ACHQ - Email Sending Approval

With ActiveCampaign HQ (ACHQ), the "Email Sending Approval" feature allows franchisor administrators to enforce campaign approvals with child accounts. When Email Sending Approval is enabled, the franchisor must approve any campaigns created by child accounts before they can be sent.

This article explains how to enable Email Sending Approval and how to approve or deny a child account’s campaign.

Set up Email Sending Approval

ACHQ Head Office administrator must enable Email Sending Approval before it can be used:

  1. From your ACHQ partner portal, click “Settings.”
  2. Click the “Campaign Approvals” tab.
  3. Choose which child accounts you would like to enforce email sending approvals for: 
    • "Enforce for all accounts": Enforce email sending approval to all child accounts
    • "Automatically enforce based on label": Enforce email sending approval for child accounts with specific labels
    • "Manually select specific accounts": Choose individual child accounts to enforce email sending approval
  4. Click “Save.”
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Once Email Sending Approval is set up, every email draft in the selected child accounts will have a “Submit for approval” button instead of a “Send” button and must go through the approval process explained below.

Approval process

Once you have configured the Email Sending Approval settings, you will need to review campaigns submitted by child accounts and either approve or deny them to be sent. The following steps will walk you through the process from the lens of the child account and your ACHQ account:

From the child account:

The child account creates a draft campaign and clicks the “Request HQ Approval” button. The campaign status on the Email Campaigns Overview page will have a “Pending HQ approval” status until the campaign is approved.

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From the ACHQ partner portal:

  1. Click the “Campaigns” tab.
  2. Click the “Campaign approval” tab.

      Unread campaign approvals will appear as a notification number on the “Campaign approval” tab.

  3. Click the “Review” button to the right of the campaign that needs approval. This will open up the campaign in your child account in a new tab to review.
  4. Click the ACHQ tab in your browser to return to your ACHQ account.
  5. To approve the campaign:
    • Click the “Approve” button to the right of the campaign
    • In the “Notify users” modal, select the child account emails to notify them of campaign approval
    • Go to step 7
  6. To deny the campaign:
    • Click the “Deny” button to the right of the campaign
    • In the “Notify users” modal, provide a reason for denying in the field and select the child account emails to notify them of campaign denial
    • Go to step 7
  7. Click “Notify” to send the approve or deny notification.
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From the child account:

  1. If the campaign is approved, the campaign status on the Email Campaigns Overview page will change to “HQ Approved.” As long as there aren’t any further changes to the campaign, it can be sent. Here is a table of campaign changes that do and do not require re-approval.
  2. If the campaign is denied, the child account must address the deny reason and click the “Submit for approval” button to resubmit the campaign for approval.
  3. Once the campaign is ready to send, the child account user can click “Continue” to the right of the campaign and then click the “Send” button to send the campaign.
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Changes to a campaign after approval

If a child account needs to make additional changes to the campaign after it has been approved, it may need to be resubmitted for approval. Here is a table of campaign changes that do and do not require re-approval:

Changes that trigger re-approval Changes that do note trigger re-approval
Subject Recipient Selection (entire block)
Pre Header Schedule (entire block)
Edit Design Tracing and Automations (entire block)
From Name  
From Email  
Reply-to Address  

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