Next, let’s examine ActiveCampaign’s anti-spam policy. While marketing email campaigns to individuals who have opted in is acceptable, spam emails are a different matter. Any email marketing platform that tolerates spammers will harm your business, as their activities can tarnish your reputation too.

ActiveCampaign takes spam seriously, though there’s room for improvement in their approach. Here’s a summary of their basic policy:

All subscribers must opt in to receive your emails.

Your account may face penalties or be shut down if you are found sending spam.

Accounts can be reviewed if they show a high bounce rate, high unsubscription rate, or significant complaint rate.

In practice, there could be more proactive safeguards before users begin sending emails. I conduct a standard filter test on every service, where I upload known spam email addresses and suspicious contacts to see if the platform rejects them.

Unfortunately, ActiveCampaign did not pass this filter test; I was able to import spam email addresses without issue, which is disappointing.

Now, let’s discuss affiliate marketing. Some email services permit affiliate links while others may block such emails or place accounts under review. ActiveCampaign’s stance is clear: affiliate links are allowed, with certain restrictions:

You cannot use ActiveCampaign to manage your own affiliate programs.

Affiliate links should not be the primary focus of your emails.

Emails promoting products or services that aren’t yours as the sole purpose are prohibited.

There are strict rules against get-rich-quick or make-money-from-home schemes, regardless of whether an affiliate link is included. This is a rule I fully support.

Lastly, ActiveCampaign offers the option of a private (dedicated) IP address for sending emails. Here’s the theory behind it: if your emails share an IP address with spam, the entire IP could be flagged by email providers, causing your legitimate emails to be lost alongside spam.

Consistently sending emails from the same IP address (or range) can indicate to receiving services that the source is trustworthy. If an email supposedly from you comes from a different IP address, it raises red flags that it might be spam.

While you don’t necessarily need to purchase a dedicated IP, as established email providers generally have their own trusted IP addresses, having one can enhance your email deliverability. It’s unfortunate that most ActiveCampaign users may never have this option. Dedicated IPs are available for purchase, but only if you have 100,000 opted-in and regularly engaged contacts, which means you are effectively an enterprise customer paying rates beyond those listed on ActiveCampaign’s pricing page.

At that level, you might as well consider setting up your own server with a dedicated IP and running a self-hosted email marketing platform, which could potentially be more cost-effective.