How to build ActiveCampaign dashboards in Metabase
ActiveCampaign is a marketing automation platform combining email campaigns, journeys, and a built-in CRM. Metabase is where you turn that marketing data into shared, trustworthy dashboards. This guide covers two complementary paths: a lightweight MCP + CLI route that pulls live data with the ActiveCampaign Remote MCP and loads a CSV into Metabase with the Metabase CLI, and a durable pipeline route that syncs ActiveCampaign daily stats into a database so you can build dashboards anyone can read.
How do you connect ActiveCampaign to Metabase?
Most teams combine both routes: use MCP and CLI uploads for a fast first pass, then move recurring marketing reporting to a warehouse-backed model.
Live data in, quick analysis out
Pair the ActiveCampaign Remote MCP with the Metabase CLI. Use MCP for live lookups, write a scoped result to CSV, then load it into Metabase as a ready-to-query table and model.
- Quick lookups such as "show me campaign opens and clicks by list"
- Loading a ActiveCampaign export into Metabase in seconds
- Spot-checks and one-off analyses without a warehouse
- Great for exploration, not governed recurring reporting
- Use read-only/scoped credentials wherever the MCP server supports them
- CSV uploads are snapshots — refresh or move to the pipeline for history
Durable dashboards with history
Sync ActiveCampaign daily stats and entities into a database or warehouse with a connector, custom pipeline, or API, then point Metabase at it.
- ActiveCampaign reporting that marketing leaders depend on
- Joining ActiveCampaign data with CRM, revenue, or product data
- Long-run trends for campaign opens and clicks by list and automation completion and drop-off
- You own the refresh schedule and the rollup grain
- Sync daily aggregates and entities — not raw event streams
- Metric definitions must be consistent across channels and teams
What can you analyze from ActiveCampaign data in Metabase?
- Campaign opens and clicks by list — built from campaign engagement records and the related contacts, lists, automations data your sync exposes.
- Automation completion and drop-off — built from campaign engagement records and the related contacts, lists, automations data your sync exposes.
- Contact growth by source and tag — built from campaign engagement records and the related contacts, lists, automations data your sync exposes.
- Deals influenced by campaigns — built from campaign engagement records and the related contacts, lists, automations data your sync exposes.
- Engagement recency segmentation — built from campaign engagement records and the related contacts, lists, automations data your sync exposes.
Which ActiveCampaign dashboards should you build in Metabase?
Campaign engagement
How each send performs against the list it hit.
- Opens, clicks, and unsubscribes by campaign (table)
- Click-through rate trend (line)
- Engagement by audience segment (bar)
- Revenue per campaign where tracked (bar)
Deliverability health
Whether mail is landing in inboxes at all.
- Delivery and bounce rates by week (combo)
- Spam complaints per 10k sends (line)
- Bounce reasons breakdown (bar)
- Suppression list growth (line)
Lifecycle automation
Whether journeys move people forward.
- Automation entries and completions (combo)
- Drop-off by automation step (funnel)
- Conversions attributed to automations (bar)
- Time in automation distribution (bar)
List and revenue health
The long-run value of the email program.
- Net list growth by month (combo)
- Engaged subscriber share (line)
- Email-attributed revenue by month (bar)
- Unsubscribe rate trend (line)
How do you use the ActiveCampaign Remote MCP with the Metabase CLI?
Pair the ActiveCampaign Remote MCP with the Metabase CLI for fast, hands-on analysis. MCP is useful for scoped lookups and summarized exports; the Metabase CLI's upload command loads CSV data into Metabase and creates a ready-to-query table and model.
Example workflow
- Ask the MCP server for recent campaign engagement records with sends, opens, clicks, and bounces.
- Export the result as CSV, keeping stable IDs, channels, campaigns, and dates.
- Run
mb upload csvto load it into Metabase as a table and model, then build questions and dashboards on top.
Be honest about the limits
- MCP lookups are excellent for exploration, not scheduled reporting.
- A CSV upload is a snapshot; refresh it with
mb upload replaceor move to the pipeline for real history. - Per-campaign send and engagement counts with send dates are required for engagement trends.
mb upload csvneeds an uploads database configured under Admin → Settings → Uploads.
How do you set up ActiveCampaign MCP and the Metabase CLI?
ActiveCampaign Remote MCPofficial
- Transport
- Hosted remote MCP via Streamable HTTP (account-unique URL)
- Auth
- Built into your account's Remote MCP URL
- Best for
- Live scoped lookup and export
Metabase CLIofficial
- Install
npm install -g @metabase/cli- Auth
mb auth login- Load data
mb upload csv --file data.csv- Requires
- An uploads database (Admin → Settings → Uploads)
{
"mcpServers": {
"activecampaign": {
"url": "<your Remote MCP URL from Settings → Developer>"
}
}
}There is no static public endpoint — each account gets a unique Remote MCP URL under Settings → Developer in the ActiveCampaign app, covering roughly 47 tools across contacts, campaigns, automations, and deals.
# Install the Metabase CLI
npm install -g @metabase/cli
# Log in (opens your browser; requires Metabase v62+)
mb auth login --url https://your-metabase.example.com
# Load a campaign-engagement-records export — creates a table AND a model
mb upload csv --file activecampaign-campaign-engagement-records.csv --collection root
# Refresh that same table later from a new export
mb upload replace <table-id> --file activecampaign-campaign-engagement-records.csvCan you generate a ActiveCampaign dashboard with AI?
Yes. Use the prompt below with any assistant that can run the ActiveCampaign Remote MCP and the Metabase CLI. It works end to end: if ActiveCampaign tables already exist in Metabase it analyzes those; otherwise it pulls scoped, summarized data over MCP, loads it with mb upload csv, then builds the dashboard and caveats any metric that needs missing history.
Create a polished Metabase dashboard for ActiveCampaign email marketing analytics.
Work end to end: get the data into Metabase if it isn't there yet, then build.
Goal: Help marketing and growth leaders understand campaign engagement, deliverability, automation performance, and list health from ActiveCampaign data.
Step 1 — Find or load the data:
- First, check what already exists in Metabase (search for activecampaign tables and
models). If durable ActiveCampaign data is already present — synced from a warehouse
or uploaded earlier — use it and skip to Step 2.
- If nothing is there, pull a scoped, summarized export with the ActiveCampaign Remote MCP:
campaign engagement records, plus contacts, lists, automations.
Prefer daily aggregates over raw events. Write each result to a CSV,
then load it with the Metabase CLI — run "mb upload csv --file <export>.csv" so
each upload creates a table and a ready-to-query model. Use "mb upload replace
<table-id> --file <export>.csv" to refresh an existing table instead of creating
duplicates.
Step 2 — Inspect before querying:
Do not assume exact table or column names. Inspect available fields, channels,
campaigns, dates, and whether daily history exists before creating trend or
pacing cards.
Important:
- Build on whatever data is present; don't claim Metabase connects natively to
ActiveCampaign — it reads a database or CLI-uploaded tables.
- Never try to load raw event or click streams into Metabase; use daily
aggregates, campaign-grain stats, and entity tables.
- Only compute rates (CTR, conversion rate, ROAS, CAC) when both numerator and
denominator exist — and state the attribution model when reporting conversions.
- Exclude test campaigns and internal traffic from headline cards, and keep
currency consistent when spend spans accounts.
- A single CSV is a point-in-time snapshot: only build trend cards if there is a
usable date column or multiple periods have been uploaded.
Dashboard title: ActiveCampaign Email Marketing Overview
Sections:
1. Executive summary: Sends last 30 days; Click-through rate; Bounce rate;
Unsubscribe rate; Net list growth.
2. Campaigns: Opens, clicks, and unsubscribes by campaign; CTR trend.
3. Deliverability: Delivery and bounce rates by week; spam complaints.
4. Automations: Entries, completions, and drop-off by workflow.
5. List health: Growth, engaged share, and email-attributed revenue.
Filters: Date range, Channel, Campaign, Country, Device, Segment.
Output: Build the dashboard if you have permission; otherwise provide the exact
questions, SQL, model definitions, and layout. Include caveats for any metric
that cannot be calculated from the available data.How do you sync ActiveCampaign data into a database or warehouse?
For dashboards that need history and reliability, land ActiveCampaign daily stats and entities in a database first, then connect Metabase to that database.
Connector options
- Managed ETL — use a connector when one covers the objects you need.
- Custom pipeline — use the ActiveCampaign API v3 for control over grain, fields, and refresh cadence.
- MCP + CSV — use this for quick exploration and one-off slices.
Sync contacts, campaigns, and automations with Fivetran's ActiveCampaign connector or the Airbyte source (full-refresh only) — campaign aggregate metrics arrive as fields on campaign objects, and the API caps out at 5 requests per second.
Notes
- Decide the rollup grain first (daily per campaign/channel is the workhorse) — it drives warehouse cost and every trend card.
- Land raw entity tables first, then build clean Metabase models on top.
- Normalize campaign, list, send date, sends, opens, clicks, bounces, and unsubscribes fields.
How should you model ActiveCampaign data in Metabase?
Core tables
| Table | Grain | Key columns |
|---|---|---|
activecampaign_campaigns | one row per sent campaign | campaign_id, name, send_at, sends, unique_opens, link_clicks, bounces, unsubscribes |
activecampaign_contacts | one row per contact | contact_id, email, created_at, list_status, tags, last_engaged_at |
activecampaign_automation_runs | one row per contact per automation | automation_id, contact_id, entered_at, completed_at, exit_reason |
Modeling advice
- Build a clean
email_campaign_statsmodel with common columns across tools, so multi-channel dashboards don't fork definitions. - Separate entity tables (campaigns, audiences, pages) from daily time-series rollups.
- Exclude test campaigns and internal traffic from headline metrics; keep channel and campaign as explicit columns.
- Use stable IDs for campaign, channel, and user joins; display names change.
Which ActiveCampaign metrics should you track in Metabase?
| Metric | Definition | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Click-through rate | Unique clicks divided by delivered emails per campaign. | The engagement metric to trust after Apple MPP. |
| Email bounce rate | Bounced sends divided by total sends, hard vs. soft. | A rising trend means list hygiene work, now. |
| Landing-page conversion rate | Conversions divided by sessions on the pages emails link to. | Join email clicks to web sessions via UTM parameters. |
| Customer lifetime value | Revenue expected from a customer relationship over time. | Lifecycle email earns its keep here, not in opens. |
What SQL powers ActiveCampaign dashboards in Metabase?
These assume a cleaned analytical model in a warehouse (PostgreSQL dialect). Adjust table and column names to match your pipeline.
CTR, bounce, and unsubscribe rates per send.
SELECT
campaign_name,
send_date,
sends,
ROUND(100.0 * unique_clicks / NULLIF(delivered, 0), 2) AS ctr_pct,
ROUND(100.0 * bounces / NULLIF(sends, 0), 2) AS bounce_rate_pct,
ROUND(100.0 * unsubscribes / NULLIF(delivered, 0), 3) AS unsub_rate_pct
FROM email_campaign_stats
WHERE send_date >= CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '90 days'
ORDER BY send_date DESC;Delivery, bounce, and complaint rates over time.
SELECT
date_trunc('week', send_date) AS week,
SUM(sends) AS sends,
ROUND(100.0 * SUM(delivered) / NULLIF(SUM(sends), 0), 2)
AS delivery_rate_pct,
ROUND(100.0 * SUM(bounces) / NULLIF(SUM(sends), 0), 2) AS bounce_rate_pct,
ROUND(10000.0 * SUM(spam_complaints) / NULLIF(SUM(delivered), 0), 2)
AS complaints_per_10k
FROM email_campaign_stats
GROUP BY 1
ORDER BY 1;Subscribes vs. unsubscribes from membership changes.
SELECT
date_trunc('month', changed_at) AS month,
COUNT(*) FILTER (WHERE change_type = 'subscribe') AS subscribes,
COUNT(*) FILTER (WHERE change_type = 'unsubscribe') AS unsubscribes,
COUNT(*) FILTER (WHERE change_type = 'subscribe')
- COUNT(*) FILTER (WHERE change_type = 'unsubscribe') AS net_growth
FROM list_membership_changes
GROUP BY 1
ORDER BY 1;