Deadline Funnel starts a subscriber's deadline the moment a tag is applied in Kit. The Kit Integration assistant wires that connection up for you in a chat window — then proves it works by running a real subscriber through Kit and watching for the result.
Quick Links
Getting Kit and Deadline Funnel talking normally means creating a tag, building a webhook rule inside Kit, and then hoping it fires. The assistant does all of it — and unlike the manual route, it tells you whether it actually worked.
This guide covers the assistant for email tracking, which is what starts deadlines. If you want Deadline Funnel to record purchases from Kit, that's the separate Kit Sales Tracking assistant.
Before you start
A Kit account on a plan that includes webhook (Rule) access. Kit's lower tiers don't offer this — the assistant will tell you plainly if yours is one of them.
Your Kit API Key and API Secret, from Kit → Settings → Developer. Only needed the first time; after that Deadline Funnel remembers the connection.
A campaign whose Email Platform is set to Kit.
An email address you own, to use as a test lead during verification.
A paid Deadline Funnel plan. The assistant isn't offered on free or Shopify accounts.
Supported campaign types
Evergreen, Tripwire Offer, Abandoned Cart, Automated Webinar, and Hybrid. On other campaign types you'll set the integration up manually instead.
Open the assistant
There are two ways in. If you're building a new campaign, the assistant comes to you.
The usual way: right after the AI Campaign Creator builds your campaign
Build a campaign with the AI Campaign Creator and set its Email Platform to Kit. As soon as the campaign is created, the creator recaps what it built and offers the integration as the next step:
The assistant opens right there, already pointed at the campaign you just made — nothing to go and find.
Skipping costs nothing
Skip for now doesn't lose your work. You can open the assistant later from the campaign itself, exactly as below.
The other way: from a campaign you already have
Go to your campaign and open the Emails step in the left sidebar. Under Integrate With Kit, on the Kit tab, click Set up / verify with AI.
The manual steps stay right where they are, underneath. You can close the assistant at any point and finish by hand.
Either way, the same chat opens and gets to work immediately — you don't have to type anything to start it.
The bar across the top is your progress through the setup.
Step | What happens |
Connect | Checks that your Kit account is linked to Deadline Funnel |
Check setup | Looks at whether this campaign is already wired |
Tag | You choose, or create, the tag that starts the deadline |
Webhook | The assistant builds the Rule inside Kit for you |
Verify | A real test runs through Kit, end to end |
Done | Confirmation of what's now live |
1. Connect your Kit account
If Deadline Funnel isn't connected to Kit yet, a short form appears inside the chat with two fields — API Key and API Secret — and a Where to find these in Kit link that takes you straight to the right page in Kit.
Paste both in and click Connect Kit. Once it succeeds you'll see Connected as your account name, and the assistant moves on.
Keep credentials in the form
The assistant will never ask you to type an API key or secret into the chat. The form is the only place they're entered, and it sends them straight to Deadline Funnel.
If Kit is already connected, the assistant simply confirms it and continues.
2. Choose your trigger tag
The assistant asks which Kit tag should start the deadline, and opens a picker with two routes side by side: a dropdown of every tag already in your Kit account, and a Create a new tag field where you can name one and have it made in Kit for you.
If you name a tag that already exists, the assistant reuses it rather than making a duplicate, and says so. You can also skip the picker and just type what you want — "use my Black Friday tag", "make one called Launch" — and it'll follow that.
If this campaign is already set up
When the campaign already has a tag and a Rule, the assistant skips the picker entirely and tells you what's currently wired, naming the tag:
The stepper has already ticked off Connect and Check setup before it asks you anything.
Re-run verification — keep everything as it is and just re-test it.
Change the tag — switch to a different trigger tag, which rebuilds the Rule.
3. The webhook is built for you
Nothing to do here. The assistant creates the Rule inside your Kit account that points back at this campaign, and gives you a View your Kit rule link so you can see it in Kit.
This step is safe to repeat — running it again replaces the campaign's existing rule rather than piling up duplicates.
4. Verify it actually works
This is the part that makes the assistant worth using. Rather than assuming the setup is correct, it runs a real subscriber through Kit and waits to see the webhook arrive.
First it asks for a test email address, and tells you exactly what will happen to it:
The amber notice is the one place this warning is given. Read it before you answer.
Use an address you own
That address really is subscribed to your own Kit account and really does get the trigger tag applied — and it stays there afterwards. There's no automatic cleanup on the email integration, so treat it as a genuine subscriber in your list.
Type the address and send. The assistant subscribes it, tags it, and starts watching:
The dashboard does the checking between turns and counts them off for you.
After ten checks it pauses and hands the decision back, so it never spins forever — you'll see "The dashboard has stopped checking for now. Checked 10 times — still nothing yet." Two buttons stay available throughout:
Keep waiting — run another round of checks.
Cancel verification — stop. Your test email stays subscribed and tagged in Kit.
Verification runs for up to 5 minutes before it times out.
If your Kit account uses double opt-in
Kit won't activate the subscriber until they confirm. The assistant will tell you to click the Confirm subscription link in the email Kit just sent to your test address.
This is expected and doesn't mean anything is broken. Once you confirm, the check continues on its own — there's no need to restart it.
5. Done
When the webhook arrives, every step in the bar turns green and the assistant confirms what's now live:
The success message repeats the one thing to remember: your test address stays subscribed and tagged in Kit.
Remove that subscriber in Kit if you don't want them in your list. Otherwise, click Close and you're finished.
Came from the campaign creator?
That button says Continue instead, because there's one more step. It hands you straight to Kit sales tracking, so purchases record against the same campaign.
What "verified" actually proves
A successful verification confirms one specific thing: your Kit Rule fired and Deadline Funnel received the webhook for that test subscriber. That's the link that breaks most often, so it's the link worth testing.
It doesn't check anything downstream of that — whether a timer renders on your sales page, or whether a particular visitor has a live deadline. Those depend on your pages and campaign type, and are checked separately with Test Your Campaign.
Troubleshooting
Verification timed out — the receipt never arrived
What to do
The assistant lists the likely causes. Work through them in this order:
The tag was already on that subscriber. This is the most common cause by some distance. Kit only fires its "tag added" event when a tag is genuinely newly applied — if your test address already carried the trigger tag from an earlier run, nothing fires. Remove the tag from that subscriber in Kit, then re-run.
Double opt-in was never confirmed. Check the inbox for your test address and click Confirm subscription.
The Rule hasn't fired yet. Kit can lag. Click Keep waiting for another round.
It isn't the tag your automation applies. Open the sequence or automation in Kit that's meant to start the deadline and confirm it applies this exact tag.
The assistant says your Kit plan doesn't support webhooks
What to do
This is a Kit plan limit, not a setup mistake on your side. You have three routes:
Upgrade your Kit plan, then re-run the step.
Use Deadline Funnel's manual Kit integration builder — the steps sit right below the assistant on the Emails page.
Send the trigger from something else you already control — your checkout platform, Zapier, or Make. Each has its own tab next to Kit on that same panel.
"Those credentials did not work."
What to do
Copy both values again from Kit → Settings → Developer. It's easy to swap the two or pick up a trailing space. The key and the secret are different values and both are required.
There's no "Set up / verify with AI" button
What to do
Check each of these: the campaign's Email Platform is set to Kit; your account isn't a free or Shopify account; and your campaign is one of the supported types listed above. If all three look right, the assistant may not be switched on for your account yet — get in touch and we'll check.
You closed the chat by accident
What to do
Click Set up / verify with AI again. Your conversation is still there where you left it.
Common questions
Will this delete the integration I already set up by hand?
It replaces the campaign's Kit Rule with a fresh one pointing at the same campaign, rather than adding a second. Your tag choice is preserved unless you deliberately change it.
Can I remove the test subscriber afterwards?
Yes — delete or unsubscribe them in Kit like any other subscriber. Deadline Funnel doesn't do it for you, which is exactly why the assistant warns you before it subscribes them.
Does the test subscriber count toward my Kit subscriber limit?
Yes. They're a real subscriber in your account. Reusing the same test address across campaigns keeps that to one.
Can I still set this up manually?
Always. The manual steps stay on the Emails page and never go away. The assistant is a shortcut, not a replacement.
Do I have to run verification?
No, but it's the only way to know the connection actually works before real leads depend on it.
Why does it say "Kit" when my account says "ConvertKit"?
Kit is the current name for the product formerly called ConvertKit. Same platform.
Related
Set Up Kit Sales Tracking with AI — the sibling assistant that records purchases from a Kit tag. You can run both on the same campaign; they use different tags and are wired independently.
How to Integrate Kit and Deadline Funnel — the manual walkthrough.
Still stuck? Tell support your campaign name and the trigger tag you chose — we can see the same verification history you can.
You can contact us via help [at] deadlinefunnel [dot] com, or directly from the chat inside your Deadline Funnel account.