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Attentive Zapier integrationAutomate Attentive with Zapier.

The Attentive Zapier integration gives you 11 triggers, 13 actions and 1 search. Every trigger is instant, the app works on the free plan, and the actions feed shopper events, profiles and subscriptions back into your SMS and email marketing.

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Overview

What the Attentive Zapier integration actually does for you

The integration links your Attentive account to Zapier, so a subscriber event in Attentive can start an automation, and data from your other tools can land in Attentive without anyone copying it over. You build it once as a Zap, and it runs on its own after that.

Three results you can get out of it, each tied to a real operation:

Richer profiles at signup. SMS Subscribed fires, and User Properties (V2) writes attributes and identifiers onto that person. Your next segment is built on facts, not guesses.

Shopping signals Attentive can act on. Add to Cart, Product View and Purchase send commerce events from a store or tool Attentive does not watch on its own. Abandoned-cart and post-purchase flows then have something to react to.

Clean consent across channels. Email Unsubscribed or SMS Unsubscribed starts the Zap, and Unsubscribe Subscriptions for a User or a Custom Events record keeps the rest of your setup honest.

What Zapier does not do here: it never replays the past. A Zap only reacts to events that happen after you switch it on, so last month's subscribers stay where they are. There is also no find-or-create shortcut on this app, and the single search looks people up by phone number or email only.

Comparing tools before you commit? The Attentive Make integration covers the same app on Make, and n8n vs Zapier lays out the other option side by side.

Vocabulary

Zapier vocabulary in one minute

Eight words you will see in the editor. Learn them once, the rest of this page uses them as is.

Zap
The automation you build on Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run every time that trigger happens.
Trigger
The event in an app that starts the Zap. Once the Zap is on, Zapier sits and waits for that event.
Action
The step that does the work after the trigger: it writes, sends or updates something in an app for you.
Task
What Zapier bills you for: one action your Zap finishes successfully. Your plan's allowance is a count of these.
Polling vs instant
A polling trigger is checked by Zapier on a timer. An instant trigger is reported by the app itself the moment the event happens.
Filter
A step that lets the Zap continue only when the incoming data meets a condition you set, and stops it otherwise.
Search step
A step that looks up something that already exists in an app, so later steps can reuse what it found.
Connection
Your Attentive account linked to Zapier one time, then reused by every step in every Zap that touches Attentive.
Cost

What it really costs you

Short version: the trigger is free, actions are not.

  • Triggernever costs a task
  • Successful action1 task each
  • Free plan100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps
  • Attentive triggers11 instant, 0 polling

A trigger never costs a task, so Attentive firing all day costs nothing by itself. Each action that succeeds counts one task, and a three-action Zap eats three times more than a one-action Zap. An action that fails is not counted. Attentive is not a premium app, so the free plan works: 100 tasks a month, unlimited Zaps, but only two steps per Zap. Add a second action, a filter or a search and the Zap becomes a multi-step Zap, which needs a paid plan. The polling grid below does not touch Attentive, since all 11 of its triggers are instant.

Connect

Connect Attentive to Zapier in three steps

  1. 01

    Open the Apps page

    You need an Attentive account first, plus access to anything you do not own yourself and want the Zap to touch. In Zapier, go to Apps and click + Add connection.

  2. 02

    Find Attentive

    Type Attentive in the search box of the dialog that opens, pick it from the results, then click Add connection. A new tab opens on the Attentive side for the sign-in.

  3. 03

    Sign in and allow access

    Log into your Attentive account in that tab and grant Zapier access to it. From then on, every Zap that uses Attentive reuses this one connection, so you never repeat the step.

First Zap

Your first Zap: welcome every new SMS subscriber properly

GoalWhen someone opts in to SMS, store their profile data in Attentive and log a custom event you can build a flow on.

  1. 01

    Build: pick the trigger

    Start a new Zap, choose Attentive as the app and SMS Subscribed as the trigger event. Then select the Attentive connection you just made.

  2. 02

    Test the trigger

    Run the test. Zapier brings back the three most recent SMS signups on your account, so you map fields on a real subscriber, not a dummy one.

  3. 03

    Add User Properties (V2)

    Add Attentive again as an action, pick User Properties (V2), and map the subscriber details from the trigger into it. Keep attribute keys spelled exactly like the existing ones.

  4. 04

    Add Custom Events

    Add a third step with Custom Events and give it an Event Type name. Pick it once and never change its capitals: Attentive treats two spellings as two events.

  5. 05

    Test, then publish

    Test each action and read what came back. When both pass, click Publish. With two actions this is a multi-step Zap, so it needs a paid plan.

Triggers

Attentive triggers on Zapier

11 events start a Zap when something happens in Attentive, and 11 of them are instant: the app calls Zapier straight away, whatever your plan.

1

Custom Attribute Set

Instant trigger

In Zapier“This event occurs when a custom attribute is set.”

Starts your Zap whenever a custom attribute gets a value on a subscriber in Attentive. Think of it as a doorbell for the data points you track yourself, like a favorite category or a loyalty tier.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan
When to use it
push a tier change into your CRM or a sheet the moment Attentive records it, so sales and support see the same thing.
Watch out
never pair it with the Custom Attributes action on the same data, or the Zap sets itself off again and again.
3

Email Opened

Instant trigger

In Zapier“This event occurs when an email message is opened.”

Kicks off the Zap when someone opens an email you sent through Attentive. Softer than a click, but it tells you the message landed in front of a person.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan
When to use it
record an engagement event against the contact in a reporting tool, then build re-engagement lists from people who stopped opening.
Watch out
opens add up fast on a big send, so put a filter after it if only some of them matter, keeping in mind a filter means a paid plan.
4

Email Sent

Instant trigger

In Zapier“This event occurs when an email message is sent.”

Reacts to every email message Attentive sends. It is the raw delivery log, one run per message, which makes it handy for audit trails outside the platform.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan
When to use it
keep a contact-level history of what each customer received in the tool your support team actually reads.
Watch out
it runs once per message sent, so an action on every send can drain 100 free tasks in a single campaign.
5

Email Subscribed

Instant trigger

In Zapier“This event occurs when a user opts in to an email subscription.”

Runs when a person opts in to an email subscription in Attentive. You get the moment of consent itself, which is the cleanest starting point for any welcome logic.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan
When to use it
create the matching contact in your CRM with an email-consent flag, so marketing and sales agree on who can be emailed.
Watch out
people who subscribed before the Zap was published will not come through; move that backlog separately.
6

Email Unsubscribed

Instant trigger

In Zapier“This event occurs when a user opts out of an email subscription.”

Catches the opposite moment: someone opting out of an email subscription. It is the trigger that protects your sender reputation in every other tool you mail from.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan
When to use it
mark the contact as unsubscribed in your CRM or newsletter tool, so nobody re-imports them by mistake next quarter.
Watch out
if the same Zap also unsubscribes people in Attentive, check it cannot feed its own trigger in a loop.
7

SMS Inbound Message

Instant trigger

In Zapier“An event notification is sent from Attentive when a user replies to an SMS.”

Fires when a subscriber replies to one of your SMS messages. Replies are real conversations, and this trigger lets you route them somewhere a human will see them.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan
When to use it
open a ticket in your helpdesk when a customer texts back a question about an order.
Watch out
test it with a real reply on your account first; the test pulls the three latest replies, so you see exactly what arrives.
9

SMS Sent

Instant trigger

In Zapier“This event occurs when an SMS message is sent.”

Responds to each SMS message Attentive sends out. Like its email twin, it is a delivery log rather than a signal of interest, one run per text.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan
When to use it
log transactional texts, such as shipping notices, against the order in your support tool so agents know what the customer saw.
Watch out
on a marketing blast every text is a run, so think twice before attaching more than one action to it.
10

SMS Subscribed

Instant trigger

In Zapier“This event occurs when a user opts in to an SMS subscription.”

Triggers when a person opts in to an SMS subscription. For an SMS-first platform like Attentive, this is the signup event that matters most.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan
When to use it
enrich the new profile with User Properties (V2) and log a welcome event, exactly like the first Zap on this page.
Watch out
avoid a Zap that also runs Subscribe User on the same person; you would be re-subscribing someone who just joined.
11

SMS Unsubscribed

Instant trigger

In Zapier“This event occurs when a user opts out of an SMS subscription.”

Fires when someone opts out of an SMS subscription. Texting rules are strict, so this is the event to propagate fast to anything else that might contact that number.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan
When to use it
flag the phone number as do-not-text in your CRM, so the sales team does not follow up by SMS from another tool.
Watch out
it only covers opt-outs after publishing, so reconcile older ones by hand once.
Actions

Attentive actions on Zapier

Attentive gives you 13 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

1

Add to Cart

Action

In Zapier“Make a call to this endpoint when a user adds a product to their shopping cart.”

Tells Attentive that a shopper put a product in their cart. It needs the Product ID, the Product Variant ID and the Price.

When to use it
your checkout runs on a tool Attentive does not track, and you still want cart-abandonment texts to work.
Watch out
all three product fields are mandatory, so a source without variant IDs will fail the step.
2

Custom Attributes

Action

In Zapier“Make a call to this endpoint for any attribute-based data.”

Writes attribute-based data onto a person through its Properties field, the place for the facts you segment on.

When to use it
store a city, a favorite category or a plan name coming from a form or a CRM.
Watch out
keys and values are case sensitive, so Favorite color and Favorite Color end up as two separate attributes.
3

Custom Events

Action

In Zapier“Make a call to this endpoint for any event-based data representing user actions.”

Logs any user action you define, under an Event Type name you choose. It is the open-ended way to tell Attentive something happened.

When to use it
a webinar attended, a quote signed, a subscription renewed: anything you want a journey to react to.
Watch out
Event Type is case sensitive, so Order Shipped and order shipped become two different events.
4

Delete Request

Action

In Zapier“You can use the Privacy Request API in order to comply with California Consumer Privacy Act deletion requests through Attentive. For more information, you can review Attentive’s FAQs for CCPA or the Important Notice Regarding the CCPA of 2018.”

Files a privacy deletion request through Attentive, built for California Consumer Privacy Act requests (the CCPA of 2018).

When to use it
your privacy form receives a deletion request and you want Attentive handled along with your other tools.
Watch out
this is a legal process, so have your privacy lead check the Zap before you publish it.
5

Get Custom Attributes for a User

Action

In Zapier“Get Custom Attributes for a User”

Reads back the custom attributes stored on one user, so a later step can use them.

When to use it
before writing to another tool, pull the profile data Attentive already holds instead of asking for it again.
Watch out
it sits among the actions, not the searches, so look for it in the action list.
6

Lookup Product Catalog Ingestion

Action

In Zapier“Make a call to this endpoint to get recent catalog uploads with their statuses to gain visibility into the ingestion workflow in order of creation. See the POST of this endpoint for details.”

Checks one specific catalog upload, using the Upload ID you got back when that upload was made.

When to use it
you know which import worried you and want only its status.
Watch out
Upload ID is mandatory, so keep it from the earlier upload or get it from View Recent Catalog Uploads.
7

View Recent Catalog Uploads

Action

In Zapier“Make a call to this endpoint to list recent catalog uploads with their statuses to gain visibility into the ingestion workflow in order of creation. See the POST of this endpoint for details.”

Lists your latest product catalog uploads with their status, in order of creation, to show where each import stands.

When to use it
a check after you push a new catalog, sent to the person in charge of merchandising.
Watch out
it reports on uploads; it does not upload anything.
8

Identity

Action

In Zapier“Use the Identity API to manage user identifiers. With this API, you can programmatically add a client user identifier or custom identifier(s) to a user. You should only use clientUserId and customIdentifiers to send Attentive your system-assigned unique identifiers (even when testing).”

Attaches identifiers to a user: a client user ID, or custom identifiers of your own. It is how Attentive learns that a profile matches a record in your systems.

When to use it
link a subscriber to their customer ID in your store or CRM.
Watch out
send only your real, system-assigned unique IDs, even while testing.
9

Subscribe User

Action

In Zapier“Make a call to this endpoint to subscribe a user to subscriptions. Note that when a user is subscribed programmatically, it must include compliant legal language. By default, if a subscription already exists, it records the attempt to create the subscription again. For TEXT subscriptions, a message is sent to the person indicating that they are already subscribed.”

Signs a person up to one or more subscriptions. It requires a Creative ID, the sign-up source Attentive issues to you, and the signup must carry compliant legal wording.

When to use it
a lead form outside Attentive where people explicitly agreed to receive texts.
Watch out
Single Opt In is off by default; switching it on skips only the Reply Y text, and the legal message still goes out.
10

Unsubscribe Subscriptions for a User

Action

In Zapier“Make a call to this endpoint to unsubscribe a user from a subscription type or channel. If no subscriptions are present in the request, the user is unsubscribed from all subscriptions. If subscriptions are present in the request, the user is unsubscribed from the requested type or channel combination. By default, if a subscription exists, but the user is already unsubscribed, it records the attempt to unsubscribe the subscription again. For TEXT subscriptions, a message is sent to the person indicating that they are unsubscribed.”

Takes a person off a subscription type or channel. Message Type, such as marketing or transactional, and Marketing Channel are required.

When to use it
someone asks your support team to stop texts, and you want Attentive to reflect it.
Watch out
with no subscription listed, the person is removed from all of them, and text subscribers receive a message confirming it.
11

Product View

Action

In Zapier“Make a call to this endpoint when a user views a product.”

Records that a person looked at a product, with the same three required fields as the cart action: Product ID, Product Variant ID and Price.

When to use it
browse-abandonment flows, fed by a catalog or landing page that lives outside your main store.
Watch out
views are frequent, and each one sent is a task.
12

Purchase

Action

In Zapier“Make a call to this endpoint when a user generates an order or purchase.”

Sends an order to Attentive, so the purchase shows on the subscriber and can stop or start flows. Product ID, Product Variant ID and Price are required here too.

When to use it
orders taken by phone or in a booking tool that would otherwise never reach Attentive.
Watch out
a missing variant ID or price on the order side fails the step, and a failed action is not billed but nothing reaches Attentive.
13

User Properties (V2)

Action

In Zapier“Creates or updates a single user record, including associated attributes, subscriptions, and identifiers. If a user with the provided identifiers already exists, their information will be updated; otherwise, a new user will be created. There is a limit of 100 of custom attributes that can be created. If intending to update an existing attribute, the name of the key must match the name of the existing attribute. If an existing attribute does not exist, a new attribute will be created with the given key as the name. Attributes with enumerated values must have a value that matches an existing enum value; new enum values will not be created. Attempting to pass custom attributes as an array or a map such as ["New York City] or {"favorite city": "Boston"} will result in a 400 error.”

Creates a user, or updates them if the identifiers already match someone, with attributes, subscriptions and identifiers in one go.

When to use it
the main profile sync, right after a signup trigger.
Watch out
you can create 100 custom attributes at most, a key that does not match exactly creates a new one, and list or map values are rejected.
Searches

The Attentive search step

1 search step looks for data that already exists in Attentive, so a later step can use it.

Attentive has one search step. You find it at the bottom of the action event list, under its own SEARCH heading. Three settings decide what happens when the lookup does not go as planned.

1

Get Subscription Eligibility for a User

Search

In Zapier“Make a call to this endpoint to list all subscription types and channels a user is subscribed to. You can query for a subscriber using either their phone number or email. One of the query parameters is required in order to look up a subscriber. As an example, you can use this endpoint to check if a subscriber is eligible to receive SMS or email campaigns, and then send them a message based on that eligibility.”

Looks a person up by phone number or by email, one of the two is required, and returns every subscription type and channel they are on.

When to use it
before a Zap texts or emails someone, confirm they are actually subscribed to that channel.
Watch out
adding it turns the Zap into a multi-step Zap, so it needs a paid plan.

The three settings every search exposes

  1. Successful if no search results are found?
    Left on its default, a search that finds nobody stops the Zap and the dependent steps are skipped. Switch it on and the Zap carries on without a result.
  2. Create X if it doesn't exist yet?
    This box turns a search into find-or-create. Attentive exposes no find-or-create variant, so nothing gets created from this search.
  3. If multiple search results are found?
    Keep the first match (the default), stop the Zap, or pass every match on to the next steps.
When it breaks

When your Attentive Zap breaks

Zapier attaches a single help article to Attentive, about getting started. The cases below follow from the app's own field rules and from how Zapier works.

  • Nothing from before the Zap

    A Zap only reacts to what happens after you publish it. Subscribers, clicks or orders from last week never come through; move that backlog as a separate job.

  • The Zap keeps setting itself off

    Custom Attribute Set watching attributes that your own Custom Attributes step writes is a loop. Each turn costs tasks until you break the circle.

  • A capital letter split your data

    Event Type and attribute keys are case sensitive. One Zap writing Plan and another writing plan creates two fields that never meet.

  • Attribute limit reached

    User Properties (V2) caps custom attributes at 100. A typo in a key does not update the old attribute, it creates a new one and eats into that cap.

  • Value refused by User Properties (V2)

    Attributes with fixed choices only accept a value that already exists, and lists or maps are rejected outright. Send plain single values.

  • A sudden flood is held back

    After a bulk import or a big send, a trigger can return a huge batch at once, and Zapier's flood protection can hold it back.
Need help

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FAQ

Attentive Zapier integration: your questions

01Is the Attentive Zapier integration free?
Yes, you can start on the free Zapier plan, because Attentive is not a premium app. The free plan gives you 100 tasks a month and unlimited Zaps, but each Zap is limited to two steps: one trigger and one action. As soon as you add a second action, a filter or the search step, the Zap becomes multi-step and needs a paid plan. Whatever you build, the trigger side stays free.
02How many tasks does an Attentive Zap use?
One task per action that succeeds, and nothing for the trigger. A Zap that fires on SMS Subscribed and then runs User Properties (V2) and Custom Events uses two tasks per new subscriber. An action that fails is not billed. The real risk is volume: triggers like Email Sent or SMS Sent fire on every single message, so attaching an action to them during a large campaign can consume a monthly allowance quickly.
03Does Attentive trigger Zaps in real time?
Yes. All 11 Attentive triggers are instant: Attentive notifies Zapier as soon as the event happens, and the Zap starts at once, on any plan. The polling interval of 15 minutes on the free plan, or 2 minutes on Professional, only applies to triggers Zapier has to check on a timer, and Attentive has none of those. In the editor, a Zap built on an instant trigger shows a lightning bolt.
04What does it take to connect Attentive to Zapier?
An Attentive account, and access to whatever the Zap will read or change if you do not own it yourself. In Zapier you open Apps, click + Add connection, search Attentive, click Add connection, sign in on the tab that opens, and grant access. For Subscribe User you also need a Creative ID, a sign-up source that Attentive provides through its White Glove team or your Client Strategy Manager. Ask for it before you build.
05Why does Attentive create duplicate events or attributes?
Because names are case sensitive. Attentive treats Order Shipped and order shipped as two event types, and the same goes for attribute keys like Favorite color and Favorite Color. When two Zaps, or a Zap and your store, spell a name differently, the data splits in two. Pick one spelling, write it down, and reuse it everywhere. Remember that User Properties (V2) allows 100 custom attributes, so stray spellings also eat into that limit.
06What if the Attentive operation you need does not exist on Zapier?
Check first whether a broad action covers it. Custom Events accepts any event name you define, and Custom Attributes or User Properties (V2) store any profile data, which handles a lot of specific cases. If the job truly is not there, the same app is also available on Make, with a different set of modules. A Zapier specialist can also tell you whether a workaround through another app holds up before you build it.
07Zapier, Make or n8n for Attentive?
There is no single winner, only criteria. On Zapier, the facts are known: 11 instant triggers, 13 actions, 1 search, the free plan accepted, and billing per successful action. Before choosing Make or n8n instead, check the same points there: whether the events you need exist as triggers, how a run is billed, and who on your team will maintain the workflow once it is live. Budget and expected volume should settle the rest.
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