If you’ve been a Keap user for any amount of time you are probably familiar with the Automation Builder (formerly known as the Campaign Builder).
It’s Keap’s automation engine and widely considered Keap’s most powerful feature. And it’s getting a serious update.
Historically automations have been built with “goals” and “sequences” as the primary building blocks. Goals are the triggers, and sequences are the actions that happen as a result.
Now, they’re transitioning away from that.
Keap is moving to a “When” and “Then” type system. Users will have a set of “When” actions you can configure that will serve to initiate (or advance) automation, and “thens” will be used to configure what you want to take place as a result. This video highlights the key differences Keap users will see as we start to see this update rolled out.
It may feel like this is a superficial update, but this visual change also represents an update in the actual platform architecture, which will make it easier to add new “when” and “then” type actions in the future.
For example, I’ve seen early concepts of an integration with Shopify that allows direct triggering of Keap automation when a Shopify purchase takes place, passing through order details and making them available in the subsequent automation steps.
So, if you’re a Keap user who feels confident in the existing interface for building automations – then this may be frustrating. I don’t want to dance around that – and I don’t think Keap should either.
There may be some turbulence as we start to familiarize ourselves with the new builder interface, but I’m trusting that the long term benefits will outweigh the short term friction.
My recommendation for now is to stay open minded, to play with the new features as they’re rolled out, and to offer feedback when you have it so that Keap can do their best to iterate and improve in the subsequent roll-outs.
And as always, if you want a place to ask questions as you work on building automation into your business, you’re welcome to join us in the Monkeypod Membership.
WOW – that’s a big change – The biggest thing I don’t like is that I have to conger up some time to play with it and learn it, and develop a new sense of “campaign art” (Figuring out the most efficient ways to build things out) but, I’m betting that it will allow for more tools and power over time.
The biggest thing I like is that they are actually spending some time and love on the automation builder and hopefully, they will start gaining some ground and catching up to some of the other tools out there.
Well said. I totally acknowledge that for their existing user base there’ll be some friction as people get re-acquainted with the new building process and idiosyncrasies. But, ce la vie. Onward and upward.
my concern is for existing automations. will they continue to work as they currently do, or will they have to be rebuilt?
Hey Gail – good question, in my testing the existing automations continue to work the way we’ve designed them. When the new interface rolls out they will look a little different, but functionality should continue exactly as expected without us needing to intervene. Thanks for reading/watching!