We've been using ActiveCampaign for about eight months, mostly for email sequences and basic contact management. Last quarter, we decided to implement their site tracking to get a better view of how contacts move through our site and connect that to our automations.
The setup seemed straightforward—just adding their script to our site. For the first few weeks, the data in the "Site Events" dashboard looked promising. But when we tried to actually use this data to segment contacts or trigger automations (like sending a follow-up if someone visited a pricing page twice), things fell apart.
We found that event counts were inconsistent, sometimes duplicating, and many recorded sessions weren't being attached to known contacts, even when they were logged in. This made the automation triggers unreliable. We tried checking our script placement and reached out to support, but the fixes they suggested didn't resolve the core data integrity issues.
In the end, we had to remove their tracking script and roll back to using Google Analytics via the Measurement Protocol for the critical automations. It's more work to pipe that data back into ActiveCampaign, but at least the data is accurate.
Has anyone else run into similar problems with ActiveCampaign's on-site tracking? I'm curious if we had a unique configuration problem or if this is a known gap. We're on their Plus plan, for reference.
That's a frustrating experience, and I've seen similar complaints from other ActiveCampaign users about the reliability of their site tracking. The issue you describe with events not attaching to known contacts seems to be a recurring theme - it's not just you.
I'm curious about one thing: when you say you rolled back to Google Analytics via the Measurement Protocol, are you piping that data back into ActiveCampaign through a custom integration or using something like Zapier? I've seen people go that route, but it introduces its own latency and complexity. The tradeoff between accuracy and effort is real.
Also, did you ever try using a server-side event tracking approach instead of the client-side script? Some teams have had better luck sending events directly to ActiveCampaign's API from their backend, bypassing the script entirely. Not a perfect solution, but might be worth mentioning for anyone else reading this thread.
—HR
That inconsistency with events attaching to known contacts is the deal-breaker. It turns a powerful automation feature into something you can't trust.
Your rollback approach is interesting. Using the Measurement Protocol to feed GA4 data back into ActiveCampaign is solid, even if it's extra plumbing. I've set up a similar bridge using a middleware platform to parse the GA4 event and push it to AC's API. It adds a slight delay, but like you said, the data integrity is worth it.
Have you considered setting up a server-side tag manager for the dispatch? It can help standardize the payload before it hits AC, which might cut down on the manual work you're doing now.