Try ActiveCampaign: Interactive Product Demo
Walk through an interactive demo of ActiveCampaign, a marketing automation and email platform built around a visual automation builder. See how contacts, campaigns, and automations fit together without writing any code.
What is ActiveCampaign?
ActiveCampaign is a marketing automation platform built around email, with a visual automation builder at its center. You start with a list of contacts, then design flows that react to what those contacts do: opening an email, visiting a page, filling out a form, or hitting a tag you've set. The result is messaging that follows behavior rather than a fixed schedule.
The automation builder is where most of the work happens. You lay out a flow as a series of connected steps, dragging in actions like sending an email, waiting a set number of days, branching on a condition, or updating a contact field. Because you can see the whole path on one canvas, it's easier to reason about what a contact actually experiences. Alongside automations, ActiveCampaign includes a campaign builder for one-off broadcasts, segmentation for slicing your contact list, and a lightweight CRM with deal pipelines for teams that want sales and marketing in the same tool.
ActiveCampaign sits in a middle ground. It's more capable than a basic newsletter tool, with conditional logic and behavior tracking, but lighter and less expensive than full enterprise marketing suites. It connects to a wide range of other apps through native integrations and Zapier. For teams capturing leads, embedding a Supademo product walkthrough on a landing page and routing form submissions into an ActiveCampaign automation lets the follow-up start the moment someone finishes the demo.
How to get started with ActiveCampaign
- 1
Create your account and import contacts
Sign up at activecampaign.com and start a trial. The first real task is getting contacts in, either by importing a CSV or connecting an existing tool. ActiveCampaign prices by contact count, so it's worth importing a clean list rather than everything you've ever collected.
- 2
Set up a form or signup source
Create a form in ActiveCampaign and place it on your site, or connect a landing page or ecommerce store as a contact source. This is the entry point for your automations. You can also embed the form near an interactive Supademo so visitors who try the demo can opt in right there.
- 3
Build your first automation
Open the automation builder and pick a trigger, like a contact submitting a form or matching a segment. From there you add steps on the canvas: send an email, wait, branch on a condition, update a tag. Seeing the full flow laid out makes it clear what a contact will actually receive.
- 4
Design and send a campaign
For one-off sends, use the campaign builder to design an email with the drag-and-drop editor and pick which segment receives it. This is separate from automations and suited to announcements or newsletters. Send a test to yourself first to check how it renders before it goes out.
- 5
Track performance and refine
Once automations and campaigns are running, the reporting shows open rates, click rates, and how contacts move through each flow. Use the drop-off points to find where a sequence loses people, then adjust the timing or the messaging. Automations can be edited while live, so changes take effect on the next contact through.
Who is ActiveCampaign most useful for?
ActiveCampaign works for a lot of businesses, but it lands best with teams that want behavior-driven email without enterprise overhead.
Small and mid-sized businesses are the core audience. If you've outgrown a simple newsletter tool and need automations that react to what contacts do, ActiveCampaign covers that without the cost or complexity of a large platform. The CRM being built in is a real draw here, since a small team can run marketing and a basic sales pipeline from one login.
Ecommerce teams use it for cart abandonment flows, post-purchase sequences, and product recommendations, helped by deeper integrations with platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce. The behavior tracking means an automation can respond to what someone bought or browsed, not just whether they opened an email.
B2B and service businesses lean on the lead scoring and pipeline features to nurture contacts over a longer sales cycle. Marketing can hand a warmed-up lead to sales inside the same tool. Course creators, agencies, and consultants use it to onboard customers and run nurture sequences. A pattern that fits many of these cases: pair an interactive Supademo on your site with an ActiveCampaign automation, so a hands-on demo flows straight into a targeted follow-up sequence.
Mailchimp is the more recognized name and the easier starting point, with a free tier that suits very small lists. Where it falls short of ActiveCampaign is automation depth: the conditional logic and behavior-based branching are more limited. Teams often start on Mailchimp and move to ActiveCampaign once their automations need to do more than send on a schedule.
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HubSpot covers far more ground, with a CRM, marketing hub, sales hub, and service tools that work as one platform. That breadth comes with a higher price and more to learn. ActiveCampaign tends to win for teams that mainly want strong email automation and a light CRM, without paying for an entire suite they won't fully use.
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Klaviyo is built specifically for ecommerce, with deep Shopify integration and segmentation tuned to purchase and browsing data. For an online store, its product-level data handling is hard to match. ActiveCampaign is the broader choice: it handles ecommerce well enough but also fits B2B and service businesses that Klaviyo isn't really designed for.
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Brevo prices by emails sent rather than by contact count, which can work out cheaper if you have a large list you message infrequently. It bundles email, SMS, and a basic CRM. Its automation builder is decent but not as deep as ActiveCampaign's, so the decision often comes down to whether pricing model or automation depth matters more to you.
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FAQs on ActiveCampaign
Commonly asked questions about ActiveCampaign. Have more? Reach out and our team will be happy to help.
Is there a free version of ActiveCampaign?
ActiveCampaign doesn't offer a permanent free plan the way some email tools do. It provides a free trial so you can test the automation builder and campaign tools before committing. After the trial, you move to a paid plan, and pricing scales with how many contacts you have rather than how many emails you send.
How is ActiveCampaign priced?
ActiveCampaign is priced by contact count, with tiers that unlock more features as you move up. The cost goes up as your list grows, and the higher tiers add things like deeper CRM features and more advanced reporting. Because billing is tied to contacts, keeping your list clean of inactive or duplicate addresses has a direct effect on what you pay.
Does ActiveCampaign include a CRM?
Yes, ActiveCampaign includes a built-in CRM with deal pipelines, contact records, and task management. It's lighter than a dedicated sales platform, but for a small team it covers the basics of tracking deals through stages. The advantage is that marketing automation and sales pipeline data live in the same tool, so a lead can move from a nurture sequence into a deal without leaving the app.
Can ActiveCampaign handle SMS marketing?
Yes, ActiveCampaign supports SMS as part of its automations, so a flow can send a text message alongside or instead of an email. SMS sends are typically charged separately from your plan, often as add-on credits. It works well for time-sensitive messages, though most teams still use email as the primary channel and treat SMS as a supplement.
How hard is ActiveCampaign to learn?
ActiveCampaign sits in the middle on learning curve. Sending a basic campaign is straightforward, but the automation builder takes some time to get comfortable with, since real flows involve triggers, conditions, and branching. Most people get the hang of it within a few hours of building actual automations. It's more involved than a simple newsletter tool but far lighter than an enterprise marketing suite.
Does ActiveCampaign integrate with other tools?
Yes, ActiveCampaign connects to a wide range of apps, including ecommerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce, plus CRMs, form tools, and analytics. It has native integrations for the common ones and connects to many more through Zapier. If you capture leads through a landing page or an embedded interactive demo, you can route those submissions straight into an ActiveCampaign automation.
What is the difference between a campaign and an automation in ActiveCampaign?
A campaign in ActiveCampaign is a one-off send, like a newsletter or an announcement, that goes out to a segment at a chosen time. An automation is an ongoing flow that reacts to contact behavior, sending messages based on triggers and conditions over time. Most teams use campaigns for broadcasts and automations for things like welcome sequences and follow-ups.
Is ActiveCampaign good for ecommerce?
ActiveCampaign works well for ecommerce, with integrations for Shopify and WooCommerce that bring purchase and browsing data into your automations. You can build cart abandonment flows, post-purchase sequences, and product follow-ups. For a store that is purely ecommerce, a tool like Klaviyo goes deeper on product-level data, but ActiveCampaign is a strong fit when you also need B2B or service marketing in the same place.