How to create a form in ActiveCampaign

Create a form to grow your contact database and your email marketing list(s).

Take note

• Inline forms are available on all Marketing and Sales plans
• Floating Box, Floating Bar, and Modal forms are available with Marketing and Sales Plus, Professional, and Enterprise plans
• The type of form you create determines your customization options

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Create a form

Forms are created in the Forms section of your ActiveCampaign account.

1. Click "Website" on the left menu to navigate to the Forms overview page.
2. If this is the first time you're creating a form, a "Create a form" modal window will appear. Click the "Create a form" button. If this is not the first time you're creating a form with ActiveCampaign, click the "Create a form" button on the top right of your screen.
3. Type the name of your form into the field provided and click the form style you wish to use.
   
   
4. Click the "Action" dropdown, then click the action you want to use. You can choose from any of the following:
   • Add a Tag
     Adds a tag to each contact who submits your form.
   • Email Results
     Sends a notification to anyone on your team each time a contact submits your form.
   • Subscribe to a list
     Subscribes the contact to your list. You can use a double opt-in (default) or single opt-in.
   • Add to a Deal (Plus, Professional, and Enterprise plans)
     Creates a deal for each contact who 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 it's been published.
     
     
5. Click the "Options" dropdown 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" 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 types of 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 with the kind of information you can collect about contacts, accounts, and custom objects.

• Contact fields (Available on all plans)
  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 (Available on Plus, Professional, and Enterprise plans)
  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 (associated with the Contact object only - Available on Enterprise plans)
  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 is submitted, that data will appear in its own box on the contact’s profile record
  • This capability is not available for custom objects assocated 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 how to use custom objects with forms, visit How to build forms with Custom Objects.

Add a field to your inline form

1. From the form builder, make sure that 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.

Note that you can search for fields and create new custom fields from the right side pane. 

How to make fields required on your form

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

Modal, Floating Box, and Floating Bar forms

1. From the form builder, click the "Options" tab on the right menu.
2. Click the "Required" checkbox. This is located to the right of the field's name in the right menu.  

Inline forms

1. From the form builder, click the field you wish to make required.
2. The right menu will display the fields 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 that appears in the input fields on your form.

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

If you're working with an Inline form, you can also change the field header. 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.

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

To remove ActiveCampaign branding from your form:

1. From the form builder, click the "Style" tab on the right menu.
2. Scroll down to the "Miscellaneous" section.
3. 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 right menu of the form builder.

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 choose to show them a thank you message or you can 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. Here you can input different text by typing it 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. If you're using the “Subscribe to a list” action with your form, double opt-in is enabled by default.

Double-opt in is not available 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.