When moving from Marketing Lists to Audience Center → All Contacts, your Automated Programs must be updated to use All Contacts segments instead of list-based sources. This ensures your program logic, early exits, and field updates continue working with your new unified contact data. Use the steps below to transition your existing programs safely, without disrupting contacts already in progress.
Quick Reference (Advanced Users) – Click to Expand
- Identify all Marketing Lists and segments used in the program.
- Create equivalent All Contacts segments.
- Remove list-based sources from Settings, Program Flow, Early Exits, and Lists & Segments.
- Add the new All Contacts segments in all required places.
- Replace Copy to List steps with Append to Segment.
- Save as draft, resolve errors, then restart the program.
Instructions
Transition Automated Programs to All Contacts using the following steps:
Create Segments in All Contacts
Remove the Marketing Lists and Segments
Change "Copy to List" to "Append to Segment"
Create Segments in All Contacts
Start by reviewing the lists and segments your Automated Program currently depends on. Open the program and go to Edit → Build → Lists & Segments to see all referenced items:
Create equivalent segments in All Contacts. Need help? See How to create a segment.
Remove the Marketing Lists and Segments
Automated Programs can use either Marketing Lists or All Contacts—not both. Before switching, remove every Marketing List dependency.
- Go to Automation → Automated Programs → open your program → Edit → Report → Steps → Expand all. This shows all list usages. Take a screenshot for reference.
- Go to Build → Program Flow and remove any step that references a list.
- Go to Build → Early Exits and remove list-based conditions.
- Under Settings, remove the Marketing List source.
- In Build → Lists & Segments, remove all list-based items.
- Click Save. If errors appear indicating missing sources, choose Save as Draft.
Add All Contacts Segments
- Add the All Contacts segments you created earlier in Build → Lists & Segments.
- Go to Settings and add the new Source segment.
- Update any Early Exit rules to reference the new segments.
- For steps that reference segments or lists, edit those conditions to use the All Contacts versions.
- If changing a Change Field step, double-check the selected field after replacing the segment.
Change "Copy to List" to "Append to Segment"
"Copy to List" applies only to Marketing List-based programs. All Contacts programs use Append to Segment to group contacts.
- Delete any Copy to List steps.
- Add an Append to Segment step and choose an existing segment or create a new direct select segment.
Save & Restart
When all Marketing List references are removed and All Contacts segments added, save the program and restart it.
FAQs
What happens to contacts currently in the program?
Contacts already in progress continue through remaining steps once you restart. They do not need to be in the new source segment - the source segment only determines new entries.
Why should I edit the existing program instead of creating a new one?
Editing preserves your program history and ensures contacts already inside continue normally. Creating a new program risks duplication, entry conflicts, and transition errors.
What if a contact isn’t in All Contacts?
They can still finish the program, but won’t qualify for segment-based steps, early exits, or field updates using All Contacts. Import them using All Contacts import if needed.
Why is “immediately” greyed out in Settings?
Only profile-based segments support immediate program start. Behavior-based segments must run on a schedule. For instant responses to Form submissions, use the Form Submission list as the program source.