ActiveCampaign is a very powerful platform combining CRM automation, sales software, marketing automation, and email marketing all in one. As if that wasn’t enough, they recently acquired one of the fastest-growing transactional email services, Postmark and DMARC Digest, email authentication and monitoring service. For all the reasons above, there is no question asked about why you are looking for a way to connect your WordPress forms to ActiveCampaign.
Sure, you can use the official WordPress ActiveCampaign plugin to connect if you are using a simple form. But let’s be honest. If you really want to use all the powerful features ActiveCampaign has, you need a powerful form solution. You need a feature-rich form builder that allows you to create and manage all types of WordPress forms.
The great news is Ninja Forms can offer you an easy way to connect your forms to your ActiveCampaign account through our ActiveCampaign add-on. In this article, we will show you how. Let’s get started!
Table of contents
- Connect your WordPress forms to ActiveCampaign
- Add a user to the ActiveCampaign list
- Sending custom data from your form to the ActiveCampaign list
- Signup contacts to different newsletter lists
1. Connect your WordPress forms to ActiveCampaign
Whether you are looking to upgrade your forms from the stock forms ActiveCampaign offers or you realize you have outgrown the limited functionality of the stock forms, using the ActiveCampaign add-on, you can connect your ActiveCampaign account to your WordPress forms in a matter of minutes, and you don’t need to spend a fortune for it.
There are three essential things you need in order to connect ActiveCampaign with your WordPress forms:
Once you installed and activated the plugins, it’s time to connect your forms to ActiveCampaign. If you are not sure how to proceed with the installation, make sure to check our installation instructions (it takes less than 2 minutes).
Log in to your ActiveCampaign account.
In order to connect your forms with ActiveCampaign, you need to access your ActiveCampaign URL and API Key from your ActiveCampaign account. Navigate to the dashboard and visit the Settings page. 
Once in the Settings area, click on the Developer tab from the left. Note and copy the URL and Key values within the API Access area. You’ll need them for the next step. 
Authenticate Ninja Forms with ActiveCampaign using your ActiveCampaign URL and API Key.
Now that you copied your ActiveCampaign URL and API Key, go back to your WordPress with the Ninja Forms ActiveCampaign plugin installed. Navigate to the Ninja Forms dashboard and select Settings. Scroll down to the ActiveCampaign area and input your ActiveCampaign URL and API Key. 
That’s it! You’ve just connected Ninja Forms to your ActiveCampaign account.
2. Add a contact from the WordPress form to the ActiveCampaign list
Now that you have connected your WordPress forms to your ActiveCampaign account, you can start sending your contacts to the ActiveCampaign list. This is done via ActiveCampaign action.
Navigate to your form editor and click Emails & Actions. Click the blue plus icon in the lower right and add ActiveCampaign action. After choosing the ActiveCampaign option, you will see a list field. Here, you’ll want to select the list where you want to add your contacts.
Once you select the list, the List Field Mapping section will expand with the list of form fields. The fields that show here are from your ActiveCampaign account; these include both AC’s built-in fields and any custom fields you define.
In order to map fields from your Ninja Forms to your ActiveCampaign fields, you’ll need to click the merge tag icon on each field where you wish to create a mapping.
Our ActiveCampaign add-on also allows you to assign tags to your Ninja Form that will be assigned to contacts who submit a form. You may assign multiple tags to a form in a comma-separated format.
If you would like to use a double opt-in confirmation on your WordPress form when adding a contact to your list, this is possible with the ActiveCampaign add-on. However, the way of implementing this functionality is not that convenient. If you would like to learn more about it, check our documentation page here.
3. Sending custom data from your form to the ActiveCampaign list
This is especially helpful if you have a long registration form or any type of multi-step form and you want to send custom data to your ActiveCampaign list. Doing this helps you segment your contacts in the Master List.
Create a form field in the WordPress form
In our example, we created a Checkbox List field where we collect information about what products users are interested in. Keep in mind you need to fill in the value of each checkbox field option and match it to be exactly the same as the label. You will know why in a bit.
Create a custom field in your ActiveCampaign account
Now that you have your field created on your WordPress form, you want to head to your ActiveCampaign account to create a custom field. Navigate to your Lists > Manage Fields. Here you can add a new field. You want to make sure the Field name in ActiveCampaign is exactly matching the Field name on your WordPress form.
We used the Checkbox List field, so you want to select the Checkbox as a Field Type. The Options should match the Values of your Checkbox List field on your WordPress form. If there isn’t an exact match, the fields won’t be mapped, and data won’t be sent to your ActiveCampaign. Click add, and that’s it for this step!
Create an ActiveCampaign action and map the fields
If you’ve done all the above, now you’ll want to create an ActiveCampaign action and map the fields to the correct list so the data is sent over to your ActiveCampaign automatically.
In order to map fields from your Ninja Forms to your ActiveCampaign fields, you’ll need to click the merge tag icon on each field where you wish to create a mapping.
Ta-da! You successfully send custom data from your WordPress form to ActiveCampaign! In the next part, we’ll show you how you can sort your contacts into different email lists based on their selection on the form!
4. Signup contacts to different newsletter lists
If your account has multiple lists, it can take hours to organize your lists manually. What if you need to signup new users to different newsletter lists based on their selection on the form, just like this one:
With Conditional Logic, it will only take a few simple clicks, and your new signups and leads will be automatically categorized to the list or audience of your choice. If you do this, you can be sure you are growing a high-quality email list that will bring you improved conversions.
Create a form field on your WordPress form.
In order to sort your users into different email lists, you need one of the following fields that work with conditional logic:
In our form example, we are using the Checkbox list to sort our new subscribers into different lists. (Men Shoes, Women Shoes, Both). Keep in mind if you are using Conditional Logic on your form, you want to make sure the field’s Value is filled out, just like in the screenshot below.
Bonus: The Checkbox list option on your form is displayed vertically by default. If you wish to display the list of options horizontally as we did, you can navigate to Display > Custom Class Names > Container, and enter a three-col-list for a 3-column display.
If you would like to create a similar form to ours, you’ll need an HTML field (image & text), a Checkbox field, an Email Field, and a Submit button field. You can change the width or color of the button without coding using our Layout & Styles add-on by navigating to Styles > Element Styles > Width or Background color.
Create ActiveCampaign Action
Now that you have your form ready head to the Emails & Actions tab and click the blue plus sign icon. If you installed and connected your ActiveCampaign add-on to Ninja Forms, you will see the option for ActiveCampaign.
Add this action to your form. If you have multiple email lists, as shown on the form, you have to create multiple ActiveCampaign actions for each list. See below:
We created 3 ActiveCampaign actions on our WordPress form because users can select from three options. What you’ll need to do now is map each ActiveCampaign action to the correct email list.
As we mapped the ActiveCampaign action for our segment Women Shoes to our list in ActiveCampaign called Women Shoes, you will need to do the same for the rest of the ActiveCampaign actions.
If your form has any custom fields, you’ll need to create custom fields in your ActiveCampaign account under Lists > Manage Fields. These form fields need to match exactly. Otherwise, they will not be imported.
Determine when the action gets processed.
Each action you create has Conditional Logic settings where you want to set the correct conditional triggers. Once again, you need to do this for every action. When you click on the ActiveCampaign Women Shoes action, you’ll see the Conditional Logic settings.
Here, we created a trigger that once the user selects Women Shoes on the form, they will be sorted into the Women Shoes ActiveCampaign email list.
You’ll notice that the field here shows blank. This is because we hide the Label for the Checkbox list on our form. If your form label is displayed, you will be able to see the Label again.
Now you’ll have to do the same for the rest of the ActiveCampaign actions, and that’s it! After following these simple steps, your new signups will be automatically categorized to the list or audience of your choice!
Ta-da! Now you know all about connecting WordPress forms to ActiveCampaign!
If you got all the way here, congratulations! This was quite a long journey. You learned how to connect your WordPress forms to ActiveCampaign and how to add a subscriber to your email list. Additionally, we showed you how to sort contacts into different email lists using our Conditional Logic add-on. You also learned how to send customized data to your ActiveCampaign list from your WordPress form.
So what are you waiting for? Get the ActiveCampaign add-on or explore the possibilities Ninja Forms offers with extensions such as Conditional Logic, File Uploads, or Multi-Step forms, and take your WordPress forms to another level!
Want to learn more about newsletters and email marketing? Make sure to check the following articles: How to Use A Newsletter Sign-Up to Generate More Sales or Proven Ways to Get More Newsletter Signups!
