As of June 2024, ActiveCampaign has announced a new plan and pricing model.

Again.

But this one is looking quite promising and has some great features.

Unlike past changes, however, these will also impact existing customers, with your plan (and price) changing on your next billing date following August 5th, 2024.

So whether you are thinking of trying ActiveCampaign for the first time or are an existing user, you need to pay attention.

In this article, I'll go through the major changes and what it could mean for you. Then I'll share what you need to do if you are an existing customer.

change 1: affordable starter plan now available

ActiveCampaign has listened and now has an affordable entry option called Starter (replacing the "Lite").

This is fantastic news as the previous barrier for entry with price was too much for many. Now you can take advantage of many of ActiveCampaign features from only AU$29/month or US$19/month.

There are limited features but I love the fact that you get a taste of most everything and you don't need to be on an expensive plan just to get an ecommerce integration.

Here's some highlights:

Users - You only get 1 included but can add more for an additional $15/month

Contacts - You get 1,000 to start but can upgrade to up to 10,000 while still being "starter"

Lists - Limited to 5 but that should be plenty for most entry level scenarios

Unlimited Automations

You can see get a taste of ActiveCampaigns real superpower, automations. Well, almost.

Each automation will be limited to 5 actions and you don't get features like splits, field updates or "go to's".

This will be limiting to those wanting to use alot of automations with different scenarios. But if you have only a few if/else cases or longer automations, it would be an easy work around to use tags to manage the flows.

Simple Conditions / Segments - Build either AND or OR conditions, but not a combination of both.

Again, if needed, for a couple of scenarios a clever workaround with tags should overcome any challenges with this.

Ecommerce!!!

Previously, Ecommerce was only availabe on the Plus plan and above but now it is available on starter - with some limitations.

Starter (& Plus) will only connect to WooCommerce, Shopify and Square. For BigCommerce, Magneto & Shopify Plus you'll need Professional or above.

It will also only retain 30 days of data, meaning you can send post purchase and abandoned cart automations, but no win-backs.

Other features like product catalog blocks, coupons and historical sync are only available on Plus and above.

But it's a fantastic place to start.

Other Integrations - Only via Zapier

In a nutshell, this level will be very useable for most businesses wanting to make a start with ActiveCampaign. I particularly like that is also gives you time to get the basics setup first without needing to pay for features that you won't be using for months while you get established.

Want to give ActiveCampaign a go? You can get a free 14 day trial here. (Affiliate Link)

Note - the trial will be on the Professional Level.

Then if you want my guidance on how to set it all up, you'll love the How to... ActiveCampaign course.

Inside you'll find over 70 tech tutorials showing you not only how to use ActiveCampaign to it's full potential but the why behind it all.

change 2: smaller jumps in contacts

In the past if you went over the cap of active contacts on your plan, suddenly you might find your plan price increasing dramatically. This is because the jumps used to go from 10,000 to 25,000 or 25,000 to 50,000. That was huge.

Now there are small increments: 1,000, 2,500, 5,000, 7,500 and 10,000 then in jumps of 5,000 to 25k and jumps of 10k from there.

This means no big bill shock as you grow your list (and last minute list cleanup panics).

change 3: other plan's features

The other 3 level plan names have remained the same but features have been redistributed slightly.

Here's a quick overview of the 4 plan levels

• Starter - As described above. Great for smaller businesses.
• Plus - Growing businesses who want to go beyond the basics, use more powerful segmentation and integrate with more software. This will suit most clients I work with.
• Pro - More advanced features for those who have unique scenarios and want to do testing
• Enterprise - Mostly just for large global companies

Plus, Pro, Enterprise and starter have the below key features that starter does not:

• Unlimited Lists
• Unlimited Actions in Automations
• Full Ecommerce with historical data sync and unlimited data retentions
• If/Else, GoTo, Goals, Field Updates and Notifications steps in Automations
• Automations triggered by dates and field updates
• Direct integration to apps like Calendly, Eventbrite, PayPal, Stripe, Slack, Zoho, PipeDrive
• Integration with Google, Facebook & LinkedIn ads
• Beyond Basic Reporting
• AI capabilities

So what has changed?

A few features have switched around.

• • Conditional Content (content blocks within an individual email that can only be seen by those who meet the conditions) is now not available in Plus
  • Start/End , Perform Math and Split Paths are now not available in Plus
  • User limits apply (1 in Plus, 3 in Pro and 5 in Enterprise) but you can add more
  • Attribution and Conversion Tracking are for Pro plan and above
  • Ecommerce Recurring Payments features are for Pro plan and above

If the above sounds like all jibberish to you, I would go by my guide of the 4 plan levels above and see where you hit any plan limits. Or if you want help to get an exact map of your email marketing strategy & structure should be then I recommend hopping on a strategy session with me. Learn more here.

change 4: out with bundles, in with add-ons

Thank goodness!

The Marketing and Sales Bundles they launched last year were totally confusing. Now Sales CRM features have been moved into optional add-ons that you can add with Plus plan and above.

Choosing an "Enhanced CRM" add on gives you what has been the existing Deals module to date. It's for managing your sales pipeline and allows you to use ActiveCampaign's automation features to support your sales efforts. Yes, to automated emails based on where a lead in in the sales process with you.

There are two choices of "Enhanced CRM"

Pipelines - This includes pipelines, deal records, account records and lead scoring.

Pipelines & sales engagement - The above plus 1:1 email, win probably and sentiment analysis

Most businesses I work with find the basic Pipelines level sufficient.

In addition to the Enhanced CRM Add Ons you can continue to choose Add Ons for the below:

• SMS
• Transactional Email (Postmark)
• Custom Reporting

existing users - what you need to do

As mentioned at the top of this email, existing users plans will change (including the price) from your next billing date after August 5th, 2024.

You should receive an email from ActiveCampaign with the subject line "Upcoming changes to ActiveCampaign’s plans and pricing". This will give you the breakdown.

If you want to see exactly what plan they are recommending you change to, click on the "Review my plan" link in this email. Alternatively, you should be able to go into the manage billing section of your account to see what is happening.

It is likely that ActiveCampaign may recommend a move to a plan/pricing level that you don't fully use right now (and therefore you may overpay). So it's important that you review each of the below:

1. Users - If you had up to 25 users before like I did, you may have added extras you don't need. Take this as your time to review your user count and decide exactly how many you need.

2. Contacts - A change in plan is always a good time to do a review of your subscriber engagement and run a list clean. I talk about how to do do a list clean in this podcast episode.

3. Deals - In the past, deals used to be included in all Plus plans and above. Meaning if you have been with ActiveCampaign awhile, you may have this feature but have never used it. If this is you, make sure the Pipelines add-on hasn't been included in your new price

4. Other Features - This is an opportunity to review exactly how you are using ActiveCampaign. Going through the above and ActiveCampaign's full feature breakdown list, determine what you are actually using. You may find a downgrade to Starter is fine for you or that Plus does the job.

You may also find that you have 1 or 2 automations using the "Start other automation" action which could easily be replaced with a tag add.

If you have any doubts about what ActiveCampaign is recommending and feel like you should be on a lower plan level, make sure to contact them for more details and why you are being recommended something specific.

You may find it is just one automation that is causing an extra $100 a month in charge.

the bottom line

These changes are all very promising and I am optimistic about them for new users in particular. However, for existing users attention must be paid to exactly what you need vs what they are moving you to.

If you want my guidance on exactly how to setup your ActiveCampaign you have 3 options:

1. Get the DIY course "How to... ActiveCampaign"

2. Join The Email Experience to get support via group coaching,  tech checks, copy critiques and Facebook Group (Hint: If you join as an annual member you can get the above course for free).

3. Work with me 1:1 and I can help you map out your ideal email marketing strategy and structure, set it up and sort out any "mess" that is there currently. Learn more about those options here.