Tag lead magnet downloads and start a nurture automation
Each gated download creates a tagged contact in ActiveCampaign and starts the nurture automation that matches their stated interest.
New submission on a gated ebook or whitepaper download form
Create the contact, apply a lead-magnet tag, and add them to a nurture automation
One-directional. A submission triggers the action — nothing is written back into your form.
A gated guide is a trade: the reader hands over an email address, you hand over the document. The value shows up later, in what reaches that contact over the following fortnight. This flow tags the download by the interest the reader picked and drops them into the matching nurture automation.
Content marketers running more than one asset get the most out of it, because a benchmark report reader and a buyer's checklist reader want very different follow-up emails.
Setting it up
- 1
Build the download form in formformform with Work Email and What are you most interested in? (check all that apply), and put it on the landing page in front of the guide.
- 2
Keep the guide wherever it already lives and send its link in the first email of the ActiveCampaign automation — a File Upload field collects files from the person filling the form, it is not a way to serve an asset back out.
- 3
In Zapier, set formformform's New Submission as the trigger and pick this download form, so your other lead forms do not enter the same nurture.
- 4
Add ActiveCampaign Create/Update Contact and map Work Email, Full Name, Company Name and Job Title onto the contact record.
- 5
Add an Add Tag action with a fixed lead-magnet tag, so every download is countable regardless of which asset produced it.
- 6
Add a second Add Tag action that takes its tag name from What are you most interested in? (check all that apply), giving you one tag per interest.
- 7
Add ActiveCampaign's Add Contact to Automation action after both tag steps and select your welcome nurture, so the first email can already branch on the tag.
- 8
Test with a submission that ticks two interests and confirm both tags land before the automation entry fires.
What maps where
Using the Lead Generation Form as the starting point. These are its real fields — swap in your own and the mapping works the same way.
| Form field | ActiveCampaign |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Contact First Name and Last Name, split with a Zapier Formatter step |
| Work Email | Contact Email, the key the whole Zap runs on |
| Company Name | The contact's Organization field |
| Job Title | Custom contact field, useful for segmenting practitioners from buyers |
| What are you most interested in? (check all that apply) | Tag name in the second Add Tag action — one tag per selected interest |
| What problem are you trying to solve? | Note on the contact, for whoever picks the lead up later |
Variations worth knowing
Add a Zapier filter on Company Size and, above your threshold, run a Create Deal action alongside the nurture. Everyone still enters the sequence; the bigger accounts also arrive in the pipeline on the day they downloaded rather than a month later.
ActiveCampaign's own lead scoring can add points whenever the lead-magnet tag lands. The form calculates nothing — it supplies the tag, and the scoring rules stay in ActiveCampaign where a marketer can adjust the weights without touching the Zap.
If something isn't arriving
Either the Add Contact to Automation step runs before the tag exists, or the automation's entry trigger is set to something other than that tag. Reorder the actions, and check the automation is published rather than sitting in draft.
Zapier passes the answer as comma-separated text. Split it with a Formatter step and add one Add Tag action per value, or map the whole string into a custom field and tag only on the first choice.
Frequently asked questions
How do I deliver the guide to the reader?
Put the link in the first email of the ActiveCampaign automation, or on the form's thank-you screen. The document stays wherever you already keep it. File Upload fields run the other way: they take a file in from whoever fills the form, up to 2 MB each, for you to preview or download from the submission.
Can one submission apply more than one tag?
Yes. Add an Add Tag action per tag, or split the multi-select answer and run the step for each value. A reader who ticks two interests ends up with both tags, and your automation branches on whichever one matters most.
What happens when someone downloads a second guide?
Their record picks up the new interest tag while the shared lead-magnet tag stays as it is. Guard the automation entry with an ActiveCampaign condition so a returning reader does not restart the welcome sequence from the first email.
Related automations
- Add webinar registrants to a list and tag the session
Registrations join your Event attendees list and pick up a session tag, so reminders and follow-up can run per event.
- Open a deal in ActiveCampaign for every demo request
Every demo request creates or updates a contact and opens a deal in your ActiveCampaign pipeline, ready for a rep to work.
- Save contact form messages as notes on the contact
Contact form messages are saved as notes on the ActiveCampaign contact, giving your team the full question before replying.
- Subscribe newsletter signups to an ActiveCampaign list
Every newsletter signup becomes an ActiveCampaign contact and joins your Newsletter list the moment the form is submitted.
- Tag customers by their feedback score
A post-purchase score becomes a tag on the ActiveCampaign contact, splitting promoters from customers who need following up.
- Add buyers to a customers list after each order
Each order form submission adds the buyer to a Customers list in Constant Contact for updates and repeat-purchase emails.
Build the form first
The automation needs somewhere to fire from. Publish a form, connect it once, and every submission from then on runs this flow.
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