ActiveCampaign Email Timing Fix: Conditional Logic for Welcome Series

*Editors note: 6/26 Updated with alternate solution

If you’re using ActiveCampaign for email automation, you know how powerful it can be. But sometimes, its flexibility can be a double-edged sword. I recently ran into a scheduling issue that had me scratching my head – and I’m guessing I’m not the only one.

The Problem: Explicit Scheduling of Automation Emails and the “Wait Until” Conundrum

The goal was (or seemed) simple:

1. Send a Welcome Email: Send a warm greeting as soon as someone signs up (or otherwise enters the automation.
2. Next-Day Follow-Up: Deliver the next email in the sequence at precisely 7am the following day.

Sounds easy, right? ActiveCampaign’s “Wait Until” feature seems like the perfect tool. But there’s a catch:

• Explicit Units: You can only specify waits in whole days, hours, etc.
• “Wait” 1 Day = 24 Hours: This doesn’t account for when the initial email is sent.
• “Wait Until” 7am: If I set the condition to wait until 7am and somebody signs up at 5am, the automation will send a second email 2 hours later (not the next day)!

If someone signs up at 9am, waiting 24 hours means their second email arrives at 9am the next day – not the desired 7am.

The “Aha!” Moment: Using Conditional Logic to the Rescue

After some tinkering, I found a solution that uses ActiveCampaign’s conditional logic to work around the “Wait Until” limitation. Here’s the refined breakdown:

1. Welcome Email: Send Immediately – Same as before.
2. “If/Else” Condition:
   • IF the contact’s current time is on or before 7am:
     • “Wait 1 Day” (This moves us to the next day)
     • “Wait Until” 7am (This ensures the email is sent at precisely 7am, the following day)
     • Send the follow-up email
   • ELSE (if it’s after 7am):
     • Proceed to Next Step (Skips the “Wait 1 Day” step)
3. “Wait Until” 7aam: (This is the step the “Else” condition skips to)
   • Send the follow-up email

Why This Works:

The key addition is If/Else step to check for early signups (automation entries). This ensures that even if someone signs up at 6am, we don’t accidentally send the next email a few minutes/hours later. Instead, they’ll still receive it at 7am the next day.

Visual Learner? Here’s My Setup

Key Takeaways

• ActiveCampaign’s “Wait Until” is great, but it has its limits.
• Conditional logic (“If/Else”) can be used to create more complex timing scenarios.
• Don’t be afraid to experiment! ActiveCampaign is powerful once you understand some of the more advanced settings.

An Alternate Solution

Another benefit of working with ActiveCampaign is the active user community. AC community member Robert S. pointed out that the If/Else conditions, while effective, can create an automation workflow that is hard to read (especially for a collaborator that did not build the workflow).

Instead of checking the current time with an If/Else condition we could instead implement a “Wait 7 Hours” step before “Wait until 7am). This way, if the first email is sent between 12am and 7am we can be confident that the email will not send until the following day.

Robert was kind enough to break down his solution on video here:

In either case you can leave notes in Automation Workflows to explain steps in your tree. This gives collaborators insights into more complex workflows.

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Have you run into similar challenges within your ActiveCampaign setup? Shoot me a note on Threads (@jesephm) and we’ll get it figured out!