How to set up Conversations

If you are the Primary Admin of your ActiveCampaign account, you can access, enable, and configure the Conversations feature so you can have two-way conversations with your customers.

To get started, click “Conversations” on the left menu.

If you do not see the Conversations option on the left menu, then you will need to contact your Primary Account admin to request access or if it is after January 3, 2023 this feature is no longer available to purchase for new customers.

Once you're on the Conversations page, you can navigate to Conversations Settings to set up the next sections.

In this section, you’ll learn how to configure the chat box appearance. You can set the appearance for the chat widget so that it matches your company’s brand. Doing so will create a seamless experience for your visitors.

1. From the Conversations page, click Conversations Settings > Channels > Web Chat > Appearance.
2. Type your company’s name or welcome message in the “Headline” field. This will appear at the top of your chat widget when it’s opened by a visitor. For example, you can type "Chat with us" in the headline field.
3. Type a short bio for your company in the “Description” field. This will also appear at the top of your chat widget when it’s opened by a visitor. Note that this is optional.
4. Paste the URL of where your company logo is stored into the field provided. You will see the image shown in the box to the right so you can verify it looks okay.
5. Under “Brand Color,” click the color picker and select the color you would like to use in the chat widget. You can also enter the hex value. 
6. Under “Chat Position,” select if the chat widget should appear on the left or right of your webpage.

The Welcome Message is a proactive greeting that any site visitor can see. It will use the same logo and brand color that you use for web chat. This greeting will appear above the chat widget on every page where your site tracking code is installed.

To get the Welcome Message to appear on your site:

1. From the Conversations Page, click Conversations Settings > Welcome Message.
2. Click the "Create a Welcome Message" button.
3. Set the "Welcome Message" toggle to the "On" position by clicking the toggle.
4. Type a short greeting such as "We're here to help!" into the field provided.
5. Click the "Publish" button.

Each Conversations account comes with a preconfigured Chatbot Automation. This simple workflow helps support real-time messaging by automating first touch-points, collecting data, and qualifying leads before one of your agents takes over. Using the Chatbot Automation ensures a timely, positive customer experience 24/7.

You can access the Chatbot Automation from the Conversations page by clicking Conversations Settings > Chatbot Automation.

Learn how to use the Conversations Chatbot Automation. 

To get the chat widget to display on your website, you’ll need to whitelist your domain(s) and install the chat widget code onto your site.

Whitelist Your Website domain(s)

In this step, you'll need to whitelist all domains and subdomains you want the chat widget to appear on. Adding your domains and subdomains in this step will also enable site tracking.

Note that if you do not whitelist any domains, the chat widget will not appear on your site, even if you install the chat widget code.

To get to the Whitelist Your Website domain(s) section in the platform:

1. Click "Website" on the left menu.
2. Click "Site Tracking." The conversations code is part of site tracking code, and is included in this section.

To whitelist your URL(s), type your website URL into the text field provided and click the “Add” button. Your domain will appear at the top of the box to indicate that it is whitelisted.

Note that you can whitelist:

• All website pages
  If you check the "Include all website pages" box, all pages on the URL you supplied will have the Conversations chat widget. This will not include any subdomains; those will need to be whitelisted separately. Using the example above, if you whitelist "mysite.com" and check "Include all website pages" then all pages that include "mysite.com" will have the chat widget on it. If you also have the subdomain, "help.mysite.com" that will not be included. You will need to list that subdomain separately in this step if you want the chat widget to appear on that page.
• Only this page
  If you do not check the "Include all website pages" box, only the URL you supply in this step will have the chat widget appear on it. Note that you can add as many specific pages as you like.
• Wildcard URLs
  A wildcard URL uses the * symbol to indicate that "any page in this path" will have the chat widget appear on it. For example, if you whitelist "mysite/about/*" then the chat widget will appear on all pages that start with "mysite.com/about/." You can also use whitelist domains that contain wildcards in the middle of the URL. For example, you would whitelist "mysite.com/*/test.com." 

Chat Widget Code

The box under Tracking Code contains javascript that you will need to add to the footer of your site. Note that if you currently have an older version of the site tracking code installed, you'll need to replace it with the new code snippet  on all pages where you want the chat widget to appear.  Make sure that the Conversations checkbox is selected in order to track all site visits and to allow the chat widget to appear on your website.

From here, you can:

• Click the “Copy” button to copy the code and paste it to the footer of your site.

Single-page applications 

For single-page applications that do not require page reloading, you'll need to call window.vgo('update'); whenever your application makes a route change. This additional step will allow the chat widget to load correctly on your whitelisted pages.