Activity History

5 minute read

What is active History?

In Mailchimp, a person’s interactions with your emails, such as opens and link clicks, are tracked. We display this information in Salesforce in two ways.
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By default, it appears in our component, which shows Mailchimp data in near real time without using up Salesforce storage. The component can be added to object page layouts like contacts, leads, and any object with an email field and allows users to filter to only the activity types and audiences they need.
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Optionally, you can enable stored email tracking history. This creates records related to Salesforce contacts or leads, allowing you to run reports or trigger actions. Unlike the component, Stored tracking data counts against your storage limits and is synced via the primary sync, which typically runs hourly.

Best practice is to use the component as it surfaces data in near real time. However, you won't be able to create Salesforce reports on Mailchimp Activity.

Activity History Component

The activity history component surfaces tracking history in near realtime. We will attempt to automatically add it to your contact or lead page layouts when you install the app. It can also be added to other object page layouts.

The interactive demo below walks you through how to find our email activity component and how it works in Salesforce.

Stored Activity History

By default, our system prioritizes efficiency and reducing storage in Salesforce. One of the ways we accomplish this is by displaying email tracking history directly from Mailchimp via our custom components as mentioned above.

However, you cannot create Salesforce reports or dashboards based on this displayed data.To report on tracking data, you can optionally enable the storage of email tracking history as records. After enabling this feature and completing a synchronization, tracking information becomes accessible via our Mailchimp Email Activity object in Salesforce. You can craft custom reports or use our pre-designed, ready-to-use reports, enhancing your analytics and insights.

To enable the storage of email history follow the guide below.

When you first enable this setting, we will run a background job to pull in the activity. If you change the days or activity to keep, please review the storage FAQ.

Next Steps

Below are two articles that are recommended reading and the best next steps.

FAQs

If you've just enabled email activity tracking in Mailchimp for Salesforce, you might notice the initial sync of email activity takes longer than a primary sync cycle. The progress indicator may pause at certain percentages, or it could take a while before all your email activity data appears in Salesforce. This is normal and expected behaviour for a one-time backfill.

When you first turn on email activity tracking, the system needs to import all historical activity data within your configured retention period. This involves processing thousands or even millions of individual activity records (opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes), which takes more time than the quick incremental syncs you'll see once the initial import completes.

Email Activity Tracking is Not Enabled by Default

Mailchimp for Salesforce does not automatically store email activity data in Salesforce. This is an optional feature you enable through the Mailchimp Settings tab. When disabled, you can still view live email activity through Lightning Components, but the data isn't stored in Salesforce for reporting purposes. The storage warning exists because each email activity record uses approximately 2KB of Salesforce data storage.

Why the Initial Sync Takes Time

When you first enable email activity tracking, the system performs a complete historical backfill rather than just syncing new activity going forward. This involves several technical processes that extend the sync time:

The system retrieves all historical email activity for your campaigns within your configured retention period (for example, the last 90 days or 180 days). If you have high-engagement campaigns or a large subscriber base, this can mean processing hundreds of thousands or even millions of individual activity events.

To stay within Salesforce governor limits, the sync runs in multiple Apex batch jobs. Each batch processes a subset of your campaigns and activity types (opens, clicks, unsubscribes, bounces), and these batches must run sequentially.

Primary sync delay

The email activity batches run in full at the end of the primary sync chain. This means the system completes the entire activity import before moving on to the next scheduled sync. For a large initial backfill, this can delay the next primary sync from starting until all activity processing is finished. This is expected and ensures your activity data is imported completely rather than in fragments across multiple sync cycles. If you are concerned about this delay, we recommend running the email activity first sync (enable the feature and set the days to keep) over a weeked or less busy time.

The Progress Indicator Behaviour

During the initial import, you'll likely see the progress indicator pause at certain percentages for extended periods. This is normal. The batch jobs are actively working through your data, but because they process different campaigns and activity types separately, the overall percentage doesn't update smoothly. The system is creating Email Activity records in the background even when the percentage appears stuck.

What to Expect for Timing

For most organizations, the initial import takes anywhere from under an hour to several hours depending on data volume. The exact duration depends on the number of campaigns, subscriber engagement levels, and your configured retention period. If you have a very large subscriber base or a long retention period, the process may run overnight.

During this initial import, the next scheduled primary sync will wait until the activity batches finish. Once the backfill is complete, your regular sync schedule will resume as normal.

Subsequent Syncs Are Much Faster

After the initial backfill completes, all future syncs operate incrementally. They only process new activity data since the last sync, which typically completes within minutes.

How to Verify the Sync is Working

If you're concerned the sync has stalled, you can verify it's progressing by checking that new Mailchimp Email Activity records are being created in Salesforce. Navigate to the Mailchimp Email Activity object and review recent records by Created Date. Even if the progress indicator hasn't moved, seeing new records confirms the batch jobs are actively running.

If you are familiar with Apex Jobs, you can also review those for the McCampaignBatch and McEmailActivityBatch jobs that will be in progress.

If you don't see any new activity records being created for an extended period (overnight with no change), or if you see error messages in the sync status, contact support. We can check the batch job status in your org and confirm everything is processing correctly.

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📋 Summary

You notice two similar-sounding fields on Email Activity records: Activity_URL__c and Link_Clicked__c. Both appear to track clicked links, and you want to understand why there are two fields and when each one is used.

💡 Solution

These two fields serve completely different purposes and come from different parts of the Mailchimp API. Understanding the distinction helps you analyse both engagement and churn behaviour.

Activity_URL__c: Normal Engagement Tracking

This field captures the URL clicked during regular campaign engagement. When a subscriber clicks a link in your email campaign, Activity_URL__c stores that URL. This data comes from Mailchimp's campaign-level email activity tracking and represents standard click behaviour. Most of your Email Activity records with clicks will have this field populated.

Link_Clicked__c: Pre-Churn Behaviour Analysis

This field captures which link a subscriber clicked immediately before unsubscribing or bouncing. It comes from Mailchimp's member activity feed and only appears on unsubscribe and bounce events. This field helps you identify which content triggered someone to leave your list, making it valuable for understanding churn patterns.

For example, if someone clicked a pricing page link and then immediately unsubscribed, Link_Clicked__c would show that pricing page URL on the unsubscribe activity record. This tells you the pricing content may have contributed to the unsubscribe decision.

Note: If a URL is longer than 255 characters, it's truncated before saving. The truncation cuts at a query string boundary where possible so the base link still works, but trailing query parameters, including UTM or other analytics tags, may be lost.

‍Important Limitations:

Link_Clicked__c will often be blank even on unsubscribe events. Mailchimp doesn't always include this information in their API, especially for older events or when subscribers unsubscribe through methods other than clicking an email link. The field is designed for churn analysis when data is available, not as a comprehensive tracking field.

This field was historically disabled in older versions of Mailchimp for Salesforce and was re-enabled based on customer feedback about its analytical value for understanding subscriber behaviour patterns.

🔗 Related Articles

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By default, our system prioritises efficiency and reducing storage in Salesforce. One of the ways we accomplish this is by displaying email tracking history directly from Mailchimp via our custom components. However, you cannot create Salesforce reports or dashboards based on this displayed data.

To report on Mailchimp Activity data:

Store activity in Salesforce (complete once):

You must first enable the storage of email activities as records. Please see the General Settings guide and the arcade below. After enabling this feature for the first time and setting a 'Days to Keep' value, the primary sync must run to pull in activity records.

https://demo.arcade.software/E6CRuViIyzzVASnupefm

Packaged reports:

We include several pre-made reports you can access for reporting. They can be found in:

• Mailchimp report folder - Reports used by menus in our app, below. To preserve those, clone and customise reports found here and save them where you need them.

• Reports button - On the Mailchimp Campaign page of each audience. Reports on overall campaign activity and stats. (https://jmp.sh/LXDx5rpa)

• Dropdown menu - On each Mailchimp Campaign, "View Salesforce Report" opens an activity report filtered to that campaign. (https://jmp.sh/tQhzXuAo

• Users must have at least View access on the Mailchimp report folder included in the package to use filtered reports (the Reports button on many screens, and the dropdown menu on each campaign).

• We recommend limiting who can edit these packaged reports, to avoid breaking them for future use. Make a copy instead.

Custom reports:

You are empowered to build your own reports by cloning those above and customising them, or starting from scratch. We also have several custom report types or you can build your own.

Keep the data model in mind when building reports or custom report types: Email Activity are related to Mailchimp Members. Members are then related to contacts, leads or person accounts, if a match exists or is created in Salesforce.

Reminder! Email Activity must be enabled to use these reports.

Important field definitions:

• Timestamp: Date and time of the activity

• Action: What the activity was (sent, click, open, etc)

• Activity URL: The link clicked for a click activity (see more info)

• Link Clicked: The link that preceded an unsubscribe (see more info)

• Settings fields: These are the Mailchimp Mailing/campaign information (see more info)

Activity History

What is active History?

Activity History Component

Stored Activity History

Next Steps

FAQs

Partners

Legal

Product

Resources

Activity History

What is active History?

Activity History Component

Stored Activity History

Next Steps

FAQs

How do I filter the activity shown in the Mailchimp Activity History component, and can I save my filter?

Do you store all email activity?

How do I refresh member open and click rates?

Why does the initial email activity sync take a long time?

What's the difference between Link_Clicked__c and Activity_URL__c on Email Activity records?

What’s causing the missing email-activity data for A/B (split-test) campaigns?

How do I manage data storage for email activity?

Do Mailchimp surveys synch to Salesforce

Can I see Mailchimp activities in the Salesforce Activities TImeline?

Do you support Mailchimp Events

How do I show campaign fields on Email Activity reports?

How can I report on email tracking?

Partners

Legal

Product

Resources