Email guide

How to add a countdown timer to ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign automations are where evergreen countdowns earn their keep: every contact enters at a different time, and a tikio timer gives each of them a personal deadline from one image URL — no per-contact setup.

Create your free countdown Jump to steps

Design your countdown in tikio

Create a timer in the tikio editor: pick colors, fonts, labels and the languages you need. What you see in the editor is exactly what lands in the inbox — the timer is delivered as a regular animated image.
2
Get the code

Click Get code, choose “In an email”, pick how the countdown works — until a date, a personal timer per subscriber, or repeating on a schedule — and copy the code. The link stores the timer, so you can change the deadline any time, even after sending: emails already sent pick it up within minutes.
URL
```
https://t.tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif
```
3
Insert the timer into your ActiveCampaign email

In the ActiveCampaign email designer, add an HTML block where the timer should appear and paste the snippet below. Personalization tags are substituted inside the URL at send time.
HTML
```
<img src="https://t.tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif" alt="Offer ends soon" width="480" style="border:0;max-width:100%;height:auto;" />
```

Per-recipient evergreen deadlines

Use ActiveCampaign’s %SUBSCRIBERID% personalization tag as the recipient key. With a personal timer, every contact in an automation gets their own countdown starting at their first open.

HTML

<img src="https://t.tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif?uid=%SUBSCRIBERID%" alt="Offer ends soon" width="480" style="border:0;max-width:100%;height:auto;" />

ActiveCampaign’s built-in timer vs tikio

ActiveCampaign has its own countdown block. If one fixed date for everyone is all you need, use it — it is already in your editor. tikio is for the rest: personal deadlines in automations, timers that reset on local time, and deadlines you can still fix after sending.

Feature	Built into ActiveCampaign	tikio
Fixed date for everyone	Yes — end date in a time zone you set, not the contact’s	Yes
Personal deadline per subscriber	No — one end date for everyone	Yes — a personal timer per subscriber, from their first open
Recurring on local time (DST)	Not documented	Daily, weekday or weekly reset at a local time, following daylight saving
Change the deadline after sending	Not documented	Yes — emails already sent pick up a new deadline within minutes
At zero	An expired-timer image	Zeros, hide or another image; a smart link sends clicks elsewhere after zero
Same timer on your website	No	The same link as an iframe on any site
Fonts	Font and size options	Your own uploaded fonts or Google Fonts, free
Other platforms	ActiveCampaign only	Works in every ESP you send from

Every platform’s built-in block compared: built-in ESP timers vs tikio.

Evergreen countdown timer in ActiveCampaign

In tikio, click Get code, choose In an email and pick Personal timer. Set how long each subscriber gets — for example 24 hours — choose ActiveCampaign as your platform: the code comes with the %SUBSCRIBERID% personalization tag already in place. Every subscriber then gets their own countdown from their first open, and reopening does not reset it. Paste the code into the ActiveCampaign email that sits in your automation. This is the “countdown timer per contact” setup the built-in Timer block cannot do.

HTML

<img src="https://t.tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif?uid=%SUBSCRIBERID%" alt="Offer ends soon" width="480" style="border:0;max-width:100%;height:auto;" />

FAQ

Questions, answered

Does this work inside automations?

Yes — that’s the sweet spot. Contacts enter automations at different times, and a personal timer keyed on %SUBSCRIBERID% gives each one their own deadline without any extra fields or logic.

Can I reuse one timer across campaigns?

Yes. The design is separate from the link: create a new link from the same design for the next campaign, or change the deadline on the existing link — emails already sent follow the change.

Will the timer slow my email down?

No — it’s a single image request served from a fast rendering pipeline, the same weight as any hero image.

Your first countdown is minutes away

Free during early access — no credit card required. Design once, paste one snippet, and the timer ticks on every open.

Create your free countdown