For optimal ActiveCampaign deliverability: 1) Set up custom sending domain (Settings → Advanced → Domains → add your domain with DKIM and SPF), 2) Enable Engagement Management (Settings → Engagement Management → turn on), 3) Use engagement-based segments for campaigns, 4) Configure custom tracking domain, 5) Publish DMARC on your domain. Most ActiveCampaign deliverability issues come from sending to unengaged contacts or not configuring custom domain authentication.
ActiveCampaign Deliverability Guide: Complete Optimization
Setup Checklist
1. Custom Domain Authentication
Settings → Advanced → I agree → Domains → Add Domain
Enter your sending domain. ActiveCampaign provides:
- DKIM: 2 CNAME records
- SPF: Include directive to add to your SPF record
Add all DNS records. Verify in ActiveCampaign.
Without custom domain auth, ActiveCampaign signs with their domain. DMARC alignment fails.
2. Engagement Management
Settings → Engagement Management → Enable
This automatically:
- Tags contacts by engagement level (active, passive, disengaged)
- Provides engagement scoring
- Can trigger automations when engagement drops
- Optionally suppresses sends to disengaged contacts
Enable this. It's the most impactful deliverability setting in ActiveCampaign. See our segmentation for deliverability guide for the full strategy.
3. DMARC
Add to your DNS:
_dmarc.yourdomain.com TXT v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:[email protected]
4. Custom Tracking Domain
Settings → Tracking → configure a custom tracking domain (e.g., links.yourdomain.com).
5. Engagement-Based Segments
Create segments:
- Active (30 days): Opened or clicked in last 30 days
- Passive (31-90 days): Last activity 31-90 days ago
- Disengaged (91-180 days): No activity in 91-180 days
- Inactive (180+ days): Suppress from marketing
Send campaigns to Active + Passive. Re-engagement automations for Disengaged. Suppress Inactive.
Predictive Sending
Available on Pro plan ($79/month+). ActiveCampaign's predictive sending uses AI to determine the optimal send time per contact based on their historical open/click patterns.
Impact: 2-5% engagement improvement. Worth enabling if available on your plan. Won't fix fundamental deliverability issues but optimizes the edges.
Contact Cleaning (Post-Nov 2025)
ActiveCampaign now charges for all contacts. Monthly cleaning routine:
- Delete hard bounced contacts (can't receive email)
- Suppress 180+ day inactive (from marketing, keep for transactional)
- Delete permanently unsubscribed (no reason to keep)
- Review "pending" contacts (never confirmed double opt-in)
A 25K list with 5K inactive contacts costs you extra every month for no deliverability benefit.
Practitioner note: ActiveCampaign's Engagement Management is the most underused feature I see. It's off by default, most admins never enable it, and it solves the #1 deliverability problem (sending to unengaged contacts) automatically. Enable it today — it takes 30 seconds and immediately starts improving your engagement metrics.
Practitioner note: For the Nov 2025 billing change: set a monthly calendar reminder to clean contacts. Run an automation that tags contacts as "inactive-180" based on engagement, then bulk-delete quarterly. This saves money and improves deliverability simultaneously.
If you need ActiveCampaign configured for optimal deliverability, schedule a consultation.
Sources
- ActiveCampaign: Email Deliverability
- ActiveCampaign: Engagement Management
v1.0 · March 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I set up custom domain authentication in ActiveCampaign?
Settings → Advanced → Domains → Add Domain. Enter your sending domain. ActiveCampaign provides DKIM CNAME records and SPF information. Add these DNS records. Verify in ActiveCampaign. Without this, ActiveCampaign signs with their domain, causing DMARC alignment failures.
What is ActiveCampaign's Engagement Management?
Engagement Management automatically tracks contact engagement and can suppress sends to unengaged contacts. Enable in Settings → Engagement Management. It tags contacts based on engagement level and can trigger automations for re-engagement or suppression. It's off by default on most accounts.
Does the Nov 2025 billing change affect deliverability?
Indirectly. ActiveCampaign now charges for all contacts (including unsubscribed/bounced). This creates a cost incentive to clean your list — which also improves deliverability. Delete bounced contacts and suppress unengaged ones regularly.
Does ActiveCampaign support dedicated IPs?
Yes, on higher plans. Contact ActiveCampaign support to request. Recommended only for senders doing 100K+/month consistently. Below that, ActiveCampaign's managed shared pools are well-maintained.
How is ActiveCampaign's deliverability compared to Mailchimp?
Comparable. Both maintain shared IP pools and support custom authentication. ActiveCampaign's Engagement Management gives it a slight deliverability edge by automatically identifying unengaged contacts. For most users, deliverability depends on configuration, not platform.
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