AWeber Email Marketing Tips
PayPal Autoresponder and Follow Up Integration
Update: PayPal has changed their interface, making this article outdated. For up to date instructions, visit the PayPal Integration Article in our Knowledge Base.
[This is the first of a series of integration articles that we will be publishing to the blog under the Articles and Tips category - stay tuned for more!]
Following up with customers after they purchase is a critical part of the sales process. This communication helps foster trust and loyalty from people who have already purchased from you.
The Paypal email parser has been developed to provide AWeber users with an automated way to add customers to their AWeber account after they purchase.
This can be used to:
- Send post purchase email to customers
- Send out purchased information products automatically
- Up-sell your customers using email
- Send customer newsletters, etc
Step by step instructions for integrating AWeber with Paypal
The instructions below will walk you through setting up your PayPal account to add subscribers to your AWeber account as they purchase from you.
Download a PDF of this article or follow the steps below.
A. Add Your AWeber Autoresponder Email Address To Your PayPal Account
When you add an email address to your PayPal account, they require that you confirm it’s a real address where you can receive messages.
- Login to your Paypal account: http://www.paypal.com
- Click on Profile
- Under Account Information click on Email
- Click on the Add button
- Insert your AWeber email address and click Save
- Login to your AWeber account http://www.aweber.com/login.htm
- Click on the Leads tab at the top of the page
- Click on Display in the middle of the page to display current subscribers. They will appear at the bottom of the page
- Find the email address: service@paypal.com
- Click on the service@paypal.com email address. This will take you to the detailed entry for that address.
- Next to the “Verification Email” title, click the link that reads “Click to See”
- In this email find the confirmation link sent by Paypal
- Copy this link and paste it into Notepad or another plain text editing program. The link needs to be corrected before you go to it to confirm your address.
- Make the following changes to the link:








- The link runs onto two lines. Remove the break so that it is all on one line
- After the first two = signs the next two characters are 3D. Remove them from the link
The end of the link should be your autoresponders address (in this case, paypal-aweber@aweber.com) Replace any characters that don’t belong with the appropriate ones so that your autoresponder address is shown (including the @ and . symbols) at the end of the link. So in this case, instead of
https://www.paypal.com/us/ece/cn=3D15102124422463880063&em=3Dpaypal%2dawebe=r%40aweber%2ecom
the correct link is:
https://www.paypal.com/us/ece/cn=15102124422463880063&em=paypal-aweber@aweber.com
- Now, paste the link into your browser
- Enter your Paypal password on this page and click Confirm

You have now added your autoresponder address to your PayPal account.
B. Turn on the PayPal Email Parser
Login to your AWeber account, click on List Settings then Email Parser

Look for the rule titled Payment Processor: Paypal Orders, click the check box under the “Active?” column and click Activate/Deactivate

C. Create PayPal “Buy Now” Button
Now, create a “Buy Now” button in your PayPal account, and tell it to send the payment notification email to your autoresponder.
- In your PayPal account, click “Merchant Services”
- Scroll to the end of the page and click “Buy Now Buttons”
- Click the “Get Started!” link on the left side of the page.
- Fill out your product information and scroll to the end of the page.
- At the end of the page, click the “Add More Options” button
- On the next page, scroll to the section titled “Choose an email address to receive payment (optional)”
- Select your autoresponder email address from the dropdown menu and click “Create Button Now”
- Now, copy the HTML for your Buy Now button, edit your website and place the button onto the appropriate page/s





Now, when your customers click on that Buy Now button and purchase your product, they will be added to your AWeber list!
Need Help?
If you have any questions about integrating PayPal and AWeber, or anything else about your account, please contact our customer support team. We have real, live people ready to assist you.
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 7AM – 7PM Eastern time
Saturday, 9AM – 5PM Eastern time
Phone:
Toll Free: 1-800-531-5065 or +1 215-322-2408
Email:
help@aweber.com
http://www.aweber.com/contact-us.htm
Live Text Chat:
Anywhere on the AWeber site – just click the “Live Support” icon!
AWeber Also Integrates With
Clickbank
PayDotCom
1ShoppingCart
2Checkout
StormPay
Related Articles
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Subscribe to This Blog by Email77 Comments
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Raluca
It is all very interesting and really important for business.
What happens if I have 2 different lists, offering 2 different products?
How do I know to which list to add them? (not me, the autoresponder).
And what happens with the original paypal address that I used until now?
Does it lose its usefulness?
Do I have to go and change it all over the place where I gave it for affiliate payments?Many thenks,
12/7/2006 1:33 pm
Raluca -
If you have multiple lists/products, you would repeat this process for each one. Since each Buy Now button can send the notification to a different address, you simply need to tell PayPal which address to send each product’s notifications to.
12/7/2006 2:49 pm | Follow me on Twitter -
The fact that AWeber integrates so nicely with PayPal is AWESOME! Love the feature…thanks!
12/8/2006 7:42 pm
-
The problem I have found is that if the customer does not click the sign up link in the Aweber email then I don’t get to find out about the payment.
This is because the Paypal payment received email has gone to my Aweber account, which is great if the customer clicks the link in the Aweber email, but if they don’t then the only way to find out about the payment received is to check my Paypal account.
Or have I missed something..
12/11/2006 7:36 pm -
A simpler way to activate the email than all the text editing is detailed in the paypal email… See below.
"If your email program has problems with hypertext links, you may also =
confirm your email address by logging in to your PayPal account. Click on
the Confirm email link and then enter the following confirmation number:"XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
very simple
12/12/2006 3:30 am
-
Wow…it is a answer for my question
thanks a lot
12/12/2006 11:32 am -
Autoreponder’s integraton with Paypal should be a boon to new entrants. Since there are a large no of steps to be completed, could aweber consider providing a how to video, like they have provided on other topics?
This step taken by aweber with paypal and clickbank is commendable!
12/12/2006 12:58 pm -
Excellent Article and exactly what I spent yesterday trying to figure out!
May I suggest that you send this out as part of the welcome package with new accounts.
Thanks
12/12/2006 2:47 pm -
Would this work with PayPal recurring subscriptions as well or just Buy It Now?
12/12/2006 4:46 pm -
Justin,
This is for use with one-time purchases with PayPal’s "Buy Now" buttons, rather than recurring subscriptions.
Once someone is subscribed to your list, they would remain subscribed until either they clicked the unsubscribe link or you manually unsubscribed them, rather than their subscription being based on further emails from PayPal being sent to the autoresponder.
12/12/2006 5:58 pm | Follow me on Twitter -
What if I’m selling 20 or 30 digital items on ebay and I want my buyer to confirm thier email and subsequently deliver thier download link? Do I have to set up a seperate autoresponder for each product?
Steph.
12/13/2006 12:33 pm -
Justin,
I love the integration between AWeber and shopping carts, etc., but my challenge is the same as Andy Philpot’s above. The purchaser isn’t automatically signed up to the autoresponder but, rather, they receive the verification email setup in the "List Settings -> Verified Opt-In" area.
This means the client has an extra step to go through and, if the client doesn’t opt-in:
a) they don’t receive the follow-up messages
b) I don’t receive the PayPal payment emailAny plans for AWeber to recognize purchasers as ‘automatically opted-in’ (I can’t think of a higher opt-in confirmation than purchasing an item from my site), or is this unique to PayPal and another shopping cart would integrate differently with AWeber?
I think AWeber is the best AR out there, and I’d love to see this extra functionality!
Brett.
12/13/2006 4:44 pm -
I am sure this is great and I would love to do it but would really appreciate a video. I am nervous about messing things up as I am quite good at doing that with these technical things.:-)
12/14/2006 4:56 am -
The subscriber will be subscribed via the email method.
So, do this mean, the subscriber have to confirm their subscription?
- Pawan
12/14/2006 8:00 am -
Several people have asked about the use of Verified Opt-In with these notification emails from PayPal.
In terms of your customers, it’s important to recognize that just because they purchase something from you, that does not at all mean they want to be subscribed to a mailing list and receive follow up messages from you.
The decision to purchase and the one to opt-in are separate. Besides, even if we didn’t feel they were, you can be sure that ISPs such as AOL and Yahoo do, and it’s ultimately up to them to accept or not accept your mail.
Verified Opt-In is a standard they have designated for managing mailing lists, which we utilize in order to ensure the best deliverability possible for your messages. I strongly recommend that you test and optimize your verification message.
12/14/2006 10:34 am | Follow me on Twitter -
Steph,
Since you would be sending a different message/link for each product, yes, you would create a separate list for each of those and set up the appropriate Buy Now buttons for each list/product.
12/14/2006 10:37 am | Follow me on Twitter -
Justin,
I thought as much – but I just wondered if there was a quicker way round it!
12/14/2006 2:30 pm -
Thanks for the additional info Justin!
12/14/2006 2:58 pm -
Suppose I want an autoresponder to deliver a purchased information product?
I don’t want the customer to have to confirm a subscription simply to receive a once-off email with a single attachment that the customer has paid for.
12/14/2006 8:11 pm -
Darren,
Then AWeber isn’t the solution to deliver that attachment if you don’t want them to confirm. I might also recommend reviewing Justin’s comment above.
12/14/2006 8:13 pm | Follow me on Twitter -
I have an idea that could solve the issue of the verification email, but I think it would require a change to the Aweber system. And, if there is a reason this is not already implemented, I would love to hear it.
When someone receives the verification email, they are taken to the aweber site. This makes sense, as it allows aweber to update their database to show the verification.
Now, what I would like to see is the ability to redirect from the verification page to another url. This way, we could create a custom "Thank you for opting-in" page AND deliver the product (or whatever) at the same time.
This is a feature I had thought would be great for awhile, but have not mentioned until now. If the ability to not redirect from the verification email is not there on purpose, I would love to know why. If it just hasn’t been though of, I would love to see it added.
Thanks.
12/19/2006 1:26 pm -
Michael,
It already exists.
http://www.aweber.com/blog/new-features/custom-confirmation-page.htm
12/19/2006 1:43 pm | Follow me on Twitter -
Tom,
Thanks. Somehow I missed that new feature. Been kind of busy the last few months and haven’t followed the blog as much as I would like.
Anyway, this feature should be able to solve MOST users problem with confirmed opt-in and product delivery. Just create a custom confirmation email that talks about how to get the product, and as soon as they click on the link they get confirmed in Aweber and can download their purchased product.
A no-brainer and great feature. Thanks, Tom.
12/21/2006 5:42 pm -
Ok, Gang! I am brand new here and so far loving this AR…it is the first one I have used.
I am looking to provide PREMIUM weekly content to a list of subscribers…I know Aweber will be able to deliver the content…my question is, won’t the "SUBSCRIBE" buttons from PayPal work just the same as the "BUY NOW" buttons?
Thanks from a TRUE beginner.
2/8/2007 1:12 pm -
Marty,
PayPal sends different emails based on the type of transaction, whether that be simply sending money, a subscription, or a product purchase via a "Buy Now" button.
Also, once someone is subscribed to your list, they would remain subscribed until either they clicked the unsubscribe link or you manually unsubscribed them, rather than their subscription being based on further emails from PayPal being sent to the autoresponder. So if they stopped paying you, you’d need to manually stop them.
Our PayPal integration is designed specifically for purchases made via a "Buy Now" button.
2/8/2007 2:05 pm | Follow me on Twitter -
I had a small question. Once you have followed the steps to integrate paypal & aweber, when someone makes a purchase are they sent;
a) the confirmation email or
b) message number oneI just wanted to make sure. Thanks everyone.
2/17/2007 5:45 pm -
Tim,
The confirmation message will be sent. Once the subscriber clicks on the confirm link, s/he will become active on your list.
2/19/2007 9:14 am | Follow me on Twitter -
So is it possible to set up a recurring paypal payment button for the autoresponder?
>Would this work with PayPal recurring subscriptions as well or just >Buy It Now?
2/26/2007 10:03 pm
>
>December 12th, 2006 at 5:58 pm
>Justin,
>
>This is for use with one-time purchases with PayPal’s "Buy Now" >buttons, rather than recurring subscriptions.
>
>Once someone is subscribed to your list, they would remain subscribed >until either they clicked the unsubscribe link or you manually >unsubscribed them, rather than their subscription being based on >further emails from PayPal being sent to the autoresponder. -
Gloria,
That is not possible at this time, no. You would need to manually import subscribers who were signing up for a recurring subscription via PayPal.
2/27/2007 8:58 am | Follow me on Twitter -
This is a great way to do it, except that paypal limits the number of emails I can have to 8.
If I understand this thread correctly then I’d need a different paypal address for every product (so it activates the right autoresponder), which means if I sell more than 8 products I’m outta luck.
Am I getting that right? If so — Tom, got any pull at Paypal?
Lou
3/10/2007 1:59 am -
Following up on what step asked, I have about 50 or so different info products to sell. I know that you said we would need to create a new button for each product, the problem is, when I went to paypal to add my autoresponder email address, it said that I could only add up to six email addresses. I would need at least 50. Any ideas?
3/10/2007 7:58 pm -
I have the same issue as Lou and Mary – more than 8 products. I am assuming, given their question has not been answered that this is a limit that can’t be changed at the Paypal end.
I am wondering if Aweber could add some new functionality to parse out the product ID from the paypal email and then add the person to the appropriate list based on the product ID?
Also, a question to everyone else with more than 8 products, how have you handled this? Any suggestions or ideas for us just starting out ?
3/29/2007 12:39 pm -
Yep, same question as Lou — that’s the roadblock right now.
I would so love to use this feature; but limiting the product number isn’t really an option.
4/4/2007 9:38 am -
You may have to create a generic follow-up for all customers. This would save you tons of time. One autoresponder, one set of follow-ups. It would be possible to offer a link to an FAQs page on your website. I just think it is going over board to create a different autoresponder for multiple items. Autoresponders are to supposed to save time, not create more work and aggravation. I use a generic follow up myself and I make plenty of sales using the generic follow-up. Just trying to help.
4/4/2007 12:34 pm -
That won’t work if you’re selling multiple products, though, Tim.
Each product has its own list, and therefore, its own aweber email.
Now, if AWeber were to create a module that could pick up on, say, the item number (which can be customized with every PayPal button created), which is a part of the content of every payment notification email, and automatically distribute the requests towards each particular list, then we’d be all set.
PayPal could send the payment notifications to one address, and AWeber systems would pick it up from there. How cool would that be?
4/5/2007 3:37 pm -
I did all of the above, created a button, then put that button into
List A’s auto-responder message.
Once the person who receives LIST A clicks the paypal button, I then want them to be moved to List B to start receiving those e-mails (for which they’ve now paid) via autoresponder.HOWEVER,
when I just tested the LIST A message, and clicked the paypal button, it wasn’t active. How do I create a ‘clickable’ paypal button that’s in the autoresponder msg?
5/3/2007 1:46 am -
In order to be able to help you with that we’ll need to see the message in your account. One of our Support Team members will be in touch with you.
5/3/2007 8:48 am | Follow me on Twitter -
>That is not possible at this time, no. You would need to manually import subscribers who were signing up for a recurring subscription via PayPal.<
is this still the case? or has there been an advance with this?
6/17/2007 5:04 am
i have subsription sales to multiple products, will I need to manually put them into each list after they pay, and how will i know when they have stopped paying? to unsubsribe them? -
Hi Grant,
Recurring subscriptions would still need to be handled manually.
If/when we introduce a way to automate this, this blog will be the first place we announce it – so if you’ve signed up for email updates we’ll put a note in your inbox about it
6/18/2007 9:06 am | Follow me on Twitter
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Hi Justin,
I’ve read this comment thread, but I’m hoping yet another request might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back here.
First, I love Aweber — it has been a perfect product for me so far. You people do great work and the service is a pleasure to use.
I use a PayPal subscription button as a way of offering a 30-day product trial. Customers are billed 99 cents for the first 30 days, then full price if they like the product.
Before I introduced trial pricing, I was using a Buy It now. This worked great — customers instantly receive a confirmation message, then get added to my list of customers so I can send customers-only mailings to them through Aweber. So far so good.
But now I’m looking at manually importing these leads one at a time. They lose the instant response feature and I have to perform this task manually — and keeping the product held back until they verify is the only effective way to opt them all into the customer list. The current situation is a hack solution that seems unnecessary.
Please consider adding PayPal subscription functionality, at least to the sign-up process. I’m sure the people publishing weekly newsletters etc. won’t mind having to process unsubscribes manually — at least this solution would get them halfway automated. (And me fully automated.)
Thanks for all you do, and keep up the great service.
8/30/2007 10:54 am -
Regarding the verified optin process, since so many members are worried about it that their customers need to verify their email in order to get the download link.
Here is the simple solution.
In your "Verified OptIn" setup.. simple add your thank you note on the top with a download link and then mention something like "If you would like to be notified with the updates of "downloaded product" or get notified with the new offer etc.. click on the verification link below.
Sounds good and simple?
9/15/2007 4:52 pm -
I get started my online business on April 2006. And all the successful marketers that I met out there have given me the
same advice about Aweber’s follow up hight quality service.And once I have my first affiliate website setup since yesterday
from Cody Moya, I didn’t hesitate anymore to open my Aweber’s account
even if I do not have much money now to do that. Aweber is the quality
of follow up I want and the best emails deliverability.Thanks to Aweber’s Staff,
12/30/2007 12:24 pm -
"The problem I have found is that if the customer does not click the sign up link in the Aweber email then I don’t get to find out about the payment."
Is there a solution to this? I didnt know about a payment until the buyer clicked the confirmation link a week later! How can we can get confirmation of payments even if the buyer doesnt click the confirmation link from aweber?
3/3/2008 5:02 am -
I’m having the same maximum 8 email problem also.
Here’s a thought…
Is there a way to append a custom field when a person orders.
For instance, I would like to put all my entry level customers into the same list and just have a custom field for "product ID", When the person purchases, the field would be appended with a product code (i.e. DF for Dog Food). Then if the customer purchases a different product the field would be appended with the new code while still leaving in the old code. For instance if they bought a Dog Collar (DC) then the field would not show "DF DC".
So can a custom field be appended to?
3/21/2008 8:09 pm -
Hi Scott,
Editing/appending data to existing subscribers in that way is not possible at this time (you can, however, update subscriber records through the "Leads" page of the control panel).
3/24/2008 7:42 am | Follow me on Twitter -
We’d like to implement the Paypal-Aweber autoresponder, but there’s one thing that’s still unclear to me after reading the above posts.
How can we receive the actual Paypal orders if the customer does not verify or does not verify in a timely manner? We would really like to implement this feature, but we don’t want to alienate customers who don’t receive their orders because we don’t receive the order confirmation from Paypal.
Thanks!
4/17/2008 2:03 pm -
Once someone has subscribed via Paypal and I manually put their address on my list, is there a time limiter on the list which automatically removes them once their subscription has ended via paypal, but not intergrated?
Thanks.
4/16/2009 3:48 am -
Paul,
This is designed to add buyers making single/one-time purchases through PayPal, rather than for recurring subscriptions. It will not remove someone when they terminate a PayPal subscription.
4/16/2009 9:15 am | Follow me on Twitter -
Hi Justin,
One question here.. when someone terminates a PayPal subscription, an email is sent to the associated PayPal email correct (xxx@weber.com). Will this email show up in the subscriber list..how would one know if a custom cancelled their PayPal subscription? I understand that we have to manually remove them from the subscription list afterwards, however I am wondering if/how we are notified that they have cancelled.
4/25/2009 12:01 am -
@Bridgette,
Referring back to Justin’s recent comment above, this integration works best for product purchases, rather than subscriptions.
The email would not show up in the account, since emailing the list name only adds or removes subscriber – it isn’t used as a reliable means of communication with subscribers or services.
4/29/2009 9:49 am -
"Editing/appending data to existing subscribers in that way is not possible at this time."
Any ETA on when it will be?
6/11/2009 6:52 pm -
Greetings,
I have canceled Paypal subscriptions to find that it also automatically deleted me from the aweber email list that was delivering the product.
How can I set up my Paypal/aweber to do the same? It would be a lot easier than having to manually unsubscribe members from my Aweber list after they cancel the Paypal subscription.
Thanks,
J
7/9/2009 11:25 am -
Hey, I have been trying to set this up.
My customers will be buying an information product from my website. Would this be a way to send them to a download link through an aweber list after they pay me through paypal?
My other thing I wanted ask is, when I am creating a buy it now button I do not have the option "add more options." At the bottom of the page all I see is the "create button" option.
I am positive I am in the right place because I am creating a buy it now button, is this because I have to upgrade my paypal?
Thanks
9/15/2009 10:24 am -
Andrew,
You could do that, yes.
As far as what you’re seeing in PayPal, upgrading, etc – I don’t believe you have to upgrade anything (I’ve never heard of anything like that, and we didn’t upgrade anything in our PayPal account when we documented how to integrate).
PayPal’s interface may change over time – this blog post is originally from 2006, but we also have a video on PayPal integration in our Knowledge Base which we try to keep up-to-date with any changes they make.
9/16/2009 10:05 am | Follow me on Twitter -
This is great. And the real icing is the video which is quite informative and detailed. Thank you.
11/13/2009 5:11 am -
When I look at the pic, I just realize how much aweber has changed. How time has passed by??? Clickbank, Aweber and all these super businesses have changed and seen a lot during the years.
2/8/2010 2:54 am -
Justin can you please answer Lee and Michael’s question above – I need to know if there is a way to receive notification of payment if the customer doesn’t confirm their email (if they miss it, etc).
3/7/2010 10:19 pm -
Also another question – if the persons Paypal name is not their actual name (like a company name, husbands account etc) then the name that they get signed up on Aweber with is totally wrong. Which means you can’t use their ‘firstname fix’ in an email.
Is there a way to have a custom field in Paypal passed through into Aweber for the signup?
3/7/2010 10:22 pm -
Anyone know a way that you can remove the subscriber automatically when they cancel?
3/19/2010 2:27 pm -
Does anyone know if AWeber can be used to automatically distribute unique activation codes to customers after they have made a purchase? Each activation code would be unique to each purchase. Thanks
5/17/2010 8:36 pm -
Tamara,
Depending on how that information is generated, it may be possible. Please contact us to discuss in detail.
5/20/2010 10:03 am | Follow me on Twitter -
I really want to switch to aweber from another popular auto responder service. The opt-in forms are worth the price all together.
11/1/2010 4:18 am -
So is this saying that I change my primary paypal email address to an Aweber address, or am I supposed to add an additional one but not make it the primary email?
6/2/2011 5:28 am -
Kate ~ Yes, you need to change that primary address to your listname@aweber.com
6/2/2011 8:06 am -
How come you integrate with PayPal but you do not accept PayPal payment for your services?
7/27/2011 2:52 pm -
We don’t accept PayPal for payment of AWeber accounts for a number of reasons.
That said, if you want to use them to collect payment from your customers, we’re happy to help you get those customers onto your email list, and so have integrated the two services as noted in this article.
7/28/2011 10:28 am | Follow me on Twitter
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