ActiveCampaign: show proof when a tag is added

Lots of funnel builders already tag contacts in ActiveCampaign when something happens: "Bought VIP Ticket", "Registered - Webinar Oct", "Joined Challenge". You can turn each of those tags into social proof on your pages. When the tag is added, an ActiveCampaign automation sends the contact to your RAVE™ campaign, and your cards show "Sarah K. from Austin just purchased VIP Ticket".

RAVE™ doesn't connect to your ActiveCampaign account, and it doesn't need to. The automation sends just the one contact who was tagged.

When to use this recipe

Use it when:

• Your checkout, webinar tool or form already tags contacts in ActiveCampaign, and
• You want those buyers or registrants to appear on your sales page, registration page or thank-you page.

If you only want new list subscribers, see Send ActiveCampaign subscribers to RAVE™. If your checkout can send webhooks itself (ClickFunnels, for example), connecting it directly is faster: How webhooks work.

What you need

• A RAVE™ campaign that shows on your page, with the pixel installed on your site.
• The campaign's webhook URL. In RAVE™, open the campaign and click its Sources tab (or click Sources & integrations in the sidebar and pick the campaign). Copy the URL under Webhook URL.
• The exact tag you want to use, for example Bought VIP Ticket.

Build your URL

Add labels to the end of your webhook URL so RAVE™ knows what the tag means:

https://rave.cxformula.com/api/ingest/YOUR_CAMPAIGN_KEY?source=activecampaign&event=purchase&product=VIP%20Ticket

Some ready-made examples (tag names are examples; use your own):

Step by step

1. 1

   Start a new automation

   In ActiveCampaign, click Automations in the left menu and create a new automation. Choose Start from scratch.

2. 2

   Add the trigger

   Click Add a start trigger and choose Tag is added.

3. 3

   Pick your tag

   Type or select the tag, for example Bought VIP Ticket. Under how often it runs, choose Runs once for a one-time purchase, or Runs multiple times if people can earn the same tag again. Click Add Start.

4. 4

   Add a Webhook action

   Click the + under the trigger. In the Add an action window, open Conditions and Workflow (shown as Workflow in some accounts) and click Webhook.

5. 5

   Paste your RAVE™ URL

   Paste the labeled URL from above, for example https://rave.cxformula.com/api/ingest/YOUR_CAMPAIGN_KEY?source=activecampaign&event=purchase&product=VIP%20Ticket, and save the action.

6. 6

   Turn it on

   Switch the automation from Inactive to Active.

That's it. From now on, every contact who gets the tag shows up in your RAVE™ cards within about a minute.

What RAVE™ shows from the contact

ActiveCampaign's Webhook sends the contact's details, and RAVE™ picks out what it needs:

If a contact has no first name, RAVE™ still records the event using the email, and cards show "Someone". If a contact has neither a first name nor an email, RAVE™ skips it.

One URL per product, or one for everything

One automation per tag (recommended). Each tag gets its own automation and its own URL with its own product=. It's the easiest to read later and the hardest to get wrong.

One automation, several tags. You can add more than one Tag is added trigger to the same automation, but then every contact goes to the same URL and gets the same product name. To keep products separate, add an If/Else condition that checks which tag the contact has and put a separate Webhook action, each with its own URL, on each branch.

Test it

1. 1

   Use a test contact

   Create a contact with your own email (or a plus address like you+vip@example.com), a first name, last name and city.

2. 2

   Add the tag

   Open the contact in ActiveCampaign and add the tag, for example Bought VIP Ticket. Make sure the automation is Active first.

3. 3

   Check the automation

   In ActiveCampaign, confirm the contact entered the automation and passed the Webhook step.

4. 4

   Check RAVE™

   Open the campaign's Analytics. Events received and Events by type go up by one. The site's page also shows Events, last 7 days.

5. 5

   See the alert

   Open your page. If the campaign is live, the test person appears in your cards within about a minute.

RAVE™ doesn't have a per-event log yet, so the Analytics counters are the place to confirm an event arrived. To check how the card looks without touching ActiveCampaign, use Send test event on the campaign page.

Troubleshooting

• Nothing shows up. Check that the automation is Active and that the contact actually entered it. With Runs once, a contact who already went through won't run again. ActiveCampaign also only starts a "Tag is added" automation when the tag is newly added, so to retest with the same contact, remove the tag and add it again.
• Still nothing. Make sure you pasted the whole URL, including the long campaign key, and that the campaign isn't paused. A paused campaign skips webhooks.
• The wrong product name shows. Check the product= label in that automation's URL. Use %20 for spaces, not a plain space or +. Each automation has its own URL, so check the one for that tag.
• Everything says "just joined". Add event=purchase to the URL.
• The second product a person buys doesn't show. RAVE™ counts the same email doing the same thing once within the campaign's Duplicate window (minutes) (24 hours by default, on the Privacy tab). Give each product its own step=, such as step=vip and step=ga, so they count separately.
• Staff or test contacts show on your page. Add an If/Else condition before the Webhook action that skips contacts with a tag like Staff or an email at your own domain. To remove someone who already went through, delete their entries by email with the RAVE™ API (see Privacy and data deletion).
• The same person shows twice. Usually two automations fire for the same tag, or the tag was removed and added again. Check that only one automation sends that tag to RAVE™.
• No city shows. ActiveCampaign only sends a city when the contact has one. Cards then show just the name.

Privacy

RAVE™ keeps only what the cards need: first name, the first letter of the last name, city and state, and the product. The email is stored only as a one-way code to spot duplicates and is never shown to visitors. Your campaign's Privacy tab can show first names only, or no names at all. More: Privacy and data deletion.

Common questions

Can RAVE™ read my ActiveCampaign tags directly?

Not directly yet. Use a tag-triggered webhook like the one above. The upside: RAVE™ never needs access to your ActiveCampaign account or your contact list. Only the contact who just got the tag is sent.

Is the webhook URL secret?

Treat it like a password. Anyone with the URL can send events to that campaign. If it leaks, contact RAVE™ support.

More detail on labels and event types: How webhooks work. Using HighLevel (GoHighLevel) too? See HighLevel: show proof when a tag is added.