How to create a form in ActiveCampaign

With ActiveCampaign, you can create forms that collect and add contact information to your ActiveCampaign account and add subscribers to your email marketing list. 

Take note

• Access to the different form styles and custom fields depends on your ActiveCampaign plan
• The type of form you create determines your customization options
• Learn how to create a preference center with our Forms feature

Watch a video

Create a form

1. Click Website > Forms on the left menu. 
2. Click the "Create new form" button. 
3. Type the name of your form into the field provided and select the form style you wish to use. As a reminder, the styles available depend on your ActiveCampaign plan.
4. Click the "Action" dropdown, then click the action you want. You can choose from any of the following:
   • Subscribe to a list -Subscribes the contact to your list. You can use a double opt-in (default) or single opt-in
   • Add a tag - Adds a tag to each contact who submits your form
   • Add to a deal -Creates a deal for each contact who submits your form
   • Email results - Sends a notification to anyone on your team each time a contact submits your form
     • Note that you can add as many actions as you like to a form. You can also update actions and add more actions to your form during the form creation process or after publication
5. Click the dropdown next to "Form Action" to select an option to match your action. The items displayed in this dropdown will differ based on the selected action.
6. Click the “Create form" button.

The form builder will load. You can now add fields and customize your form. 

Add fields to your form

Your selected form type determines the fields you can use to collect information from contacts. 

Modal, Floating Box, and Floating Bar forms

The information you can collect from contacts using these form types include:

• Name
• Phone
• Email (required by default)

To use these fields in your form:

1. From the form builder, click the "Options" tab.
2. Use the toggles in the "Fields" section to make the Name and Phone fields visible on your form.
   

Any changes you make to your form will save automatically.

Inline forms

Inline forms offer more variety in the information you can collect about contacts, accounts, and custom objects.

• Contact fields
  Use contact fields to create and update contact records. You can also use fields in this section to add images and text to your form and safeguard your form from spam contact submissions 
• Account fields 
  Use account fields to create and update account records. This will help you better understand prospect accounts and add more actionable data to your CRM
• Custom object fields 
  If you created a custom object for contacts, you can add any custom object field you create to your form. These fields will appear under the custom object name in the form builder.
  • When a contact submits a form containing custom object data, that data will appear in a box on the contact’s profile record
  • This capability is not available for custom objects associated with Accounts or custom objects supported by 3rd party integrations 

To learn more about fields available with inline forms, visit Form fields.

To learn more about using custom objects with forms, visit How to build forms with Custom Objects.

Add a field to your inline form

1. From the form builder, ensure the "Fields" tab is selected in the right menu.
2. Choose the field category you would like to use, then click it to expand it. 
3. Drag the field to your form.

You can search or create new custom fields from the right-side menu. 

How to make fields required on your form

You can make one, some, or all fields on your form required. This means that contacts cannot submit your form until they provide all requested information.

Modal, Floating Box, and Floating Bar forms

1. Click the "Options" tab on the right menu from the form builder.
2. Click the "Required" checkbox.

Inline forms

1. From the form builder, click the field you wish to make required.
2. The right menu will display the field header, default text, and a required option. Click the "Required" checkbox.

Allow blank fields to overwrite existing data

By default, each form you create has the "Allow blank fields to overwrite existing field data" option selected. This means that if a contact submits your form and does not complete all fields, those blank fields will also appear as blank in their contact profile record and associated account record, even if you collected information previously for these fields.

This setting applies to the following field types:

• Text input
• Text area
• Checkboxes
• Date fields
• Multi-selection lists

To change this setting:

1. Click the "Options" tab in the form builder for any form.
2. Uncheck this option located in the "Advanced" section.

Change default text and headers for your input fields

You can change the default text in your form's input fields.

1. From the form builder, click the input field you wish to update.
2. Type the new text into the "Default Text" field on the right menu.

You can change the field header if you're working with an Inline form. This option appears in the right menu when you click the field in the form builder.

Customize the look of your form

You can change the look of your form by adding background images, changing the form's color, changing the font type, and more.

For more information, visit Design and customize your ActiveCampaign form.

Remove ActiveCampaign branding from your form

By default, ActiveCampaign branding appears on every form you create.

You can remove this branding from your form if you are on a Plus, Professional, or Enterprise plan. Starter plans are not able to remove this branding.

To remove ActiveCampaign branding from your form:

1. Click the "Style" tab on the right menu from the form builder.
2. Under "General," click the branding toggle to set it to the "Off" position.

Additional customization for Modal, Floating Box, and Floating Bar forms

These form types have additional customization options that dictate when and how the form should appear for site visitors.

These settings are located under the "Options" tab in the form builder's right menu.

Modal

• Choose if the form should fade in or no effect
• Choose if the form should appear when the page visitor scrolls or no delay
• Hide the form after they interact with the page, show the form once then hide it, or never hide the form
• Choose how long the form should be hidden for that page visitor

Floating Box

• Choose if the form should fade in, slide in, or no effect
• Choose if the form should appear when the page visitor scrolls or no delay
• Choose if the form should appear on the bottom left or bottom right of the page
• Hide the form after they interact with the page, show the form once then hide it, or never hide the form
• Choose how long the form should be hidden for that page visitor

Floating Bar

• Choose if the form should fade in, slide in, or no effect
• Choose if the form should appear when the page visitor scrolls or no delay
• Choose if the form should appear on the bottom or top of the page
• Hide the form after they interact with the page, show the form once then hide it, or never hide the form
• Choose how long the form should be hidden for that page visitor

Customize form messages

When a contact submits your form, you can show them a thank you message or direct them to a page on your site.

1. From the form builder of any form, click the "Options" tab on the right menu.
2. Locate the "On Submit" section.
3. The "Show Thank You" option is selected by default. Type your updated message into the box provided.
   
   
   
4. To direct contacts to a URL instead, click the "Show Thank You" dropdown then click "Open URL." In the field provided, type the URL you wish to direct contacts to.
   
   

About the opt-in process

An opt-in is consent from a contact who wants to receive your marketing emails. Usually, contacts provide this consent by submitting a subscription form. Double opt-in is enabled by default if you're using the “Subscribe to a list” action with your form.

Double opt-in is unavailable for the Add a tag, Add to a deal, or Email results form actions. 

You can customize the opt-in process that a contact experiences when they submit your form. This customization is available for all form types.

Here are some additional resources you can use to learn more about customizing the opt-in process:

• Double opt-in vs. single opt-in
• How do I enable single opt-in confirmation?
• How to edit your opt-in confirmation email
• How do I send contacts to my site when they confirm their list subscription?

Publish your form

The "Integrate" button lists all options available for publishing your form.

Modal, Floating Box, and Floating Bar forms

The publishing options available with these form types include:

• Simple embed code
  Copy the code provided and paste it onto your website to publish it.
• WordPress
  Use this option to publish the form to your WordPress site using the ActiveCampaign WordPress plugin.

Inline forms

The publishing options available with this form type include:

• Embed
  Copy the simple or full embed code and paste it onto your website.
  • Simple embed code uses Javascript; any change you make to the form in your ActiveCampaign account will automatically appear wherever the form is published
  • Full embed code uses CSS and HTML. Any change you make to the form in your ActiveCampaign will not appear where the form is published. To publish any form changes, you'll need to repaste this code on your site
• Link
  This is a direct link to your form. Share this link with potential subscribers so they can complete and submit your form.
• WordPress
  Use this option to publish the form to your WordPress site using the ActiveCampaign WordPress plugin.
• Facebook
  Use this option to publish the form to your Facebook page.