On this page: Understand the three event types, their schema requirements, key constraints, and how to choose the right one for your use case.
Use events to trigger journeys individually, delivering real-time messages to each user as they enter the journey. In the event configuration, you configure the events expected in the journeys. You can use multiple events (in different steps of a journey) and several journeys can use the same event.
Event configuration is mandatory and must be performed by a Data engineer.
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Before configuring events, make sure you have: the Journey Optimizer Administrator or Data Engineer role, an XDM schema with Real-Time Customer Profile enabled, an active streaming endpoint, and access to the correct sandbox.
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For event requirements and limitations (streaming, Query Service, batch ingestion), see Journey guardrails - Events.
Who does what:
You can configure three types of events: Unitary events, Business events, and Audience qualification events.
➡️ Discover this feature in video
➡️ Discover this feature in video
Unitary events unitary-events
Unitary events are linked to a person. They relate to the behavior of a person (for example, a person bought a product, visited a shop, exited a website, etc.) or something happening linked to a person (for example, a person reached 10,000 loyalty points). This is what Journey Optimizer will listen to in journeys to orchestrate the best next actions. Unitary events can be rule-based or system generated. Learn how to create a unitary event.
Schema requirement: An XDM ExperienceEvent schema with a person-based primary identity and Real-Time Customer Profile enabled.
Example: A customer adds items to their cart and closes the browser. A cart-abandoned event fires, the profile enters the journey in real time, and receives a recovery email one hour later.
Business events business-events
Business events are not linked to a specific profile. For example, it can be a news alert, a sports update, a flight change or cancelation, an inventory update, weather events, etc. While these events are not specific to a profile, they may be of interest to any number of profiles: individuals subscribed to particular news topics, passengers on a flight, shoppers interested in an out-of-stock product, etc. Business events are always rule-based. When you drop a business event in a journey, it automatically adds a Read audience activity right after. Learn how to create a business event.
Schema requirement: A time-series XDM schema with a non-person primary identity, and the _id and timestamp fields populated. Plan for an audience export delay of 15 minutes to up to one hour.
Example: An airline cancels a flight. A business event fires, Journey Optimizer reads the audience of affected passengers, and sends each a rebooking notification.
Audience qualification events audience-qualification-events
An audience qualification event is triggered when a profile enters or exits an audience. For example, a customer crossing a loyalty spend threshold enters the Gold tier audience — that qualification triggers the journey for that profile in real time (for streaming audiences) or at the next batch evaluation. Unlike unitary events, audience qualification lets you build complex triggering logic using the full power of audience definitions, without requiring implementation changes to send a new event. Learn more on audience qualification events.
Schema requirement: No additional schema required — the event relies on existing audience definitions already built in Adobe Experience Platform.
Example: A customer’s loyalty spend crosses the Gold tier threshold. Their profile qualifies for the Gold audience, the journey triggers automatically, and sends a welcome reward.
Event types at a glance event-comparison
Event ID type event-id-type
For business events, the event ID type is always rule-based.
For unitary events, there are two types of event ID:
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Rule-based events: this type of event does not generate an eventID. Using the simple expression editor, you simply define a rule which will be used by the system to identify the relevant events that will trigger your journeys. This rule can be based on any field available in the event payload, for example the profile’s location or the number of items added to the profile’s cart.
note caution CAUTION A capping rule is defined for rule-based events. It limits the number of qualified events that a journey can process to 5,000 per seconds for a given Organization. It corresponds to Journey Optimizer SLAs. Refer to your Journey Optimizer licensing and Journey Optimizer Product Description. -
System-generated events: these events require an eventID. This eventID field is automatically generated when creating the event. The system pushing the event should not generate an ID, it should pass the one available in the payload preview.
- Events ingested in batch
- Events inserted via Query Service
- Events from internal Journey Optimizer datasets (Message Feedback, Email Tracking, and similar)
How to choose choose-event-type
Use the following criteria to select the right event type for your journey — the key question is: are you triggering an action for one specific person, or broadcasting to many profiles? Learn more on journey types.
Each event type maps to a specific journey pattern:
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Choose a unitary event when the trigger is tied to a specific individual — for example, a purchase, a form submission, or a loyalty milestone. Unitary events require a person-based primary identity in the schema and start the journey immediately for that profile. Learn how to configure a unitary event.
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Choose a business event when the trigger is a global occurrence — for example, a product restock, a price drop, or a flight cancellation — and you want to broadcast to a set of profiles related to that signal. Business events must be the first step in the journey and automatically target profiles via a Read Audience activity. They require a time-series schema with a non-people primary identity and the
_idandtimestampfields. Plan for an audience export delay of 15 minutes to up to one hour. Learn how to configure a business event. -
Choose an audience qualification event when the trigger is a profile entering or exiting an audience, and you need more complex segmentation logic than a single event can provide — for example, re-engaging lapsed customers who just met a spend threshold, or triggering an offboarding flow when a VIP member drops out of the loyalty tier. Learn more on audience qualification events.
Key constraints key-constraints
Use this summary to plan your implementation before configuring events.
How events reach Journey Optimizer data-cycle
Events must be sent to Journey Optimizer as POST calls through Adobe Experience Platform Streaming Ingestion APIs. The payload must follow XDM formatting, and the event schema must have Real-Time Customer Profile enabled.
Both authenticated and unauthenticated streaming modes are supported. Batch-ingested events and events from internal Journey Optimizer datasets (message feedback, email tracking, and similar) cannot be used to trigger journeys — use a Read Audience activity instead for those use cases.
Event throughput limits event-throughput
Adobe Journey Optimizer enforces separate throughput limits per event type, at an organization level across all sandboxes:
- Unitary events: 5,000 events per second
- Read Audience based journey events: 5,000 events per second
These limits apply to all events used in active journeys, which includes Live, Dry run, Closed and Paused journeys. When a limit is reached, new events get queued and processed at 5,000 per second until the queue is drained.
For more details on journey processing rates and how different journey types impact throughput, learn more on journey processing rates.
The following types of events are counted toward these quotas:
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External Unitary Events: Includes both rule-based and system-generated events. If the same raw event qualifies for multiple rule definitions, each matched rule counts as a separate event toward the quota.
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Audience Qualification Events: If the same streaming audience is used in multiple journeys, each usage counts separately. For instance, using the same audience in an audience qualification activity in two journeys results in two counted events.
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Reaction Events: Events triggered by profile reactions (email opened, email clicked, etc.) within a journey.
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Business Events: Events not tied to a specific profile, but to a business-related event.
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Analytics Events: If the integration with Adobe Analytics to trigger journeys has been enabled, these events are also included.
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Resume Events: Technical event triggered when a profile resumes from a paused journey. Learn more about resuming paused journeys.
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Wait Node Completion Events: When a profile exits a wait node, a technical event is generated to resume the journey.
Updating and deleting an event update-event
To avoid breaking existing journeys, when you edit an event used in a Draft, Live or Closed journey, you can only change the name, the description or add payload fields.
Any event used in Live, Draft or Closed journeys cannot be deleted. To delete a used event, you must stop journeys using it, and/or remove it from the Draft journeys where it is used. You can check the Used in field. It displays the number of journeys that use that particular event. You can click the View journeys button to display the list of corresponding journeys.
Frequently asked questions faq
Can I use the same event in multiple journeys?
Yes — several journeys can listen to the same event simultaneously.
Can I combine a business event and a unitary event in the same journey?
No — business events cannot be used in the same journey as unitary events or audience qualification activities.
Do I need to configure anything for audience qualification events?
No — audience qualification events are not configured in Administration > Events. Select the audience directly on the journey canvas as the first step.
Can I use batch-ingested data to trigger a journey?
No — only streamed events can trigger journeys. For batch data, build an audience and use a Read Audience activity instead.
My journey isn’t triggering — what should I check?
- Verify that your event schema has Real-Time Customer Profile enabled.
- Confirm that events are streamed — batch-ingested events cannot trigger journeys.
- For rule-based events, verify that the rule condition matches the incoming payload fields.
- Check that the journey is in Live status and that the profile meets any entry conditions.
Next steps next-steps
How-to videos video
Learn how to configure an event, specify the streaming endpoint and the payload for an event.
Understand the applicable use cases for business events. Learn how to build a journey using a business event and which best practices to apply.