ActiveCampaign → AcelleMail Migration — Visual Walkthrough

Before you start#

You'll need:

• An ActiveCampaign account with contact-export permission (Admin role)
• An AcelleMail installation up and running
• ~45 minutes for <100k contacts + custom fields + tags

Export from ActiveCampaign#

In ActiveCampaign's left sidebar, click Contacts → Manage Contacts. Top-right toolbar → Export.

The Export dialog asks for filters (all contacts vs. specific list/tag). Pick the scope you want. Format: CSV.

ActiveCampaign emails you the file when ready (usually <10 minutes for <100k contacts). The CSV includes: email, first name, last name, phone, all custom fields, tags (comma-separated), list memberships, account-level fields.

Import into AcelleMail (the same 6 clicks for every source)#

Once you have the CSV exported from your previous platform, the import flow in AcelleMail is identical regardless of where the data came from.

1. Open your destination list#

In AcelleMail's sidebar, click Audience → choose the list that will receive the migrated subscribers (or create a new one — New list button top-right).

You'll see a per-list overview card with subscriber counts:

2. Click "Import" in the list toolbar#

The wizard entrypoint is on the list detail page:

3. Upload your CSV#

Drop the CSV file from the previous platform into the upload area:

AcelleMail parses the file and confirms detection:

4. Map the columns#

The wizard auto-detects standard columns (email, first_name, last_name) and shows green Mapped to EMAIL chips. Adjust manually for any non-standard column from the source:

5. Pick duplicate handling#

In the same screen, choose what AcelleMail does when a subscriber already exists in this list:

• Skip — keep the existing row, don't overwrite
• Update — overwrite name/tags/custom fields with values from the CSV
• Unsubscribe — mark existing rows as unsubscribed (rare; used when re-importing an opted-out list)

6. Run the import#

Click Start import. The job runs in the background — close the popup, work elsewhere, return to Audience → [list] → Import to see progress:

You'll see Pending → Running → Complete per import job, with rows-imported / rows-skipped / errors counts.

After the import#

• Verify list count matches your expected size (rows that failed validation appear in the Errors column with a downloadable error CSV).
• Re-tag if needed — for behavioural data that doesn't fit a CSV column (e.g. "opened campaign X"), you may need to re-create the tag via segmentation rules.
• Pause for warm-up — if the imported list is large (>10k) and your sending IP is new or recently rotated, run a short warm-up campaign to your most-engaged 10% before the full send. See IP warm-up best practices for the schedule.

Rebuilding ActiveCampaign automations#

ActiveCampaign's automations map to AcelleMail's Automations. Equivalent triggers:

ActiveCampaign's "conditional content" inside emails (different blocks per segment) maps to AcelleMail's tag-driven email variants — set up separate campaigns per tag, OR use Liquid-style conditionals in the email body referring to {{ subscriber.tags }}.

Merge-tag syntax differences#

# AC API URL + token from Settings → Developer
curl -X GET "https://<account>.api-us1.com/api/3/contacts?limit=100&offset=0" \
  -H "Api-Token: <AC_API_TOKEN>" \
  -o ac-contacts.json

ACELLE_TOKEN="..."
ACELLE_LIST_UID="..."

jq -c '.contacts[] | {email: .email, first_name: .firstName, last_name: .lastName}' ac-contacts.json \
  | while read sub; do
      curl -X POST "https://acellemail.com/api/v1/subscribers" \
        -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACELLE_TOKEN" \
        -d "{\"list_uid\":\"$ACELLE_LIST_UID\",\"subscriber\":$sub}"
    done

Related articles#

• Importing contacts CSV — best practices and field mapping
• Migration from Mailchimp to AcelleMail
• Advanced automation triggers and conditions
• Building a welcome email series in AcelleMail