With ActiveCampaign HQ (ACHQ), you can create and share SMS broadcast campaigns, email templates, message variables and deals (CRM) with your child accounts (or franchisees). This allows for a centralized space for creating and sharing marketing assets, saves time for your franchisees, and helps them align with corporate branding standards (for example, logos, tone, assets, messaging, etc).
Take note
You must be an ACHQ Franchise partner to create and sync assets to child accounts.
How it works
The Sync Manager in your ACHQ partner portal lets you sync assets you create in your primary account to your child accounts. This includes email templates, SMS broadcast messages, and message variables. Child accounts can customize and use these items with their contacts.
When you create an asset in your primary account, it will automatically appear on the Sync Manager page of your ACHQ partner portal. The Sync Manager page has three tabs: Templates, SMS, and Message Variables. The asset you create in your primary account will appear under one of these tabs.
Templates
Templates you create in your primary account appear under the “Templates” tab of the Sync Manager. Once a template appears in your ACHQ portal, you can sync it to any child account(s) of your choosing. You can also set a syncing schedule from your primary account to your ACHQ portal should you edit or update the template.
Child account users will see synced templates by going to the Campaign Templates section in their account. All synced templates will appear under “Synced from HQ.”
Once a child account receives your template, they can create a copy and customize it as they see fit. They can then use it to create and send an email campaign to their contacts.
SMS
SMS broadcast messages you create in your primary account appear under the “SMS” tab of the Sync Manager. Once an SMS campaign appears in your ACHQ partner portal, you can sync it to any child account(s) that have SMS enabled. You can also set a syncing schedule from your primary account to your ACHQ portal should you edit or update the SMS message.
Once a child account receives your SMS broadcast message, it will appear under SMS > Synced from HQ. Child account users cannot edit the synced campaign, but they can create a duplicate and make edits from there. The duplicates will appear under SMS > Campaigns in their account.
Message variables
A message variable is a body of text you create once and insert into any email campaign with a personalization tag.
Message variables appear under the “Message variables” tab of the Sync Manager. Once a message variable appears in your ACHQ portal, you can sync it to any child account(s) of your choosing.
You can also set a syncing schedule from your primary account to your ACHQ partner portal should you edit or update the message variable.
Once a child account receives your message variable, they can customize it as they see fit and use it when creating an email campaign.
Note that if a child account edits a message variable, they will no longer receive updates to the variable. Any changes made to the variable in the primary account will not appear in the child account. To fix this issue and restore syncing, manually update the child account message variable to exactly match the current version in your primary account.
If you need to edit an image for a synced variable, you must use the code editor in ACHQ.
Deals
A deal is an individual sales opportunity—typically representing a potential customer or piece of business—that is tracked as it moves through the stages of a pipeline. In ACHQ, local teams manage deals within the stages made available to their account, while activity in synced pipelines contributes to HQ reporting.
- An HQ administrator creates pipelines and stages in the primary HQ account.
- The administrator uses ACHQ → Sync Manager → Deals to sync a pipeline to all accounts, accounts with selected labels, or specific child accounts.
- Once synced, the pipeline and its stages appear in the selected child accounts under Deals. Local users can create and manage deals within the synced stages.
- HQ-controlled pipeline settings—such as the pipeline name, stages, and stage header colors—are managed centrally and cannot be changed locally.
Overview of the Sync Manager page
The each tab on the Sync Manager page displays the following for your assets:
- “Sync every” dropdown - Syncs updates to an asset you synced from your primary account. The updates sync to your ACHQ partner portal and selected child accounts. By default, this is turned to “Never,” however, you can choose either hourly or daily
- Search bar - Search for an asset by name
- Sync toggle column - By default, this is turned off. Clicking the toggle to “On” for an asset syncs it from your primary account to your ACHQ portal. Clicking the toggle to “Off” removes the template from the child accounts it is currently synced to
- Asset column - Will display SMS campaigns, message variables, or email templates, depending on which tab you select. This column includes a thumbnail image of the asset and the asset name, which is clickable
- Accounts column - Shows the total number of child accounts the asset is currently synced to
- Manage accounts column - Clicking the “Manage accounts” button lets you select your child account syncing preferences for a specific asset
The “Templates” tab
The “Templates” tab also includes:
- Template column - Clicking a template in this column opens a larger preview of the template
- Template name column - Name of the template as it appears in the primary account. Clicking the template brings you to your primary account where you can view and edit the template
-
Manage accounts column - includes the additional syncing options:
- Lock this template - Select this option to prevent child accounts from editing or duplicating the template.
- When locked, child accounts cannot modify the template before sending. Important: Once a template is locked, it cannot be unlocked. To provide an editable version to child accounts, create and sync a new template without the lock enabled.
- Sync to all accounts - Syncs the template to all child accounts
- Automatically sync based on label - Labels are created in ACHQ and are applied to your child accounts. If you select this option, a field will appear where you can select a label(s).
- Manually select specific accounts - If you select this option, you can select each account that should receive the template
The “Message variables” tab
The “Message variables” tab also includes:
- Edit values column - Clicking the “Edit values” button lets you rename and edit the content of the message variable for each child account
Sync an asset to your child accounts
- Log in to your ACHQ partner portal.
- Click the “Sync Manager” tab.
- Click the tab associated with the asset you want to sync. For example, Templates, SMS, or Message Variables.
- Locate the asset you want to sync to your child accounts.
- Click the “Sync” toggle to set it to the “On” position.
- A “Manage accounts” drawer will open. Choose from the account sync options listed:
- Sync to all accounts - Syncs the asset to all accounts
- Automatically sync based on label - Labels are created in ACHQ and applied to child accounts. If you select this option, a field will appear where you can select a label(s). The asset will sync to child account with the selected label(s)
- Manually select specific accounts - If you select this option, you can select each account that should receive the asset
- Click the “Save” button.
The “Manage accounts” drawer will close, and the sync will start.
Updates made to the asset in your primary account will sync to child accounts hourly or daily, depending on what you choose in the “Sync every” dropdown.
The Sync Manager page will show the number of accounts with the asset.
Remove an asset from child accounts
To remove a template from your child accounts, click the “Sync” toggle in ACHQ and set it to the “Off” position. This action removes the asset from child accounts and updates will no longer sync to it.