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AdRoll Zapier integrationAutomate AdRoll with Zapier.

The AdRoll Zapier integration gives you 0 triggers, 2 actions and 0 searches. AdRoll never starts anything on its own: another app fires the Zap, and AdRoll receives an email address into one of its CRM audiences. It runs on the free plan.

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Overview

What the AdRoll Zapier integration actually does

The AdRoll Zapier integration is a one-way bridge into AdRoll. Something happens in another app, a form is filled or a row is added, and Zapier drops the email address it carries into a CRM audience in AdRoll. Your ads can then reach that person. AdRoll does not report anything back to Zapier: it only listens.

Three results come out of it. First, a retargeting list that grows by itself: every new sign-up from a sheet your sales team keeps lands in a CRM audience through Add Email to CRM Audience, with no CSV export to remember. Second, separate audiences per source: one Zap per form, each pointing at its own audience, so a webinar crowd and a pricing-page crowd never get the same ad. Third, for anything the ready-made action does not cover, a direct call to AdRoll with API Request (Beta), which reuses the account you already connected.

What Zapier does not do here matters just as much. It cannot start a Zap from AdRoll: no event in AdRoll fires anything. It cannot read an audience, remove someone from it, or tell you how many people it holds. And it does not look anything up in AdRoll first, because the app has no search step.

If you are still choosing a tool, the Make vs Zapier comparison lays out the trade-offs, and the Zapier review covers the platform as a whole.

Vocabulary

Zapier words in one minute

Seven terms show up on this page. Here is what each one means in plain English.

Zap
Your automation on Zapier. For AdRoll it reads: when something happens in another app, add this email to that audience.
Trigger
The event in an app that starts the Zap. AdRoll has none, so on this page the trigger always comes from another app.
Action
The step that does the work once the Zap has started: here, writing an email into an AdRoll audience.
Task
Zapier's unit of usage: each email AdRoll accepts through the Zap is one task, and your plan grants a monthly number of them.
Polling vs instant
A polling trigger is checked on a timer. An instant trigger is pushed by the app the moment the event happens, with no wait.
Filter
An optional checkpoint before the AdRoll step, for instance an email column that is not empty, that lets only matching items through.
Connection
Your AdRoll account linked to Zapier once, then reused by every Zap and every step that talks to AdRoll.
Cost

What it costs to run

AdRoll is not a premium app, so it works on the free plan.

  • Premium appNo, free plan works
  • Free plan100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps
  • BilledEach successful action
  • Not billedThe trigger, and failed actions

The trigger from your other app costs nothing, however often Zapier checks it. Each email that AdRoll accepts counts as one task; a failed attempt counts for nothing. The free plan gives you 100 tasks a month and Zaps of exactly two steps, which fits the simple case: one trigger, one AdRoll action. Add a filter to skip rows with no email, or a second action, and the Zap becomes multi-step, which needs a paid plan.

Connect

Connect AdRoll to Zapier in three steps

  1. 01

    Open your connections

    In Zapier, go to the Apps page and click + Add connection. You need an existing AdRoll account, plus access to the advertiser accounts you want the Zap to write into if someone else owns them.

  2. 02

    Find AdRoll and launch the sign-in

    Type AdRoll in the search box of the dialog, pick it, then click Add connection. A new browser tab opens on the AdRoll sign-in page, where the rest of the setup happens.

  3. 03

    Sign in and grant access

    Log in with your AdRoll credentials and allow Zapier to use the account. Back in Zapier, the connection appears in the list and every AdRoll step can reuse it from then on.

First Zap

Your first Zap: sheet rows into an AdRoll audience

GoalEach contact your sales team types into a shared sheet after a trade show joins a CRM audience in AdRoll, ready for a follow-up ad.

  1. 01

    Pick the starting app

    Create a Zap and choose the sheet event as the trigger. AdRoll cannot start a Zap, so the starting point always lives in another app.

  2. 02

    Test the trigger

    Run the test: Zapier brings back the three most recent rows, so you map fields on a real contact rather than on an empty placeholder.

  3. 03

    Add a filter for empty rows

    Insert a filter that lets the Zap continue only when the email column holds an address. This makes it multi-step, so a paid plan is needed.

  4. 04

    Add the AdRoll action

    Choose Add Email to CRM Audience, pick the advertiser and the audience, then map the email column of the sheet into the Email field.

  5. 05

    Test and publish

    Test the AdRoll step once and open AdRoll to check that the address really landed in the audience, then click Publish to switch the Zap on.

Actions

AdRoll actions on Zapier

AdRoll gives you 2 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

1

Add Email to CRM Audience

Action

In Zapier“Adds an email address to a CRM audience”

One email in, one more person your ads can reach. Pick the advertiser account and the CRM audience, map an address from the trigger, and AdRoll files it in that audience.

When to use it
every new lead from a form or a sheet should land in the audience your retargeting campaign targets.
Watch out
all three fields are required, so an item with no email fails.
2

API Request (Beta)

Action

In Zapier“This is an advanced action which makes a raw HTTP request that includes this integration's authentication.”

An advanced action that sends a raw request to AdRoll with your connection already attached, for anything the ready-made action does not cover.

When to use it
a developer on your team knows which AdRoll call they want and only needs Zapier to sign it.
Watch out
you must choose the HTTP method, the URL and whether the step stops on error, and only AdRoll domains are accepted.
When it breaks

When the Zap breaks

Zapier ties no help article to AdRoll, so the known failure points are Zapier's own general limits.

Most problems come from the starting app rather than from AdRoll. Read these before you trust the audience size.

  • Old contacts never arrive

    A Zap only reacts to what happens after you switch it on. Contacts already sitting in your sheet stay out of AdRoll until you import them another way.

  • A bulk import gets held back

    If the starting app suddenly returns a huge batch, after a migration for example, Zapier's flood protection can pause it instead of pushing everything at once.

  • The same contact twice

    On a polling trigger, Zapier remembers what it has already seen, so the same row does not start the Zap twice.

  • A missing email stops the step

    Email is required on Add Email to CRM Audience. A trigger item with an empty email cell fails that step, and no task is counted for it.
Need help

Need help automating AdRoll with Zapier?

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FAQ

AdRoll Zapier integration FAQ

01Is the AdRoll Zapier integration free?
Yes, on the free plan. AdRoll is not a premium app, so a two-step Zap with a trigger from another app and one AdRoll action runs without paying. The free plan caps you at 100 tasks a month and at two steps per Zap. The moment you add a filter, a second action or a search, the Zap becomes multi-step and needs a paid plan. No price is given here, because the plan grid changes too often to stay accurate.
02How many tasks does adding an email to AdRoll use?
One task per email that AdRoll accepts. The trigger that started the Zap costs nothing, and Zapier checking for new items costs nothing either. If the AdRoll step fails, for instance because the email was empty, it is not counted. A Zap that sends the same contact to two audiences with two actions uses two tasks per contact. On the free allowance of 100 tasks, that means a hundred new contacts a month into one audience, or fifty into two.
03Does AdRoll update in real time from Zapier?
It depends entirely on the app that starts the Zap, since AdRoll has no trigger of its own. If that app offers an instant trigger, the email reaches AdRoll as soon as the event happens. If it uses a polling trigger, Zapier checks on a timer: every 15 minutes on Free, 2 on Professional, 1 on Team and Enterprise. Once the Zap has started, the AdRoll action itself runs straight away.
04What do you need to connect AdRoll to Zapier?
An AdRoll account and access to the advertiser you want to write into. If a colleague or an agency owns that advertiser, ask them for access first. The connection itself goes through the Apps page in Zapier, then + Add connection, then the AdRoll sign-in in a new tab. The required Advertisable EID and CRM audience fields are only filled from what that login can see, so a missing audience means creating it in AdRoll beforehand.
05Why can't a Zap start from AdRoll?
Because Zapier does not offer any AdRoll trigger in the editor today. AdRoll only appears as an action: it receives emails, it does not announce events. Every Zap that touches AdRoll therefore starts in another app, a form, a sheet, a CRM or a calendar. If what you want is to react to something that happens inside AdRoll, this integration cannot do it. API Request (Beta) does not change that either: it is an action, so it still waits for a trigger from another app.
06What if the AdRoll operation you need is not listed?
Then API Request (Beta) is the fallback. It sends a raw request to AdRoll with your existing connection, so you do not handle sign-in yourself. You choose the method, the URL and what happens on error, and only AdRoll domains are allowed. It assumes someone knows which AdRoll call to make. If nobody does, the honest answer is that the Zap stops at adding emails to CRM audiences, and the rest stays a manual job in AdRoll.
07Zapier, Make or n8n for AdRoll?
It depends on what matters to you. If AdRoll should simply receive leads from common tools and you want the shortest setup, Zapier's ready-made action does the job on the free plan. If you plan many steps per contact, compare how each tool bills them, since Zapier counts every successful action. If you want to host the automation yourself or write custom calls often, n8n is worth a look. Check each tool's AdRoll coverage before committing.
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