This article covers three ways to start an automation on a date or time in ActiveCampaign: using the "On a Schedule" trigger, using the "Date based" automation trigger, and adding contacts manually.
Option 1: "On a schedule" automation trigger
Use the "On a schedule" trigger to start an automation at a set date and time or on a recurring schedule. You define a segment condition to control which contacts enter at each run.
You can choose from two schedule types:
- One-time: runs once on a specific date, time, and timezone you choose
- Recurring: runs on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly cadence at a time you set
Learn more about the "On a schedule" automation trigger.
Option 2: "Date based" automation trigger
Available on Plus, Professional, and Enterprise plans
Use the "Date based" trigger to start an automation relative to a date field on a contact record. You can set the automation to start before, on, or after the date in the field.
To set this up:
- From the Automation Trigger modal, click "Date Based," then "Continue."
- In the Action Options modal, configure the following:
- Starts: Use the dropdowns to select when the automation will run for each contact and the date field that the automation will reference
- List: Click the dropdown to choose your list
- Check: Click the dropdown to program how often the trigger will check for contacts who meet your conditions. You can set this to daily, weekdays, or weekends, and choose the time of day
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Runs: If you want the automation to run yearly, click "When the month and day match conditions." To make the automation run only once, click "When year, month, and day match conditions"
- When finished, click "Add Start."
Option 3: Manually add contacts to an automation
You can add contacts to an automation directly from the Automation by selecting the “Add contacts to this automation” button next to your trigger(s). From here, you can select individual contacts or create a segment to bulk add contacts
Alternatively, you can add them via the Contacts page or a contact record.
Use either of these options when you want to enroll a specific group of contacts right away.
To learn how, visit How to manually add contacts to an automation.