# Connect ActiveCampaign

You'll save visitors' answers to ActiveCampaign and use their existing tags and fields to show them more relevant content on your website.

Available on the Grow, Scale, and Pro plans.

Connect ActiveCampaign to save what visitors tell you to their contact records. You can use those answers in your follow-up, and use the tags and fields you already have to personalize your website for identified contacts.

## Connect ActiveCampaign

You'll need permission to edit your RightMessage project and retrieve ActiveCampaign's API credentials. A project connects to one email platform or CRM at a time. Before replacing another provider, review where you use it. Its field and tag mappings won't become ActiveCampaign mappings automatically.

1. In ActiveCampaign, find the account's API access settings and copy its API URL and API key. Keep the key private.
2. In RightMessage, open your project's settings and select **Integration**.
3. Under **Email platforms & CRMs**, select **ActiveCampaign**.
4. Enter the account's base API URL in **API URL** and the key in **API Key**. Don't append `/api/3`; RightMessage adds that path.
5. Click **Connect**.

![ActiveCampaign connection form in RightMessage with the API URL and API Key fields and Connect button highlighted](https://rightmessage.com/help/screens/integrations-activecampaign-connect.light.webp)

You can check connection health in **Overview** and update credentials with **Save Changes**. The health check reads the tag catalog. You'll test contact lookup and saved answers below, after choosing your mappings.

[Install the RightMessage snippet](https://rightmessage.com/help/everything-you-need-to-know-about-your-rightmessage-tracking-script) on the pages you'll test, including any thank-you page. Connecting ActiveCampaign doesn't identify visitors by itself.

## Recognize subscribers from email links

An identifying link lets RightMessage look up the contact who clicked it and use their ActiveCampaign data on your website.

1. In an ActiveCampaign email, edit a link to a page with the RightMessage snippet.
2. Append `?rm_ac=%SUBSCRIBERID%`. If the URL already has a query string, append `&rm_ac=%SUBSCRIBERID%` instead. Put it before any `#` fragment.
3. Send the message to a test contact and inspect the delivered link. The merge tag should become that contact's numeric ActiveCampaign ID.

For example, a link to [WorkForge](https://workforge.rightmessage.com) could be:

```text
https://workforge.rightmessage.com/solutions.html?rm_ac=%SUBSCRIBERID%
```

Use your own page URL. RightMessage reads `rm_ac` as a contact ID, not an email address. ActiveCampaign documents `%SUBSCRIBERID%` as its [Contact ID personalization tag](https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/220709307-Personalization-Tags-overview). Don't substitute a campaign ID or put an email address in `rm_ac`.

After identification, RightMessage remembers the browser. Another device needs its own identifying link click or form submission.

### Recognize people after an external form

Your external form needs to create or update the ActiveCampaign contact and make their identity available to RightMessage. Check both parts.

RightMessage can look up a submitted email when a supported form-capture path is enabled. A Popup widget's **After a form is submitted** trigger enables the form observer. Optional **Email Watcher** is a separate path. Installing the snippet alone doesn't enable either one. See [Identify visitors automatically](https://rightmessage.com/help/identifying-visitors-automatically), then check that the contact exists in ActiveCampaign when the lookup runs.

If your form redirects visitors after submission:

1. Choose a destination page with the RightMessage snippet.
2. Pass the actual ActiveCampaign contact ID as `rm_ac`, if your form tool can supply it. For an ActiveCampaign confirmation redirect that supports personalization tags, use `rm_ac=%SUBSCRIBERID%` and check that the final URL contains an ID.
3. If your tool supplies only the submitted email, use the generic `email` parameter with a URL-encoded email instead. This lookup works as a fallback when RightMessage has no remembered contact ID, so test in a fresh browser session.
4. Submit the exact form you'll use and check its redirect. A literal merge tag, missing parameter, or lookup before contact creation finishes won't identify the person.

A native ActiveCampaign form is another option if your page builder can't pass the identity through. You don't need to replace a working external form. **Email Watcher** doesn't create contacts or detect every form by default.

## Choose what to sync

Use a custom field or tags for choice answers and segment groups. List membership isn't a choice-answer sync mode. Typed answers can use supported native or custom fields.

RightMessage reads custom fields, **First name**, **Last name**, **Phone number**, contact tags, and list membership for identified contacts. List membership doesn't tell you whether someone is currently subscribed or has given email consent. The integration includes list relationships without filtering their subscription status.

Choose an existing custom field and values it accepts:

- Dropdown and radio fields offer their existing options.
- Checkbox fields offer **Yes** and **No**.
- Multi-select listbox fields are treated as text, not as multi-select destinations.
- RightMessage skips deleted or unknown field IDs. Replace those mappings rather than typing a field name in their place.

Check answers of `0` separately. The current field conversion can omit numeric or text zero from the contact data RightMessage reads. Check both the value stored in ActiveCampaign and what RightMessage receives.

The native destinations are `firstName`, `lastName`, and `phone`. Email identifies the contact; it isn't another native answer destination. Tags are contact tags, not deal tags. Matching uses the exact, case-sensitive name. RightMessage can add and remove tags, and creates a tag if an applied name doesn't exist.

Field, tag, list, and form catalogs load in pages of 100. That's a page size, not a total limit. This connection doesn't provide event history, purchases, or outgoing event actions.

### Choose what a signup should do

For an Email question, **Contact action** offers **Create/Update contact**, **Submit form**, **Add to list**, and **Add to tag**. Choose the destination your automation or opt-in process needs, and configure identification and consent too.

Creating a contact doesn't submit a form or subscribe them to a list. If your automation starts with a hosted-form submission, choose that form action. You don't need a hosted form for every signup.

Follow [Map answers to contact fields and tags](https://rightmessage.com/help/synchronizing-contact-data-with-your-email-platform-or-crm) to set up your mappings. Publish the question, form, flow, or targeting changes you want live.

## Check the connection

1. Give an existing test contact a distinctive field value or tag in ActiveCampaign.
2. Open their delivered identifying link in a fresh browser session. Use RightMessage's on-site debugger to check the contact and their data.
3. On the live site, outside debugger mode, submit a mapped answer. Check that the same ActiveCampaign record received it.
4. In a separate fresh session, submit a new test signup through your actual form. Check the contact, the list, tag, or form destination you chose, and identification on the landing page.

Debugger mode blocks external writes, so use a live submission to test saved answers. When the intended contact's data reaches your website and their answer reaches the same record, the connection is working. [Verify an integration change](https://rightmessage.com/help/verify-an-integration-change) helps you find which part needs attention if a check fails.