Migrate from Active Campaign

About

Applies to: All ONTRAPORT accounts (Plus and above recommended).

This article covers exporting your contacts from Active Campaign and assumes it is your first time importing into ONTRAPORT.

In addition to importing contacts from Active Campaign, we also recommend that you recreate your web forms and migrate your email messages and automations to get all new leads flowing through ONTRAPORT.

If you want to start fresh with only your contacts moved over, see the Importing Contacts section.

Export from Active Campaign

1. Log into your Active Campaign account.
2. Click the Contacts tab in the top menu to navigate to the Contacts Overview.
   
   
   
3. Locate the contacts you wish to export using the Tags, List and/or Status dropdowns. Minimally, we'd recommend selecting "Active" from the status dropdown.
   
   
   
4. Click the Export button. A .csv file will begin downloading. Take note of where the file is downloaded. The csv file is ready to import into ONTRAPORT as is.
   
   
   

Import to ONTRAPORT

1. Login to ONTRAPORT
2. Go to Contacts > Settings > Import Contacts
   
   
   
3. Import Step 1 of 5: Drag your CSV file into the grey box or click Browse Computer to upload the file.
   
   
   
4. Import Step 2 of 5: Look at the display to verify that the file will import correctly. You should see the individual fields in columns, with at least three lines of records displayed. Check the Don't include header row (Will not be imported) box. Then click Next.
   
   
   
5. Import Step 3 of 5 has three distinct sections, the Duplicate Contact Manager, the Merge Settings, and the Usage Agreement.
   • Duplicate Contact Manager: This setting determines what happens if an existing Contact Record is found during import.
     
     Select Merge and underwrite with new imported data (default) if this is your initial import process. This setting does not change any data already found in the existing record, but will add any new data.
     
     
     
   • Merge Settings: This allows you to select which field to use to merge contacts with if a match is found in your database.
     
     For Active Campaign imports, ensure that Email is selected (it's selected by default so you shouldn't need to change anything). Leave the Import these Contacts with bulk mail set to Transactional Only unchecked.
     
     
   • Usage Agreement: Read and confirm you understand the four items listed in the Usage Agreement by checking the check boxes. If you have a question about any of these requirements, please reach out to our Postmaster team at postmaster@ontraport.com.
6. Import Step 4 of 5: Select the Fields To Be Imported into ONTRAPORT. The fields in your import CSV are listed on the left. On the right, use the drop down boxes to select the ONTRAPORT Contact Record field you want to import the data into. To skip importing a field leave the ONTRAPORT column blank.
7. To create a new custom field, select + Create New Field from the dropdown. When finished, click the Next button.
   
   
   
   Tags usually appear near the bottom of the field list, so make sure you scroll down and match the CSV file “Tags” to the ONTRAPORT field “Contact Tags”.
8. (Optional) Import Step 5 of 5: Add Rules To Your Imported Contacts. This step allows you to take actions on your new contacts as you import them. We recommend adding a Contact Tag such as “AC” for easy segmentation of the contacts that came from an Active Campaign list.
   
   
   
   
   • Click the + Add button and give the Rule a name such as Add Tag AC.
   • Click the + Add an Action button and choose Add contact to Tag.
   • Select +Create New Tag and name it “AC” and click Save. Or if the Tag already exists, select it from the dropdown menu.
   • Click Save, and make sure the Rule appears on the page. Add additional Rules if desired.
9. Click Next to start importing your contacts.

Create a Group to easily segment your new contacts (optional).Tags take the place of your list names and Groups take the place of your Lists.

1. In the Contacts collection, click the Group selector dropdown and click + New Group.
2. Name the Group in relation to your list name (e.g. AC or Active Campaign).
3. Click + Add new Condition and select Contact Tags from the dropdown.
4. Under Select Condition choose Contains
5. In the Select Value drop down select the Tag we created in Import Step 5 of the import, "AC".
   
   
   

ONTRAPORT will search through your contact database and display all your contacts with that Tag.

If a contact has the tag AC added they will automatically appear in this Group. You don’t add a contact to a Group. Instead, they are automatically a part of the group based on meeting the criteria.

Articles in this section

• Start Here
• Migrating to ONTRAPORT from Another Platform
• Migrate from Active Campaign
• Migrate from AWeber
• Migrating from MailChimp
• Custom Import Services
• Stripe Gateway Migration
• Migrating to ONTRAPORT from Office AutoPilot