Using Custom Touch Points for Lead Scoring

  • Updated

Custom Touch Points let you score marketing activities that happen outside Act-On and still roll them into a contact's behaviour score. The classic use case is a trade show: you collect 300 business cards, and you want attendees to get credit in your scoring model. Upload the list as a Custom Touch Point, assign it a score, and every contact on the list picks up points the same way they would for an in-platform event.

Who does this: Marketing ops or the event owner who has the list. Custom Touch Points have to be enabled on the account - contact Act-On Support if the menu isn't visible
Time needed: 15 to 25 minutes per upload, once you have the list in a clean CSV or Excel
Why this matters: A prospect who just sat through your trade-show demo shouldn't look the same as one who hasn't opened a single email. Custom Touch Points close the gap between your in-platform behaviour data and the real-world marketing work happening off-platform.
In plain English: Act-On can only score what it sees. This is how you tell Act-On about everything it didn't see - the offline, partner, and third-party touches that still count toward "is this lead warm?"
Note: Custom Touch Point lists can't be used for sending messages. If you need to email the same contacts, upload the file separately as a Marketing List.
API option: You can automate Custom Touch Point uploads with Webhooks or the Act-On REST API. Share the Custom Events endpoint reference with your technical resource.

Upload data for a new Custom Touch Point

  1. Go to Lists > Other Lists > Custom Touch Points.
  2. Click New to create a list.
  3. Click Choose File, select your Excel or CSV list, and click Next.

Custom Touch Point upload step

Identify necessary fields and create the Custom Touch Point

Note: If the imported data needs adjustment, below the yellow table click change processing options, make the changes, and click Save.

Change processing options dialog

  1. In the options below the yellow table, specify the Date Format Act-On should use for this custom event list. It must match the date format in your file.
  2. Specify the Action for this event.

    • Use one of the pre-defined actions - downloaded media, registered for an event, or attended an event - or create up to six of your own.

      To create custom action names, go to Lists > Other Lists > Custom Touch Points > Behavior Names, enter your user-defined Behavior Display Names, and click Save.

      Behavior Display Names setup

  3. Specify the field for the event date in the When field.
  4. Specify the Email field.
  5. Specify the Title field. This is the event name, not the contact's job title.
  6. Specify the Notes field. This could be a description field.

Field mapping step

  1. Click Next. Act-On tells you about any new or invalid data.
    • If anything looks wrong, click Back to fix it.

Data validation step

  1. Click Finish. The new custom touch point appears.

Completed custom touch point

Score the new Custom Touch Point

Once the touch point exists, give it a point value so contacts actually earn credit.

  1. Go to Lists > Scoring Rules. Scroll to the bottom of Activity and click the blue + Add Activity Condition. Select the Custom: Specific action you defined in step B.

Adding an activity condition for a custom touch point

  1. In the dialog that appears, select your Custom Touch Point and click Submit.
  2. Give the Custom Touch Point a score value.

Scoring value for the custom touch point

  1. At the top right, click Save.

Contacts in the Custom Touch Point list now earn the score you assigned, and that score feeds into their overall behaviour score like any other activity.

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