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Overview
Referral Factory and ActiveCampaign can work together across your referral program. You can turn existing ActiveCampaign contacts into referrers, send new referrers and leads to ActiveCampaign as contacts or deals, and use deal progress in ActiveCampaign, for example a deal being marked as won, to qualify a referral in Referral Factory. Once a referral is qualified, your campaign’s reward rules decide what happens next.
What can Referral Factory and ActiveCampaign do together?
Referral Factory connects your referral program with the contacts and deals you already manage in ActiveCampaign. You can use the integration to bring existing contacts into your referral program, send new referrers and leads to ActiveCampaign, write each referrer’s referral link back to ActiveCampaign, and use deal progress to qualify successful referrals. A qualified referral can then move into the campaign’s reward process.
ActiveCampaign is connected from the CRM section of a campaign’s Integrations and API page. Once connected, you can configure separate settings for your leads and referrers.
What do I need before I connect ActiveCampaign?
- Access to Settings → Developer in your ActiveCampaign account, where your API URL and API Key are shown.
- Account owner or Account Admin access in Referral Factory to connect ActiveCampaign. Campaign Admins can set up the Leads and Referrers settings after it is connected.
- Deals and at least one pipeline in ActiveCampaign, if you want to create deals or qualify referrals from deals.
- A text custom field for contacts in ActiveCampaign, for example Referral Link, if you want to store each referrer’s link in ActiveCampaign.
How do I connect ActiveCampaign to Referral Factory?
The connection uses your ActiveCampaign API URL and API Key. The connection is saved for your whole Referral Factory account, and you then set up each campaign separately.
Step 1
Copy your API details. In ActiveCampaign, go to Settings → Developer and copy your API URL and API Key.
Step 2
Open the CRM page. In Referral Factory, select your campaign, open Integrations and API, and choose CRM.
Step 3
Choose ActiveCampaign. Find ActiveCampaign in the list of CRMs and select Connect.
Step 4
Paste your API details. In the Connect ActiveCampaign window, paste the API URL and API Key, then select Connect.
Step 5
Check the status. ActiveCampaign now shows as Connected, and the Leads and Referrers tabs are ready to set up.
Can I give my existing ActiveCampaign contacts their own referral links?
Yes. You can sync all of your ActiveCampaign contacts, or only the contacts in a list or with a tag, into your campaign as referrers. Referral Factory gives each one their own referral link and can write that link back to a contact field in ActiveCampaign, so you can use it in your emails and automations.
Learn more: the ActiveCampaign referral-link sync guide
Can new referrers be sent to ActiveCampaign automatically?
Yes. The Referrers tab of the connected ActiveCampaign settings lets you create a contact or a deal in ActiveCampaign when a new referrer joins the campaign.
Learn more: the ActiveCampaign referrer-sync guide
Can leads be sent to ActiveCampaign automatically?
Yes. The Leads tab lets you create a new contact, or a new deal in the pipeline and stage you choose, when a lead joins the campaign. Your team can then follow up in ActiveCampaign.
Learn more: the ActiveCampaign lead-sync guide
How can ActiveCampaign automatically qualify referrals in Referral Factory?
When your campaign sends leads to ActiveCampaign as deals, you can choose the deal result that means the referral was successful: the deal reaches one of the stages you select, or the deal is marked as won. Referral Factory checks your deals every 15 minutes and marks the matching referral as qualified.
Sending a lead to ActiveCampaign and qualifying the referral are two separate settings. Sending the lead does not qualify the referral, and leads sent only as contacts cannot be qualified automatically.
Learn more: the ActiveCampaign automatic-qualification guide
Can I use the ActiveCampaign deal value for commission rewards?
Yes. When you set up a commission reward, choose Pull from ActiveCampaign as the source of the sale value, then choose Deals, then Value (Deal). Referral Factory uses the value of the referral’s deal to calculate the commission.
What happens if I disconnect ActiveCampaign?
You can disconnect ActiveCampaign from the CRM page. Your campaign settings are kept, so they work again when you reconnect. After you disconnect, Referral Factory emails the account owner a reminder to reset your API key in ActiveCampaign under Settings → Developer.
If your API key stops working, for example because it was reset, Referral Factory disconnects ActiveCampaign and emails the account owner. Connect again with the new API key to continue.
How can I automate my referral program with ActiveCampaign?
You can automate the handoff between your referral program and your sales and marketing team: existing contacts can receive their own referral links, new referrers and leads can be added to ActiveCampaign, and a won deal or a deal stage can qualify the referral in Referral Factory. A qualified referral can then move into the reward process without your team having to update both systems by hand.
Learn more: the ActiveCampaign automation guide