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Constant Contact Zapier integrationAutomate Constant Contact with Zapier.

The Constant Contact Zapier integration gives you 4 triggers, 7 actions and 1 search to keep your contacts, lists and tags in line with the rest of your tools. All four triggers are checked on a timer, and the app runs on the free plan.

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Overview

What the Constant Contact Zapier integration actually does

It links your Constant Contact account to Zapier so that something happening in your email marketing (a new contact, an open, an unsubscribe) can start a chain of steps, and so other tools can write contacts, lists and tags back into Constant Contact without you copying anything by hand.

Three outcomes people usually build first. A tidy audience: every new contact gets a tag through Tag Contact, so your segments fill themselves. Engagement that turns into action: New Email Open hands you each recipient who opened a given campaign activity, ready to be tagged or moved to another list. A clean exit: New Unsubscriber tells the rest of your stack that someone left, so nobody keeps writing to them from another tool.

Now what this integration does not do. It sends no campaign: there is no action to create, schedule or send an email. It cannot watch tags, campaigns or clicks either, only new contacts, new lists, opens and unsubscribes. And every action that edits a contact wants its Contact ID, a long identifier, not the email address. When you only hold the email, the search step Find or Create Contact is the bridge.

All four triggers work by polling, so on the free plan expect a gap of up to 15 minutes between the event and the Zap. If you are weighing tools, the Constant Contact Make integration covers the same app on the other platform.

Vocabulary

Zapier vocabulary in one minute

Seven words come back on every line of this page. Here they are once, in plain English.

Zap
The automation you build: one trigger, then one or more actions that run each time that trigger event happens.
Trigger
The event that starts the Zap, for example a new contact in Constant Contact. Once the Zap is on, Zapier waits for it.
Action
What the Zap does after it starts: the step that writes, tags or removes something in an app for you.
Task
The unit Zapier bills. One task is one action your Zap completed successfully, and your plan counts those.
Polling vs instant
A polling trigger is checked on a timer. An instant trigger is reported by the app the moment it happens. Constant Contact only has polling ones.
Filter
A step that lets the Zap continue only when what arrived meets your condition, and stops it quietly otherwise.
Search step
A step that looks up something that already exists, such as a contact by email, so later steps can use what it found.
Cost

What it really costs in tasks

Constant Contact is not a premium app on Zapier, so it works from the free plan. The bill is counted in tasks, not in checks.

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

The trigger never costs a task, and neither does Zapier checking for new contacts, however often it looks. Each action that succeeds counts as one task; one that fails is not counted. The free plan gives 100 tasks a month and builds two-step Zaps only: one trigger, one action. Add a filter, a second action or Find or Create Contact and you have a multi-step Zap, which needs a paid plan. A few apps and actions take more than one task, so check the run history.

Connect

Connect Constant Contact to Zapier

  1. 01

    Open the Apps page

    In your Zapier account, go to Apps and click + Add connection. You need a Constant Contact account first, plus access to the lists and contacts you want the Zap to touch if they are not yours.

  2. 02

    Pick Constant Contact

    Type Constant Contact in the search box of the dialog, select it in the results, then click Add connection. A new tab opens on the Constant Contact sign-in.

  3. 03

    Sign in and grant access

    Log in with the Constant Contact account the Zap should work on, then grant Zapier access. That connection is now reused by every step of every Zap that uses Constant Contact.

First Zap

Your first Zap: tag everyone who opened a campaign

GoalEach time a recipient opens a chosen campaign activity, find that contact and tag it, so your next send can target the engaged readers.

  1. 01

    Build the trigger

    Create a Zap, pick Constant Contact as the app and New Email Open as the event. Choose the campaign, then the campaign activity: the main send or its resend.

  2. 02

    Test the trigger

    Run the test. Zapier brings back the three most recent items of your connected account, so you map the next steps on a real open, not on an empty template.

  3. 03

    Find the contact

    Add Constant Contact with Find or Create Contact and map the email address from the test item. This step hands its result to the next one.

  4. 04

    Tag the contact

    Add Tag Contact, map the Contact ID returned by the search, then pick the tag. Test the step and check the tag in Constant Contact.

  5. 05

    Publish

    Click Publish to switch the Zap on. With a search step in the middle, this is a multi-step Zap, so it needs a paid plan.

Triggers

Constant Contact triggers

4 events start a Zap when something happens in Constant Contact. Zapier checks for them at the interval your plan allows.

1

New Contact

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a new contact is added to your account.”

Starts the Zap whenever a contact is added to your Constant Contact account, and hands that contact to the steps that follow.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one
When to use it
a webinar host who wants each new subscriber tagged with the event they came from, before the reminder sequence starts.
Watch out
the Zap only sees contacts added after it is published; the ones already in your account are never picked up.
2

New Email Open

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a recipient opens an email from a specified campaign activity.”

Hands the Zap each recipient who opened one email of one campaign. You point it at a campaign, then at a campaign activity inside it, and only opens on that send come through.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one
When to use it
a sales team that wants opens on a product launch email to become a tag their reps can filter on.
Watch out
the campaign activity is either the main send or the resend to non-openers; pick the wrong one and the Zap waits on a send nobody opened.
3

New List

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a new list is added.”

Fires when someone creates a list in your account. It watches the structure of your audience, not the people in it: adding a contact to an existing list does not start it.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one
When to use it
an agency running several clients in one account, which wants a heads-up each time a new list appears so its naming rules get checked.
Watch out
lists are created rarely, so the test may bring back old ones; that is normal, the Zap only reacts to lists created after publishing.
4

New Unsubscriber

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a contact Unsubscribes (Email Unsubscribed).”

Tells the Zap that a contact opted out of your emails. It is the signal to pass on to every other tool that might still write to that person.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one
When to use it
a shop that also sends offers from another platform and wants every Constant Contact opt-out reflected there.
Watch out
an unsubscribed contact cannot be added back to a list by Add Contact to List, so a Zap that tries will fail on that step.
Actions

Constant Contact actions

Constant Contact gives you 7 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

1

Add Contact to List

Action

In Zapier“Adds a contact to one or more lists.”

Puts an existing contact into one or more lists, up to 50 in a single step. It needs the Contact ID, not the email.

When to use it
moving a lead from your general list to the nurture list once your form tool scores them.
Watch out
unsubscribed contacts cannot be added to lists, and the step errors on them.
2

Create Contact

Action

In Zapier“Creates a contact on a specific list in your account.”

Adds a new person to your account, on the list you choose. It asks for an email and for a Create Source, which records who added the contact.

When to use it
a training company that pushes every paid registration from its booking tool into Constant Contact.
Watch out
if the address may already exist, a Find or Create Contact step is the safer route.
3

Delete Contact

Action

In Zapier“Delete a contact. Deleted contacts will not receive emails from you, and they do not count as active contacts. Unlike unsubscribed contacts, deleted contacts can be revived, or added back to an account.”

Removes a contact by its Contact ID. A deleted contact stops getting your emails and no longer counts as active, but unlike an unsubscribed one it can be revived later.

When to use it
clearing test signups that your team creates while checking forms.
Watch out
use it for clean-up, not for opt-outs.
4

Remove Contact From List

Action

In Zapier“Remove a contact from one or more lists.”

Takes a contact out of one or more lists, again up to 50 at once, while leaving the contact in your account.

When to use it
a customer who just bought should leave the prospect list so they stop getting the welcome offer.
Watch out
it needs the Contact ID; with only an email, place a search before it.
5

Tag Contact

Action

In Zapier“Add one or more Tags to a Contact.”

Sticks one or more tags on a contact, up to 50 in a step. Tags are how you slice an audience later without creating another list.

When to use it
marking everyone who attended a demo so the follow-up only goes to them.
6

Update Contact

Action

In Zapier“Updates a contact in your account. Empty values will be cleared on the contact. If the contact being updated is deleted, the contact will be revived.”

Rewrites the details of a contact you identify by its Contact ID. Any field you leave empty is cleared on the contact, so map every value you want to keep.

When to use it
a CRM change of job title that should reach your newsletter segments too.
Watch out
updating a deleted contact brings it back; set Update Source to Account when you mean to restore one.
7

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 for when no ready-made step fits: it sends a raw request to Constant Contact using the connection you already set up. You choose the HTTP method and the URL.

When to use it
a developer on your team who needs an endpoint the integration does not expose.
Watch out
the URL must belong to Constant Contact, and Stop on error decides whether a failure halts the Zap.
Searches

The Constant Contact search

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

A search step does not change anything: it looks up a contact and hands it to the steps after it. In the editor it sits at the bottom of the Action event list, under SEARCH. Three settings decide what happens when the result is not clean.

1

Find or Create Contact

SearchFind or create

In Zapier“Find Contact by email or create a new one.”

Looks a contact up by email address and returns it, Contact ID included, which is exactly what most Constant Contact actions ask for. The editor also lists Find or Create Contact as a find-or-create entry: it is this same search with the create box ticked, not a second operation.

When to use it
your form tool only knows the email, and the next step is Tag Contact.
Watch out
one search plus one action already makes a multi-step Zap.

The three settings every search exposes

  1. Successful if no search results are found?
    Left as is, a search that finds nobody stops the Zap and skips the steps that relied on it. Switch it on and the Zap carries on empty-handed.
  2. Create Contact if it doesn't exist yet?
    Tick it and the search becomes a find-or-create: it drops the setting above and asks for what it needs to create the missing contact.
  3. If multiple search results are found?
    Keep the first match (the default), stop the Zap, or pass every match on at once.
When it breaks

When the Constant Contact Zap breaks

Zapier links two help articles to this app, Common Problems with Constant Contact and How to get started with Constant Contact on Zapier. The cases below are the ones the integration itself makes likely.

Most failures here trace back to the same two things: the Contact ID, and the time gap of a polling trigger. If a Zap stops for a reason you cannot read, the Zapier troubleshooting guide is the next stop.

  • The old contacts never come through

    A Zap only reacts to what happens after you publish it. Contacts, opens and unsubscribes from before are not picked up; moving that backlog is a separate job.

  • The Contact ID is missing or wrong

    Five actions expect a Contact ID, a long identifier. Mapping an email into that field fails the step. Feed it from a trigger or from Find or Create Contact.

  • An opt-out bounces off a list

    Add Contact to List refuses unsubscribed contacts. A Zap that pushes people back into a list after New Unsubscriber will error on every run.

  • The Zap feeds itself

    A Zap on New Contact that creates contacts in the same account sets itself off again and again, and burns through your task count fast.

  • A bulk import gets held back

    After a big import, New Contact can suddenly return a huge batch. Zapier's flood protection may hold it back instead of running the Zap on all of it.

  • An update wipes fields

    Update Contact clears every field you leave empty. Map all the values you want to keep, not only the one you are changing.
Need help

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FAQ

Constant Contact Zapier integration: questions

01Is the Constant Contact Zapier integration free?
Yes, Constant Contact is not a premium app, so it runs on the free Zapier plan. That plan gives 100 tasks a month and builds two-step Zaps only, meaning one trigger and one action. As soon as you add a filter, a second action or the Find or Create Contact search, the Zap becomes multi-step and needs a paid plan. You also need a Constant Contact account of your own.
02How many tasks does a Constant Contact Zap use?
One task per action that succeeds, and nothing else. The trigger is free, and Zapier checking Constant Contact for new contacts costs nothing however often it looks. A Zap that finds a contact and then tags it counts the successful steps separately, and a step that fails is not counted against your plan. Watch the Zaps that run on every new contact: they add up quickly after an import. A quick look at the task history after the first runs tells you where they go.
03Does Constant Contact trigger Zaps in real time?
No, all four Constant Contact triggers work by polling, so Zapier checks your account on a timer. On the free plan the check runs every 15 minutes, on Professional every 2 minutes, and every minute on Team and Enterprise. On paid plans you can also change how often it checks and run a check by hand from the editor. If you need an instant reaction, this app cannot give it.
04What does it take to connect Constant Contact to Zapier?
A Constant Contact account, and access to the lists and contacts the Zap should work on if you are not the owner. In Zapier you open Apps, click + Add connection, pick Constant Contact, sign in in the tab that opens and grant access. The connection is then reused by every Zap that uses Constant Contact, so you do it once. If the Zap must touch lists owned by a colleague, make sure that account can read and edit them before you start.
05Why does the Zap ask for a Contact ID when you only have the email?
Because five Constant Contact actions identify the contact by its Contact ID, a long identifier, not by the email address. Typing or mapping an email into that field makes the step fail. The fix is to place the Find or Create Contact search before the action: it looks the contact up by email and hands its ID to the next step. That turns the Zap into a multi-step one. Mapping the ID straight from a Constant Contact trigger works too.
06What if the Constant Contact operation you need does not exist?
Check the list again first: there are 4 triggers, 7 actions and 1 search, and nothing to send or schedule a campaign. If what you want is missing, API Request (Beta) sends a raw request to Constant Contact with your existing connection, as long as the URL belongs to the app. It is an advanced step that suits someone comfortable with the Constant Contact API documentation. Write down the exact call you want before you set it up, then test it on a single contact.
07Zapier, Make or n8n for Constant Contact?
It depends on your criteria rather than on a winner. Zapier is the shortest path if your team already lives there and the 12 visible operations cover the job. This page only documents the Zapier side, so it does not rank the three. On that side, all four Constant Contact triggers are polling ones, and most actions need a Contact ID. Compare the operations each one exposes for Constant Contact before choosing. Each tool has its own cost model, so price your volume too.
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