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  • ActiveCampaign Create/Update Contact only "updates" and overwrites previous contact
Best answer

ActiveCampaign Create/Update Contact only "updates" and overwrites previous contact

  • 28 July 2020
  • 7 replies
  • 205 views
R
Userlevel 1

I'm trying to create a new contact from Email Parser by Zapier to Active Campaign using the "Create/Update Contact in ActiveCampaign" action. It was working fine creating a new contact but now it will only Update the contact. Every new contact overwrites the previous contact instead of adding as a new contact. I have deleted zaps, parser mailboxes, and started from scratch multiple times but it will only update now.  No settings were changed in ActiveCampaign. How do I get the zap to Create the contact, not Update?

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Best answer by robH 28 July 2020, 15:53

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7 replies

adamsmartschan
Userlevel 5
Badge +6

@robH -

To be clear, is it updating the same contact every time? 

R
Userlevel 1

It’s updating different contacts every time (newest overwrites previous). But I think I isolated the problem. There’s no contact email address that’s forwarded to the parser so I put in a “noemail@gmail.com” since it’s a required field. Although using the same email worked fine for adding a new contact before, not the zap seems to see the email and converts to an update instead of adding a new contact.

R
Userlevel 1

Found a workaround solution if anyone has the same problem. Even though it worked for me before, ActiveCampaign seems to require unique email addresses. The parsed email had a unique id number to each email. I appended that in front of “@noemail.com” and it worked i.e. 184723@noemail.com

adamsmartschan
Userlevel 5
Badge +6

Yep, that’d do it! The email is the unique identifier in most (all?) marketing automation solutions. What’s the use case for AC where you’re not using an email?

R
Userlevel 1

We receive a lead from a service that originates from a phone call that requires a call back. So we only receive a name and phone number to call them back on. Once we get them on the phone we get their email address. But the automation occurs between the email (instantly) and the phone call so that their info is in ActiveCampaign. Not the best but that’s the way they do it so we’re kind of stuck on this one. 

adamsmartschan
Userlevel 5
Badge +6

Hm, that is sub-optimal, but such is life sometimes. Sounds like your workaround will do what you need it to. Maybe consider getting them into a segment or list when they first go over to ensure you’re not accidentally trying to deliver to a bunch of fake emails – tons of bounces = bad things.

R
Userlevel 1

Good idea. Thanks for your help Adam.  

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