How to Connect ActiveCampaign

Prerequisites#

An ActiveCampaign account (any plan)
Admin access in ActiveCampaign
An active scoring profile in Zero Bad Leads

Unlike HubSpot and Pipedrive, ActiveCampaign uses API URL + API Key instead of OAuth. You will need to copy these credentials directly from the ActiveCampaign dashboard.

Find your API URL and API Key#

Access ActiveCampaign settings

In the ActiveCampaign dashboard, click the gear icon in the bottom-left corner and select "Developer".

Copy the credentials

On the Developer page, you will find:

API URL: in the format https://YOUR-ACCOUNT.api-us1.com (or another regional domain)
API Key: a long alphanumeric key

Copy both values. You will use them in the next step.

The API Key has full access to your account. Never share this key publicly. If you suspect the key has been compromised, generate a new one in ActiveCampaign.

Connect ActiveCampaign#

Access Outbound Integrations

In the Zero Bad Leads sidebar, click Send Leads. Find the ActiveCampaign card and click "Integrate".

Enter credentials

Paste the credentials you copied:

API URL: paste the full URL (e.g., https://my-company.api-us1.com)
API Key: paste the API key

The system will automatically validate the connection.

Configure the integration

Configure the dispatch options:

Integration name: give it a descriptive name (e.g., "ActiveCampaign Marketing")
Action: create a Contact in ActiveCampaign

Configure automatic tags

Define tags that will be automatically applied to each created contact:

Fixed tags: tags that are always applied (e.g., "qualified-lead", "zero-bad-leads")
Score tag: automatically adds a tag with the score range (e.g., "high-score", "medium-score")

Tags help segment contacts and trigger automations in ActiveCampaign.

Create automations in ActiveCampaign that start when the "qualified-lead" tag is added. This way, the contact automatically enters the nurture flow.

Assign to lists

Select one or more ActiveCampaign lists to automatically add the contact to:

Choose existing lists from the dropdown
The contact will be added with active status (confirmed opt-in is not required for qualified leads)

Configure field mapping

Map Zero Bad Leads fields to ActiveCampaign fields:

Zero Bad Leads	ActiveCampaign
Email	Email
Full name	First Name / Last Name
Phone	Phone
Company	Organization
Score	Custom field
CNPJ	Custom field

Activate and test

Activate the integration and click "Send test lead". Check in ActiveCampaign that the contact was created with the correct tags and lists.

Automatic retry#

If the dispatch fails, Zero Bad Leads automatically retries:

Attempt	Interval
1st	Immediate
2nd	After 1 minute
3rd	After 5 minutes
4th	After 15 minutes
5th	After 30 minutes

After 5 unsuccessful attempts, the lead is marked as "error" in the logs.

Troubleshooting#

"Unauthorized" or 401 error: Check that the API Key and API URL are correct. Confirm there are no extra spaces before or after the pasted values.

Contact created but without tags: Check that the tags were typed correctly in the configuration. Tags with accents or special characters may cause issues.

Contact not added to the list: Confirm that the selected list exists and is active in ActiveCampaign. Archived lists do not accept new contacts.

"Too many requests" or 429 error: ActiveCampaign has rate limiting. Zero Bad Leads already respects these limits automatically, but if the error persists, check if other integrations are consuming the API simultaneously.