ActiveCampaign × Metabase

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.

Heads up: Metabase connects to databases and warehouses — it does not ship a native ActiveCampaign connector, and a BI warehouse is the wrong home for raw click or event streams. Sync daily aggregates, entities, and stats — campaigns, channels, rollups, subscribers — and leave the raw firehose in ActiveCampaign.

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.

1 · MCP + CLI route (AI-assisted)

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.

Best for
  • 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
Trade-offs
  • 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
2 · Pipeline route (warehouse-backed)

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.

Best for
  • 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
Trade-offs
  • 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?

For: Lifecycle marketers

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)
For: Deliverability owners

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)
For: Automation owners

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)
For: Leadership

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 csv to 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 replace or move to the pipeline for real history.
  • Per-campaign send and engagement counts with send dates are required for engagement trends.
  • mb upload csv needs 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)
MCPExample MCP client config
{
  "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.

TerminalLoad a ActiveCampaign CSV with the Metabase CLI
# 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.csv

Can 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.

Prompt for creating a ActiveCampaign Email Marketing Overview dashboard
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

TableGrainKey columns
activecampaign_campaignsone row per sent campaigncampaign_id, name, send_at, sends, unique_opens, link_clicks, bounces, unsubscribes
activecampaign_contactsone row per contactcontact_id, email, created_at, list_status, tags, last_engaged_at
activecampaign_automation_runsone row per contact per automationautomation_id, contact_id, entered_at, completed_at, exit_reason

Modeling advice

  • Build a clean email_campaign_stats model 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?

MetricDefinitionNotes
Click-through rateUnique clicks divided by delivered emails per campaign.The engagement metric to trust after Apple MPP.
Email bounce rateBounced sends divided by total sends, hard vs. soft.A rising trend means list hygiene work, now.
Landing-page conversion rateConversions divided by sessions on the pages emails link to.Join email clicks to web sessions via UTM parameters.
Customer lifetime valueRevenue 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.

Campaign engagement rates, trailing 90 daysPostgreSQL

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;
Deliverability trend by weekPostgreSQL

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;
Net list growth by monthPostgreSQL

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;

What are common mistakes when analyzing ActiveCampaign in Metabase?

Syncing raw click or event streams into the warehouse.→ Land daily aggregates, campaign-grain stats, and entity tables. Raw streams belong in ActiveCampaign; the warehouse is for trends and joins.
Treating open rate as an engagement metric.→ Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates opens. Report click-through rate and downstream conversions as the engagement headline.
Blending transactional and marketing sends in one rate.→ A password-reset email and a newsletter have different baselines. Keep message streams separate in every rate calculation.
Building dashboards from live MCP lookups only.→ MCP is useful for exploration; durable dashboards need a database-backed model with history.

Related analytics

Related dashboards

Related integrations

FAQ

Does Metabase connect natively to ActiveCampaign?
No. Metabase reads databases and warehouses. Sync ActiveCampaign daily stats and entities into a database first, or upload a CSV with the Metabase CLI, then build Metabase models and dashboards on top.
Should Metabase replace ActiveCampaign?
No — they answer different questions. ActiveCampaign is built for running campaigns and day-to-day operations in its own UI. Metabase is where you build governed, shareable reporting on top of the same data, and join it with CRM, product, and revenue data.
Why are open rates unreliable?
Apple Mail Privacy Protection pre-fetches tracking pixels, inflating opens for a large share of any consumer list. Treat opens as directional at best; anchor engagement reporting on click-through rate and downstream conversions instead.
How do I keep email events past the retention window?
Transactional email tools expire raw message data quickly — often 30 to 45 days. Sync on a schedule or capture the event webhook stream into your own database, and rely on the provider's aggregate stats endpoints (which usually persist) for long-run trends.