Countdown timers in Keap (formerly Infusionsoft)

If you are searching for an Infusionsoft countdown timer, you are in the right place. Keap’s own page says it plainly: “Infusionsoft is now Keap”, rebranded “in January 2019”, and “The software formerly known as Infusionsoft is now called Keap Ultimate.” The answer to the timer question depends less on the name on your account than on which email builder you open.

Keap’s help articles now live at learn.thryv.com, which is where the quotes below come from.

Does Keap have its own countdown timer

Yes, in the new email builder only. Keap’s broadcast builder article lists a Timer block in the Content tab, described in one line: “Add a countdown timer as an animated GIF image.” The feature comparison marks “Timer block (countdown timer in email)” as available in the new builder and not in the legacy one.

The legacy builder is the one many long-standing Infusionsoft accounts still meet. Keap says “All legacy email builders entered maintenance mode on May 1, 2023”, and that in Max Classic and Ultimate the legacy builder is reached from Templates in the main navigation, from the classic contact record, and from the Automation Builder. An email built there has no Timer block to add. Keap’s conversion article says the new builder “is available for email broadcasts and automation emails in all Keap editions”, so converting is the way to reach it.

What Keap’s articles do not describe is how the Timer block is configured. I found nothing on its time zone, on what it shows after the deadline, or on a deadline per contact, so check the block’s settings in your own account.

Where the timer goes in Keap

The new builder has an HTML block, listed as “HTML: Add custom HTML to the email”, with the warning “Custom HTML may affect how the email renders on different devices. Test all emails before sending.” A timer from here is a single image tag, which is the kind of content that block is meant for.

The Image block takes an image “from the image library, upload a new image, or search a stock image library”. The article describes no field for an image hosted elsewhere, so the HTML block is the documented route.

Keap’s HTML best practices add two rules that fit a timer. “Always include alt attributes on images”, and “JavaScript must be avoided entirely”. The timer needs no script, because the number is drawn on the server when the mail client asks for the image.

Merge fields, custom fields and fallbacks

Keap’s merge field article gives the format as ~Object.FieldName~, with ~Contact.FirstName~ as the first example. You insert one with the [#] button, or in the builder through Merge Tags. For a custom field, Keap’s custom field article says to choose Merge Tags, then Custom Fields, and the tag “appears as a code placeholder, for example, ~Contact.YourCustomFieldName~”.

Two warnings from the same articles matter here. A field with no value is “replaced with a blank space in the sent message”. And applying formatting to only part of a merge field “will break the merge field”, so the email shows the raw code instead of the value.

A merge field has no fallback of its own. Keap’s Liquid article supplies one: Hi {{ contact.firstname | default: 'there' }}. Keap adds that its support team “does not assist with writing or debugging Liquid code”, and the article gives no example of a custom field in Liquid, so I cannot tell you the Liquid name of one.

A deadline per contact

One rule decides how this works. A timer from here is an image with a signed address, and the signature covers every parameter in it. A merge field placed inside that address is filled in after signing, the signature stops matching, and every contact in the send gets a blank, transparent image instead of the timer.

So the whole address goes into a custom field. On Growth or Agency, generate one signed address per contact with the REST API’s batch endpoint or from a recipient set exported as a CSV, import them into a text custom field named et_image_url, and make the field the entire src:

<img src="~Contact.et_image_url~" alt="Your offer ends soon" width="600" height="200" border="0" style="display:block; width:100%; max-width:600px; height:auto; border:0;" />

Insert the tag from the Custom Fields menu and copy it from there rather than typing it, because Keap’s help shows only the general form ~Contact.YourCustomFieldName~. If the menu gives you a different spelling for your field, use the menu’s. Keap also does not document merge fields inside an HTML block’s attributes. It documents them in text, subject lines and link URLs, so confirm the substitution with a live send before you schedule.

Keap’s broadcast article records one case where a merge field in a link “changes the formatting or data that’s filled in” and breaks the link: in Keap’s words, it “invalidates the URL”. A signed image address would fail the same way.

What breaks in automations

Liquid in an Advanced Automation runs in two phases. Keap writes that {{ }} “Resolves at the time an Advanced Automation is published” and [[ ]] “Resolves at the time the automation runs and the email is sent”. Its example is the date: {{ today.date_and_time }} merges the day you published, not the day the email went out. Any deadline text you build with Liquid in an automation email needs the square-bracket form.

The native Timer block has the problem every fixed countdown has in a sequence. A contact who enters months later is counted down to a deadline that has already passed. An address with its deadline set per contact, held in et_image_url, carries that contact’s own deadline wherever they are in the sequence. Fill the field before the contact reaches the email step, because an empty field means an empty src.

What your contacts will see

Microsoft’s support page says “If only the first frame of the animation appears, you have animations, or animated GIFs, disabled.” That applies to Keap’s Timer block as much as to ours, since both are animated GIFs. A timer from here draws the time left into its first frame, so that reader still sees a correct number. The email client support page covers the other clients, from what the mail vendors document rather than from my own inbox checks.

Testing before you send

Keap’s test article puts Send a Test in the three-dot menu, for “up to 6 recipients at a time”. In a broadcast or an Advanced Automation you can add a contact as a reference so the test shows that contact’s merge field values.

Keap adds a caution for Advanced Automations: “In test emails, merge fields that pull contact information may not display correctly”. Its advice is to “send a live test to a personal email address before sending to a contact list”. For an Easy Automation, Send test uses the contact you select, and “merge fields in the email will populate using that contact’s data”. Whichever you use, pick a contact whose et_image_url holds a real signed address.

Questions and answers

Does Keap have a countdown timer for email?

Yes. The new email builder has a Timer block that adds “a countdown timer as an animated GIF image”. The legacy builder, still used from Templates in Max Classic and Ultimate, does not have one.

Is an Infusionsoft countdown timer the same thing as a Keap one?

Yes. Keap says “Infusionsoft is now Keap” and that the software formerly called Infusionsoft “is now called Keap Ultimate”. What matters is whether your email is in the new builder or the legacy one.

Where do I paste custom timer code in Keap?

Into the HTML block of the new email builder. The Image block documents only library, upload and stock images, not an outside image address.

What is the merge field for a custom field in Keap?

Keap documents the form ~Contact.YourCustomFieldName~, inserted from Merge Tags, then Custom Fields. A field named et_image_url holding a signed address becomes the image’s src.

Why is my timer blank in a Keap test email?

Either the reference contact has no value in the field, which Keap replaces with a blank space, or the test did not fill the merge field, which Keap warns can happen in Advanced Automations. Send a live test to your own address.

Which plan covers a timer in Keap?

A single deadline for everyone fits the free plan, which includes 5,000 image opens a month. A deadline per contact needs addresses generated per contact, on Growth at $49 a month. The tiers are on pricing.