ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign
Your guide to creating content that converts around the future of marketing automation.
A dedicated content challenge focused on Active Intelligence 2.8 is launching in July. Everything in this playbook, especially the Platform and Positioning section, will prepare you to create content that qualifies. Watch your PartnerStack dashboard and inbox for the full announcement.
This playbook covers everything you need to create high-performing content about autonomous marketing and Active Intelligence — including what changed in the 2.8 release. Use the navigation above to move through each section.
Content formats that qualify (blog and video)
Target keywords covered in Content Tips
The current Active Intelligence release, built into Platform and Positioning
ActiveCampaign email deliverability, ranked number one
Marketers are drowning in tasks. 73% report spending more time on execution than strategy. Your audience is actively searching for solutions that give them their time back.
Marketing automation market size by 2027
Of top performers use automation extensively
Average time saved with marketing automation. View report
Increase in qualified leads with automation
Autonomous marketing is not just automation — it is AI agents that imagine, activate, and validate your entire marketing strategy. While traditional automation requires you to build every workflow manually, autonomous marketing lets you set goals in plain language and AI handles the execution.
ActiveCampaign is an all-in-one platform that combines lead generation, personalization, tracking, and behavioral automation — powered by Active Intelligence, the AI layer built across every part of ActiveCampaign that makes marketing truly autonomous. The 2.8 release is the most significant update to Active Intelligence to date.
Your core positioning
"Competitors make you build campaigns. ActiveCampaign builds them for you — and now they actually sound like you."
Before you write or record, experience the platform yourself. Both of these are worth your time before you create anything.
The number one complaint about AI marketing tools has always been the same: the output does not sound like the brand. Marketers spend more time editing AI drafts than they would have spent writing from scratch. Active Intelligence 2.8 is a direct response to that problem.
"Active Intelligence 2.8 closes the gap between AI-generated and actually sendable — every draft now builds from your brand, your voice, and your past campaigns instead of starting from a blank page."
Every piece of content you create should map back to at least one of these pillars. The 2.8 features slot naturally underneath each one.
Pillar 01: Imagine
Autonomous execution
Strategy and campaign planning. Active Intelligence turns business goals into actionable strategies and campaign concepts.
Pillar 02: Activate
Predictive intelligence
Campaign creation and cross-channel execution. AI Agents generate content, build automations, and launch campaigns across email, SMS, and more.
Pillar 03: Validate
Scalable personalization
Performance insights, learning, and optimization. Active Intelligence tracks progress against your goals and improves automatically over time.
This thought leadership piece from ActiveCampaign frames exactly the problem that 2.8 solves. It is worth reading before you write, and worth linking to if your content covers the brand voice problem in AI marketing. Read "AI slop is a choice" →
To build your first campaign from scratch
Saved each week with autonomous marketing
With timed messages (Predictive Sending)
Of customers see ROI within a year
Number one in EmailTooltester's January 2024 independent study
App integrations
Lead with the stat most relevant to your reader's situation. A solo marketer cares about time saved. An e-commerce brand cares about deliverability. A team lead cares about scale. Pair every number with a "so what" — the outcome that makes it meaningful to your specific audience.
"As we were growing, it became almost impossible to manage communication and growth manually. That's when we realized we needed automation, and that's where ActiveCampaign came in. 66% of revenue year on year is likely driven by ActiveCampaign automation."
"We're tracking trials started and trial conversions, and right now we're converting at over 20%. Before ActiveCampaign, we were converting less than 10%. ActiveCampaign has doubled our conversion rate."
"Tripled booked sales calls due to more frequent, AI-assisted email campaigns."
The best content in this category comes from real experience and a genuine point of view. Use these as starting points — the version your readers will trust is the one written in your own voice.
The Active Intelligence 2.8 content ideas above will be eligible for the July – August content challenge. Creating 2.8 content now means you will have a head start when the contest opens.
Lead with the person, not the product. Start with a real problem your reader faces — not a feature list.
Show it, do not just describe it. A screenshot from inside the platform does more work than a paragraph of description.
Place your affiliate link in context. One well-placed link after a genuine proof point outperforms five forced ones.
High-quality, well-researched content about autonomous marketing does not just rank better — it positions you as a thought leader and converts better. Focus on creating genuinely helpful educational content that serves your audience.
Your content must meet these minimums to qualify for affiliate commission tracking and any active content contests.
| Requirement | Blog post | Video |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum length | 1,200 words | Five minutes |
| Mentions ActiveCampaign by name | Required | Required |
| Includes your affiliate link | Required | Required, in description |
| Original, net-new content | Required | Required |
| Visual or screenshot included | Recommended | Inherent to format |
These are the search terms your readers are already using. Incorporate them naturally — in your title, headings, and body copy.
Lead your title with the keyword
Put "AI marketing automation" or "AI marketing tools" at or near the start of your title. Search engines weight the beginning of headlines more heavily.
Use your primary keyword in the first 100 words
Establish your topic early. Introduce "email automation" or "AI in marketing" naturally in your opening paragraph.
Structure with H2 and H3 headings that include keywords
Example H2: "What is AI in marketing and how does it work?" Example H3: "How AI marketing tools handle campaign optimization."
Hit 1,500 to 2,500 words for competitive keywords
Longer, more comprehensive content consistently outranks thin articles for competitive search terms in this category. Aim for depth, not padding.
Write a meta description that includes your primary keyword
Aim for 150–160 characters and naturally include "AI marketing automation" or "AI for email marketing."
Link to official ActiveCampaign pages with descriptive anchor text
"ActiveCampaign's AI marketing tools" is more useful anchor text than "click here."
AI Overviews (Google's AI-generated answers) and tools like Perplexity pull from content that directly answers questions. Here is how to get your content cited.
Answer the question in the first sentence
If your heading is "What is AI in marketing?", your very next sentence should be a direct, complete definition.
Use clear, scannable structure
Numbered lists, bullet points, and short paragraphs are more likely to be extracted by AI.
Include a comparison table
A simple table comparing ActiveCampaign to an alternative on key metrics is highly citable by AI answer engines.
Add a FAQ section
End your content with three to five common questions answered concisely. These are prime citation targets for AI Overviews.
Cite your sources
Link to official statistics and the ActiveCampaign product pages you reference. Credible sources make your content more trustworthy to AI systems.
For YouTube: add timestamps
Add timestamps for every major section in your video description. YouTube surfaces timestamped sections in search results.
Use these links for research, screenshots, and accurate product information before you write or record.
Interactive demo
The best asset you can use before creating content. Walk through the platform live, including Active Intelligence 2.8 features, before you write or record.
Launch the interactive demo →Active Intelligence 2.8 release notes
The official release notes covering every new feature in the 2.8 update.
Read release notes →Active Intelligence overview
The official product page for AC's AI capabilities, good for feature accuracy and screenshots.
View page →Autonomous marketing overview
The official platform overview for autonomous marketing positioning and messaging.
View page →AI Agents overview
Full list of AI Agents available in ActiveCampaign with descriptions and use cases.
View page →Customer success stories
Real examples and case studies to reference as proof points in your content.
View stories →AI Lab
ActiveCampaign's AI Lab: the latest thinking, experiments, and product direction around AI and autonomous marketing.
Explore AI Lab →Your affiliate dashboard
Access your unique affiliate link, commission tracking, and payout history.
Open dashboard →Ready-made creative assets available in your PartnerStack dashboard:
Reach out to your ActiveCampaign affiliate manager via PartnerStack or email psaffiliates@activecampaign.com.