On this page: Learn how to add and configure email, mobile, push, and direct mail channel activities to send marketing or transactional messages within an Orchestrated campaign.
Adobe Journey Optimizer allows you to automate and execute campaigns across channels—email, Mobile messages, push notifications, direct mail, and custom—for both marketing and transactional messages. You can combine these channel activities into the campaign canvas to create cross-channel Orchestrated campaigns. These campaigns can trigger actions based on customer behavior and data.
For example:
- Send a welcome series through email, Mobile messages, push and direct mail.
- Deliver a follow-up email post-purchase.
- Send personalized birthday greetings via Mobile messages.
- Trigger a message through a custom channel when a customer abandons their shopping cart.
By using channel activities, you can create comprehensive and personalized campaigns that engage customers across multiple touchpoints and drive conversions.
Guardrails and limitations channel-guardrails
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Supported channels - Only Mobile message, Push, Email and Direct mail channels are supported in Orchestrated campaigns.
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Channel activities limit - An Orchestrated campaign supports a maximum of 10 channel activities (Email, Mobile message, Push, or Direct mail). Only channel activities count toward this limit, targeting and flow control activities do not.
If you exceed the limit when saving or publishing, the operation fails. To stay within the limit, reduce the number of channel activities or split message delivery across multiple Orchestrated campaigns.
See Guardrails and limitations for all Orchestrated campaign guardrails and limitations.
Add a channel activity and define its properties add
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Add a channel activity into the canvas. Available channel activities are Email, Line, Mobile message, Push and Direct mail.
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In the right rail, use the Category field to choose Marketing or Transactional for this message. Transactional messages do not require opt-in and are suited for time-sensitive communications such as disruptions, emergencies, or cancellations.
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Select the activity and click Edit email, Edit mobile message, Edit push, or Edit direct mail depending on the chosen channel.
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In the Target section, configure the target of the delivery:
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Select the Target dimension for this send from the drop-down list.
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When a secondary dimension applies (related tables linked to each profile), choose how many messages to send:
- One message per profile: Send one message per profile, even when several rows from the secondary dimension exist.
- One message per secondary dimension: Send one message per qualifying row from the secondary dimension. When several rows match the same profile, that profile can receive multiple messages.
Example – Suppose a “flights” table is linked to your recipients table and you want each profile to receive one message per flight that applies to them. Select One message per secondary dimension. Use One message per profile when you only want one message per profile regardless of how many related flight rows qualify.
For more information on targeting dimensions and how to configure them, refer to this page: Configure a Targeting dimension
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Marketing vs Transactional messages marketing-vs-transactional
Choosing the right category determines how messages are delivered and which rules apply:
Set up the channel configuration and settings configuration
Use the Actions tab to select a channel configuration for your message and configure additional settings such as tracking, content experiment, or multilingual content.
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Select a channel configuration
A configuration is defined by a System Administrator. It contains all the technical parameters for sending the message, such as header parameters, subdomain, mobile apps, etc. Learn how to set up channel configurations
The list of channel configurations is filtered according to the target you set for the delivery in the properties pane when selecting it from the canvas. Only configurations that are compatible with that target appear.
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Apply capping rules
In the Rule set drop-down list, select a channel rule set to apply capping rules to your campaign. Leveraging channel rule sets allows you to set rules including frequency capping and quiet hours by communication type to prevent overloading customers with similar messages and to avoid messaging them during configured quiet hours. Learn how to work with rule sets.
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Create a content experiment
Use the Content experiment section to define multiple delivery treatments in order to measure which one performs best for your target audience. Click the Create experiment button then follow the steps detailed in this section: Create a content experiment.
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Add multilingual content
Use the Languages section to create content in multiple languages within your campaign. To do so, click the Add languages button and select the desired Language settings. Detailed information on how to set up and use multilingual capabilities are available in this section: Get started with multilingual content.
Additional settings are available depending on the selected communication channel. Expand the sections below for more information.
| note important |
|---|
| IMPORTANT |
| This capability is only available for a set of organizations (Limited Availability). To gain access, contact your Adobe representative. |
| Journey Optimizer lets you personalize the sender information, including data from Campaign Orchestration’s relational store, enabling use cases such as sending an email in the name of the account manager. Since this data may be subject to usage restrictions defined by your organization or by legal regulations, ensure that your data operations within Journey Optimizer are compliant with your legal and compliance obligations. |
| Adobe Journey Optimizer handles consent through the Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) at the profile level. When personalizing using Journey Optimizer Campaign Orchestration relational, non-profile data, organizations should create and enforce consent policies using segmentation and personalization. |
After selecting your channel configuration, enable Override email delivery settings to replace values defined in that configuration. You can customize the following settings for this channel activity:
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Email header parameters: From name, From email prefix, Reply to name, and Reply to email
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Execution address: Source (Profile or Target Dimension), and Delivery address
For any field you leave blank, Journey Optimizer uses the value from the selected channel configuration.
Rapid delivery mode is a Journey Optimizer add-on that allows very fast push message sending in large volumes through campaigns. Rapid delivery is used when delay in message delivery is business-critical. For instance, you want to send an urgent push alert on mobile phones, such as breaking news to users who have installed your news channel app. Learn how to enable Rapid delivery mode for Push notifications on this page.
For more information on performance when using Rapid delivery mode, refer to Adobe Journey Optimizer product description.
When your channel activity has been configured, select the Content tab to define its content.
Define the content content
Create the message content
Switch to the Content tab to create your message. The process steps vary based on the selected channel. Learn detailed steps to create your message content in the following pages.
Add personalization and conditional content add-personalization
From the message editor on a channel activity, insert Profile attributes and Target attributes from the campaign worktable (targeting dimension and enrichment data).
➡️ Learn how to add personalization in Orchestrated campaigns, including enrichment collection arrays, array functions, and {{#each}} iteration.
When creating conditional content for an email delivery, you can use Target attributes from the campaign worktable. These attributes include incoming audience or enrichment data from relational schemas, so you can show different content based on the target record. Conditions are specific to the current delivery and cannot be saved as reusable conditions.
➡️ Learn how to create conditional content in the Email Designer.
Check and test your content simulate-content-test-profiles
Once the content is created, you can preview and test it using either simulation method:
- Click Simulate content to test content variations with sample input data or AI auto-generation. Learn how to simulate content variations
- Click Simulate content, then select Simulate content (AEP profiles) from the dropdown to preview and test your content with test profiles. Learn more
When you simulate content with test profiles in an Orchestrated campaign, two important constraints apply:
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Execution must have reached the channel activity in test - Run the campaign in test using the Start button so the workflow reaches the channel activity you want to simulate. In test mode, the workflow pauses at the channel activity, so a channel activity that comes after another channel activity is never reached. You cannot use Simulate Content for those downstream channel activities. See Test your campaign before publishing.
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The test profile must match the channel activity target - Use a test profile that belongs to the audience targeted by that channel activity. If the profile is not in that audience, selecting it will not render a preview of your content. See Select test profiles.
Confirm message sending
By default, for non-recurring orchestrated campaigns, message delivery is paused until you explicitly approve the send. After publishing the campaign, confirm the send request from Properties in the right rail while the channel activity is selected.
Sending confirmation can be disabled before publishing the orchestrated campaign. To do so, select the channel activity on the canvas, go to Properties in the right rail, and turn on Send without confirmation.
Set rate control rate-control
Journey Optimizer allows you to enable rate control for outbound actions in Orchestrated campaigns.
This feature is particularly useful for preventing overload on downstream systems, such as landing pages or customer care platforms. For example, you can set a rate limit of 165 messages per second to ensure steady delivery without overwhelming downstream systems.
To set rate control, follow these steps:
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Select an outbound channel activity in the canvas and click Edit email, Edit Mobile message, or Edit Push depending on the chosen channel.
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Navigate to the Schedule tab, and enable the Throttle delivery option in the Delivery settings section.
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Specify the desired Delivery rate per second.
- Minimum delivery rate supported: 1 per second.
- Maximum delivery rate supported: 2000 per second when the “Throttle delivery” option is enabled.
Next steps next
When the message content is ready, navigate back to your Orchestrated campaign using the Back arrow. You can then complete the activities orchestration in the canvas and publish the campaign to start sending messages. Learn how to start and monitor Orchestrated campaigns
This section contains structured knowledge intended to support interpretation, retrieval, and question answering related to this topic.
For complete understanding, this information should be combined with the documentation on this page. Neither source is intended to stand alone; the page describes the feature, while this section provides additional context that helps disambiguate terminology, intent, applicability, and constraints.
- TL;DR: This page explains how to add, configure, and send channel activities (Email, Mobile message, Push, Direct mail, Line, and Custom channel) within an Orchestrated campaign, including targeting, channel configuration, content creation, testing, sending confirmation, and rate control.
Intents:
- Add a channel activity (Email, Mobile message, Push, Direct mail, Line, or Custom channel) to an Orchestrated campaign canvas.
- Choose a Marketing or Transactional category for a channel activity and configure its target dimension.
- Select a channel configuration and apply rule set capping rules, content experiments, and multilingual content to a channel activity.
- Create and personalize the message content for a channel activity.
- Simulate and test channel activity content before publishing.
- Confirm or disable confirmation for message sending, and set rate control for outbound channel activities.
Glossary:
- Channel activity (product-specific): an activity added to an Orchestrated campaign canvas that sends a message through a specific channel.
- Category (Marketing or Transactional) (product-specific): field on a channel activity used to choose Marketing or Transactional handling for the message.
- Target dimension (product-specific): the dimension selected in the Target section of a channel activity to determine the delivery target.
- One message per profile / One message per secondary dimension (product-specific): options that determine how many messages are sent when a secondary dimension (related rows linked to a profile) applies.
- Channel configuration (product-specific): defined by a System Administrator; contains technical sending parameters (header parameters, subdomain, mobile apps, etc.) for a channel activity.
- Rule set (product-specific): applied to a channel activity to set capping rules such as frequency capping and quiet hours.
- Simulate content (product-specific): tests content variations using sample input data or AI auto-generation.
- Simulate content (AEP profiles) (product-specific): previews and tests content using test profiles.
- Send without confirmation: a Properties setting that disables the default pause, which by default requires explicit approval before message delivery for non-recurring Orchestrated campaigns.
- Throttle delivery (product-specific): a Schedule tab option that enables rate control (a delivery rate per second) for Email, Mobile message, and Push channel activities.
- Rapid delivery mode (product-specific): a Journey Optimizer add-on that enables very fast, large-volume push message sending through campaigns, used when delay in message delivery is business-critical (for example, an urgent breaking-news push alert).
Guardrails:
- Supported channels in Orchestrated campaigns: only Mobile message, Push, Email, and Direct mail channels are supported (hard limit). Note: the page’s contextual help also describes a Line activity and a Custom channel activity for Orchestrated campaigns, so this guardrail and that description are in conflict in the source page.
- Channel activities limit: an Orchestrated campaign supports a maximum of 10 channel activities (Email, Mobile message, Push, or Direct mail) (hard limit). Only channel activities count toward this limit; targeting and flow control activities do not.
- Exceeding the channel activities limit when saving or publishing causes the operation to fail.
- Transactional messages bypass business rules and do not require opt-in.
- Simulating content with test profiles requires that execution has reached the channel activity in test: in test mode the workflow pauses at the channel activity, so a channel activity located after another channel activity is never reached, and Simulate Content cannot be used for those downstream channel activities.
- Simulating content with test profiles requires a test profile that belongs to the audience targeted by that channel activity; otherwise selecting it does not render a preview of the content.
- By default, for non-recurring Orchestrated campaigns, message delivery is paused until the send is explicitly confirmed.
- Wave sending (splitting delivery into scheduled batches before confirming) applies only to outbound channel activities (Email, Mobile, Push, or Direct mail).
- Rate control (Throttle delivery) minimum supported delivery rate, per channel activity: 1 per second (hard limit).
- Rate control (Throttle delivery) maximum supported delivery rate, per channel activity, when Throttle delivery is enabled: 2000 per second (hard limit).
- When setting a delivery rate, the maximum timeframe for which a campaign audience can execute is 12 hours (hard limit). If the delivery rate does not allow the full audience to be sent within that timeframe, the remaining profiles are excluded from the campaign and counted in the campaign report.
Prerequisites and permissions:
- Before adding a channel activity, define the target audience using a Build audience or a Read audience activity.
- Email header personalization (Email) is available only for a set of organizations (Limited Availability); access requires contacting an Adobe representative.
- Rapid delivery mode (Push) is a Journey Optimizer add-on.
Terminology:
- Canonical name: channel activity — variants: Email activity, Mobile message activity, Push activity, Direct mail activity, Line activity, Custom channel activity.
- Canonical name: Adobe Experience Platform — Acronym: AEP.
- Synonyms: none.
- Do not confuse: “Simulate content” (tests content variations with sample input data or AI auto-generation) ≠ “Simulate content (AEP profiles)” (previews and tests content with test profiles).
- Do not confuse: “One message per profile” (one message regardless of how many secondary dimension rows qualify) ≠ “One message per secondary dimension” (one message per qualifying secondary dimension row, so a profile can receive multiple messages).
- Do not confuse: “Marketing” category (opt-in required, business rules applied) ≠ “Transactional” category (opt-in not required, business rules bypassed).
FAQ:
- Q: Which channels are supported in Orchestrated campaigns? — The Guardrails and limitations section states that only Mobile message, Push, Email, and Direct mail are supported; the page’s contextual help also documents Line and Custom channel activities for Orchestrated campaigns.
- Q: How many channel activities can an Orchestrated campaign contain? — A maximum of 10 channel activities (Email, Mobile message, Push, or Direct mail); targeting and flow control activities do not count toward this limit.
- Q: What is the difference between Marketing and Transactional categories? — Marketing requires opt-in and applies business rules; Transactional does not require opt-in and bypasses business rules.
- Q: What is the difference between Simulate content and Simulate content (AEP profiles)? — Simulate content tests content variations with sample input data or AI auto-generation; Simulate content (AEP profiles) previews and tests content with test profiles.
- Q: Why can I not simulate content for some channel activities using test profiles? — In test mode, the workflow pauses at the channel activity, so a channel activity located after another channel activity is never reached, and the selected test profile must belong to the audience targeted by that channel activity.
- Q: What happens if message delivery cannot complete within the rate control timeframe? — The maximum timeframe for a campaign audience to execute is 12 hours; if the delivery rate does not allow the full audience to be sent within that timeframe, the remaining profiles are excluded from the campaign and counted in the campaign report.
Examples:
- Welcome series: sending a welcome series through email, Mobile messages, push, and direct mail.
- Post-purchase follow-up: delivering a follow-up email after a purchase.
- Birthday greeting: sending personalized birthday greetings via Mobile messages.
- Cart abandonment: triggering a message through a custom channel when a customer abandons their shopping cart.
- Rate control: setting a delivery rate of 165 messages per second to ensure steady delivery without overwhelming downstream systems (an illustrative value within the 1–2000 per second supported range).
Best practices:
- Use Transactional only for operational or time-sensitive communications; misclassifying a promotional message as Transactional bypasses consent and business rules, which may violate regulatory requirements.
Related pages:
- To define the target audience before adding a channel activity: Build audience (orchestrated/activities/build-audience.md)
- To define the target audience before adding a channel activity: Read audience (orchestrated/activities/read-audience.md)
- For more information on targeting dimensions and how to configure them: Configure a Targeting dimension (orchestrated/target-dimension.md)
- For who defines a channel configuration: System Administrator (start/path/administrator.md)
- To learn how to set up channel configurations: Learn how to set up channel configurations (configuration/channel-surfaces.md)
- To apply capping rules using channel rule sets: Learn how to work with rule sets (conflict-prioritization/rule-sets.md)
- To create a content experiment for a channel activity: Create a content experiment (content-management/content-experiment.md)
- To add multilingual content to a channel activity: Get started with multilingual content (content-management/multilingual-gs.md)
- To view action tracking results for Email and Mobile deliveries: Learn more about campaign reports (reports/campaign-global-report-cja.md)
- To enable Rapid delivery mode for Push notifications: on this page (push/create-push.md)
- To add personalization in Orchestrated campaigns: Learn how to add personalization in Orchestrated campaigns (orchestrated/add-personalization.md)
- To create conditional content in the Email Designer: Learn how to create conditional content in the Email Designer (personalization/dynamic-content.md)
- To simulate content variations with sample input data or AI auto-generation: Learn how to simulate content variations (test-approve/simulate-sample-input.md)
- To preview and test content with test profiles: Preview and test your content (content-management/preview-test.md)
- To run a campaign in test before simulating content: Test your campaign before publishing (orchestrated/start-monitor-campaigns.md)
- To select a test profile matching the channel activity’s target audience: Select test profiles (content-management/test-profiles.md)
- To split delivery into scheduled batches before confirming sending: Learn how to send using waves (delivery/send-using-waves.md)
- To complete activities orchestration and publish the campaign: Learn how to start and monitor Orchestrated campaigns (orchestrated/start-monitor-campaigns.md)
Personas:
- marketer: Can add a channel activity to an Orchestrated campaign canvas, choosing Email, Mobile message, Push, Direct mail, or Line. Can set the Category field to Marketing or Transactional, then select a Target dimension for the delivery in the Target section. The page states that transactional messages do not require opt-in and bypass business rules. Where: “Add a channel activity and define its properties”.
Onboarding:
- Level: Intermediate
- First minimal step: Add a channel activity into the canvas.
- Success check: The list of channel configurations is filtered according to the target set for the delivery, and only compatible configurations appear.
- Previous: Define the target audience before adding a channel activity: Use the Build audience activity (orchestrated/activities/build-audience.md); Define the target audience before adding a channel activity: Use the Read audience activity (orchestrated/activities/read-audience.md)
- Next: Complete the activities orchestration in the canvas and publish the campaign: Start and monitor Orchestrated campaigns with Adobe Journey Optimizer (orchestrated/start-monitor-campaigns.md)