page?#

You copy two things from ActiveCampaign and paste them into Qualiform.

First, find them in ActiveCampaign. You do not make a key in ActiveCampaign. Each user in the account already has their own API URL and key. ActiveCampaign's help on getting started with the API gives these clicks:

1. Click Settings (the gear icon).
2. In the Account Settings menu, click Developer.
3. Copy the API URL and the key.

Use the URL and key of a user who will stay on the account. If that user is deleted in ActiveCampaign, the connection breaks.

Then paste them in Qualiform.

1. In Qualiform, open Integrations and find ActiveCampaign under Email marketing.
2. Press ActiveCampaign.
3. Paste the URL into Account URL. The line under the box says: "It starts with https:// and ends in .api-us1.com or similar." Copy it exactly as the Developer screen shows it.
4. Paste the key into API key. It is on the same screen, under the URL.

If ActiveCampaign refuses the key, Qualiform says so before anything is saved: "ActiveCampaign did not accept that key. Copy it again and paste the whole thing."

Pick the List. After you connect, a menu labeled List asks which ActiveCampaign list leads join. They join as Active, because they said yes.

What does each priority get under By priority?#

Each lead gets the tag for their priority. You start your automation on that tag.

A lead's priority comes from the rule it lands in on the form's Routing tab: Hot, Warm, Cool, Cold, or Not a fit. Each form can set its own score ranges for those rules. The connection uses the priority, so one connection works for every form. The guide to lead routing rules helps you set the ranges.

Not a fit has a row too, and it starts switched off. A row that is switched off reads Not sent. Leads with that priority are not added.

Each lead also gets a second tag with the form's name, such as Qualiform form: Website inquiry. Use it to start an automation on one form's leads only.

Each lead added carries their email, first and last name, phone (when the form asks), and the form's name.

Choose forms limits the connection to some of your forms. Beside each form without the question, it shows Does not ask OK to email them.

How do you build the automation in ActiveCampaign?#

Build one automation for each tag you want to email. These are the clicks as ActiveCampaign's help writes them, from its pages on the Tag is added trigger and on building from scratch.

1. Click Automations on the left menu.
2. Click the Create an automation button.
3. Select Start from Scratch.
4. Click the Add a start trigger action.
5. Select the Tag is added trigger.
6. In the Action option window, type the tag, for example Qualiform Hot. Type it exactly as it appears under By priority.
7. Choose whether it runs once or multiple times. Pick once if each contact should get this email only one time.
8. Click the node (+) under the start trigger.
9. Click the Sending tab, then select Send an email.
10. Choose Create a new email or Start from an existing email.
11. On the campaign templates page, open the drop-down under Or select a template and choose an email designer.
12. Hover over a template, then click Select.
13. In the window that opens, fill in the message name, subject line, preheader text, and sender details.

ActiveCampaign's help stops at step 13. It does not list the clicks to finish the email. It does say the automation must be set to Active before contacts can enter.

How do you test it with one real lead?#

Send one real lead through your own live form. It is the only test that reaches ActiveCampaign.

Two tools in Qualiform will not do it:

• Check connection proves the key and reads your lists again. It adds nobody, because a test contact could set off your real automation. Its answer is "Connected to ActiveCampaign. Nothing was added."
• Preview sends nothing to any tool. It saves no lead, so no connection fires.

ActiveCampaign's help also does not say outright that a tag added through its API starts an automation. One real lead shows you what happens in your account.

1. Check that the form is active and the automation is Active.
2. Open your form on your own website, or from its direct link.
3. Use an email address you can read. Pick one that has never unsubscribed from your ActiveCampaign account.
4. Answer the questions, and say yes to "Can we email you now and then?"
5. In Qualiform, read Recent sends. Look for a line such as "Added to ActiveCampaign, tagged Qualiform Hot."
6. In ActiveCampaign, find the contact. Check it is on the list you picked, with the priority tag and the form tag.
7. Check your inbox for the email.

If the contact has the tag but no email came, open the automation. Check it is Active, and check its trigger tag matches the contact's tag exactly.

What does Recent sends tell you?#

Recent sends shows one line for each lead, in the app's own words.

A Not sent line is not an error. It means Qualiform did what your settings asked. To change the result, change the setting the line names.

Which ActiveCampaign rules still apply?#

Qualiform adds the contact. After that, ActiveCampaign's own rules apply.

1. Some contacts skip Send email. A contact who is Unsubscribed, Bounced, or Unconfirmed on the list skips the Send email action.
2. Triggers are not retroactive. A contact tagged before the automation was Active does not go through it.
3. An edited automation must be turned back on. Set it back to Active after you edit it, so contacts can enter.
4. The connection belongs to one user. The URL and key are that user's own. If you press Reset API Key on the Developer screen, paste the new key on Qualiform's Integrations page.

One more rule is Qualiform's own. ActiveCampaign's developer docs warn that changing a contact's list status from unsubscribed to active signs them up again. Qualiform reads each contact's status first. It never puts someone who unsubscribed back on your list.

If you also score contacts inside ActiveCampaign, the post on why to score at the form too explains how the two scores differ.

To check this is working, read Recent sends after your next five real leads. Every line should say Added, or give a Not sent reason you expected.