You’ve been wondering… what do Jump To steps actually do in ActiveCampaign automations?

I’m right here to show you what Jump To steps do to simplify automations, solve of use cases, help you move contacts around automations, and measure success as well.

Jump To steps are the magicians of ActiveCampaign automations – and they’re well worth taking a little of your time to get friendly with them, with Kay Peacey (ActiveCampaign power-user & Certified Consultant) as your expert guide.

Get ready to say goodbye to using a ton of If/Else steps in your ActiveCampaign automations…

NOTE: Jump To steps were previously known as Goal steps – the name changed in mid 2025 – if you hear me say Goal in this video, that’s why. They work almost exactly the same now, just with a different name.

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Follow these steps to use Jump To in ActiveCampaign:

Watch Kay Peacey explain ActiveCampaign Jump To (previously known as Goals) (12 mins)

In this video I refer to the steps as Goal steps – they were renamed to Jump To steps in mid 2025, but how they work stayed the same.

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Learn what ActiveCampaign Jump To steps are for

ActiveCampaign Jump To steps look scary because they’re one of the most flexible and creative automation steps in ActiveCampaign.

What actions can Jump To do in ActiveCampaign Automations?

An ActiveCampaign Jump To step can do any combination of a few actions, involving waits, conditions, gatekeeping and measuring.

Each ActiveCampaign Jump To step is a sort of hybrid of some or all of these things:

• a wait step
• an if/else step
• a magical teleporter that picks contacts up and drops them where you want them to be
• a turnstile gate that only lets certain contacts through

If you’re not familiar yet with automations, wait steps, if/else and working with contacts, go do our free Accelerated ActiveCampaign training before reading on…

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Understand the 3 things Jump To can do in ActiveCampaign automations

Imagine an automation as a marble run, and the contact is a marble, running down through the automation.

1 – Use a Jump To to skip steps in an ActiveCampaign automation

• A Jump To behaves like a Giant’s hand that will pick up the contact and move it to the Jump To step
• The conditions you set in a Jump To tell the Giant to pick up and move the contact
• When the Jump To conditions are met any steps in between are skipped

Watch the video above to see this explained with visuals

2 – Use a Jump To to decide what to do in an ActiveCampaign automation

When a contact doesn’t meet the conditions on its way down to the Jump To step, the Giant just leaves it to trickle on down the run as far as the Jump To step, without skipping anything.

There are extra options to decide what happens in that case

• Let the marble pass through the turnstile and carry on 
• Make the marble wait there until it meets the conditions 
• Keep the gate shut, and kick the marble off the run 

3 – Use a Jump To to record what happened in an ActiveCampaign automation

ActiveCampaign keeps a record of what happened every time a contact reaches a Jump To step so long as the tracking is toggled ON.

This is a fabulous way to track how well your automations are working at getting contacts to do what you want.

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How ActiveCampaign records outomes of Jump To steps in automations

• achieved = they met the Jump To conditions
• skipped = they did not meet the Jump To conditions but were allowed past anyway
• waiting on = they’re waiting there until they meet the conditions
• not achieved = the were kicked out of the automation for not meeting the conditions

ActiveCampaign keeps Jump To activity on contact records, and you can add tracking reports by setting the toggle to ON as well.

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Discover 4 use cases for ActiveCampaign Jump To

ActiveCampaign Jump To are very versatile (understatement!) but there are simple use-cases that every business needs.

Here are four examples of how to use Jump To steps in your ActiveCampaign automations

1 – Skip steps in an ActiveCampaign automation using a Jump To step

When you have a series of automation emails asking the contact to do something, you don’t want to keep on sending more of those emails after they did the action.

Use a Jump To to have a contact skip reminder emails when a they have already done did the thing you were trying to get them to do.  

For example, if someone has made the appointment, or purchased or filled out the form you need done.

Put an ActiveCampaign Jump To step at the very end of the automation to jump the contact there when they have purchased / scheduled / filled out the form.

You can see this in action in our free Accelerated ActiveCampaign training – it’s super-easy to build, and once you’ve seen it step by step, you’ll wonder why it ever seemed scary or difficult.

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2 – Stop an ActiveCampaign automation part way through using a Jump To step

Sometimes you will want to stop certain contacts from continuing – the ones who aren’t doing what you want them to do…

For example, if they did not click on the lead magnet link, or anywhere in the first three emails you sent them, maybe they’re not a great lead. Use the ActiveCampaign Jump To to stop un-promising contacts from going any further.

(Check out my tutorial on how to set up an easy lead magnet funnel in ActiveCampaign to see this one in action.)

Put an ActiveCampaign Jump To step at the decision point, to end the automation if the contact did not do what you wanted them to.

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3 – Start a contact part way through an ActiveCampaign automation using a Jump To step

Sometimes you need to drop a contact (or a whole bunch of them) into the middle of an automation.

By setting Jump To conditions to look for a tag (like FIX: lost my marbles) and then adding the tag to the contacts, they will jump to the Jump To step.

Put an ActiveCampaign Jump To step where you want them to jump to, add the tag to the contacts you want to start at that spot, then add them to the automation.

4 – Jump or pause using a date in ActiveCampaign automations using a Jump To step

There are lots of awesome use cases using date fields in Jump To steps – they get fiddly, but they’re totally worth it.

• Email a contact the day before their call
• Jump them to where everyone else is at if they joined the webinar funnel at the last minute
• Hold them until a week before their membership expires then send some “why you should stay” incentives

This is a more advanced way to use a Jump To, and you need to use a date in a custom field.

Put an ActiveCampaign Jump To where you want them to wait until a date, or jump there on a certain day relative to that date

Date based Jump To are the trickiest ones to work with, but also extremely useful.

We do a lot of support, training, guidance and troubleshooting on these in our Academy so hop on in when you want to master these incredibly useful Jump To step use cases.

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Learn how to set up Jump To steps in ActiveCampaign automations

Here’s what you need to know when adding a Jump To step in any automation for ActiveCampaign.

There are four settings areas.

When your Jump To isn’t working how you want, go check these four settings – one of them at least will be in need of fixing.

If you need more help, come find me in the Academy – we’re stone-cold pros at troubleshooting Jump To steps.

1 – The ActiveCampaign Jump To name

Does what it says on the tin – it’s a name, for this Jump To.

You’ll see it on the automation step, and it’s what you use to find this Jump To in searches, reports, contact activity etc.

Say what the Jump To is looking for, in as few words as you can sensibly manage, eg. “clicked to lead magnet” or “purchased” or “tag FIX exists”.

2 – The ActiveCampaign Jump To conditions

This is where you set the rules for when the Giant will go pick up the contact-marble and move it past the turnstile.

It’s the same conditions editor we see all over ActiveCampaign. 

Start simple with single easy conditions, eg. Tag > Exists > FIX: lost my marbles.

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3 – Where the ActiveCampaign Jump To will be applied – “And when this Jump To is:”

This tells the Giant where marbles are allowed to be picked up from on the marble run.

If you want the Giant to pick up marbles after they’ve gone past the turnstile, and put them back at the Jump To step, choose the second option “Anywhere”.

4 – What will happen if the contact does not meet the ActiveCampaign Jump To conditions

This is for when a contact-marble gets to the Jump To step under its own steam, having not come to the attention of the Giant, because it has not yet met the Jump To conditions.

• Let the marble pass through the turnstile and carry on = Continue anyway
• Make the marble wait there until it meets the conditions = Wait until conditions are met
• Keep the gate shut, and kick the marble off the run = End this automation

I bet you’d love to see a step by step walkthrough of setting up a Jump To in an ActiveCampaign automation…

Well you’re in luck – head to our free Accelerated ActiveCampaign training for exactly that, with Kay Peacey as your guide.

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Read 10 best-practice tips for using Jump To in ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign Jump To are brilliant to use to simplify, streamline and control automation paths.

Jump To solve thousands of use-cases and problems, and unlock potential to create really personal experiences for your contact.

Here’ are my top ten pro tips for best practice when you use Jump To in ActiveCampaign

1. Be patient
   Jump To run on 15-minute cycles so be patient when testing
2. Jump To only run once per pass
   A jump to step can only be achieved once per contact pass through an automation
3. Use step notes
   Add a note on the Jump To step to say what it’s doing
4. Wait until
   Remember to change it to a “wait until” if that’s what you need
5. Sensible Jump To names
   Name it sensibly, and if the conditions get an edit, the name gets an edit too
6. Start simple
   Jump To are wondrously useful, but can be fiddly – handle with care and start easy
7. Do you even need a Jump To?
   Maybe an if/else step, or a wait step, may be a better choice than a Jump To
8. Use Jump To data in other automations
   You can use “Jump To is Achieved” in triggers and conditions in other automations!
9. Jump To completion metrics
   You can see the rates on the main automations screen – handy!
10. Duplicate Jump To names
    Give more than one Jump To the same name and you have trouble on your hands

Phew! There’s more of course – join us in our Academy for all the Jump To juicy details, dos, don’ts and strategy wins.

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FAQ for Jump To in ActiveCampaign Automations

How can I avoid sending pitch emails from ActiveCampaign to someone who’s already purchased?

Simple! Use a Jump To at the end of your sales automation that checks for a purchase tag. If the contact has bought your item, they get teleported to the end.

What happens if a contact doesn’t meet the Jump To conditions in an ActiveCampaign Automation?

There are three options: they can wait until they meet the conditions, continue anyway, or be kicked out of the automation (end automation)

How do I fix a contact who’s in the wrong place in my ActiveCampaign automation?

Use a “fix me” Jump To. Tag the contact and set up a Jump To that teleports them to the right spot in the automation.

Why is working with date-based Jump To in ActiveCampaign so challenging?

ActiveCampaign uses some counterintuitive language for date-based conditions. Always test these Jump To thoroughly, because they can be tricky to get right.

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Get more help to use Jump To in ActiveCampaign

Checking Jump To conditions, testing things, knowing when to use them, and exactly how to set them… it’s a lot, I know…

We support every member of our Academy any time they need a sanity-check, fix or inspiration on when and how to use Jump To for big wins in ActiveCampaign.

Come join us, for consult calls with Kay, a fast trustworthy support community, training courses, and a big library of real life use cases, tutorials and walkthroughs. It’s the treasure-trove of ActiveCampaign know-how you’ve been looking for.

Learn more about our Slick Business Academy
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