On this page: Learn how to create an Orchestrated campaign in Adobe Journey Optimizer and define its execution schedule to run it immediately, at a specific date and time, or on a recurring basis.
Create an Orchestrated campaign in Adobe Journey Optimizer and configure its execution schedule to control when it starts and how often it runs. Choose to launch the campaign immediately, at a specific date and time, or on a recurring basis using flexible scheduling options such as daily, weekly, or monthly frequencies.
Create the campaign create
To create an Orchestrated campaign, follow these steps:
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Browse to the Campaigns menu and select the Orchestration tab.
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Click the Create campaign button and select the Orchestration - Marketing and transactional campaign type.
You will choose whether each message is marketing or transactional when you add a channel activity.
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Define the campaign properties.
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Enter a Name and Description for the campaign.
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Select a Merge policy for your campaign.
In Adobe Experience Platform, each audience is tied to a specific merge policy, which defines how profile information are combined to form a merged profile. When you select a merge policy in the Read audience activity, only audiences based on that same merge policy are available. By default, the system uses the default merge policy, but you can change it if needed. For more information on merge policies, refer to the Adobe Experience Platform documentation.
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Use the Tags field to assign Adobe Experience Platform Unified Tags to your campaign. This allows you to easily classify them and improve search from the Orchestrated campaigns list. Learn how to work with tags.
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If custom metadata fields have been defined and selected for Orchestrated campaigns, they are displayed in the Metadata fields section of the campaign properties. Fill them in to track specific business information such as line of business, product or cost center. Fields marked with an asterisk are required. Learn more on custom metadata
note availability AVAILABILITY This capability is available in Limited Availability. Contact your Adobe representative to gain access. -
Click Save.
You can access the campaign properties at any time using the
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Schedule the campaign schedule
By default, Orchestrated campaigns start when activated manually and end once their associated activites have been executed. If you prefer to delay execution or run the campaign on a recurring basis, you can define a schedule for the campaign.
Consider the following best practices when scheduling Orchestrated campaigns to ensure optimal performance and expected behavior:
- Do not schedule an Orchestrated campaign to run more than every 15 minutes as it may impede overall system performance and create blocks in the database.
- If you want to send a one-shot message in your Orchestrated campaign, you can set it to run Once.
- If you want to send a recurring message in your Orchestrated campaign, you need to use a Scheduling options and set the execution frequency. The recurring delivery activity does not allow you to define a schedule.
To configure the campaign schedule, follow these steps:
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Open the campaign and click the As soon as possible button.
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Select an execution frequency for the campaign, then configure the available options. The settings vary depending on the selected frequency:
accordion Once Run the campaign a single time at a specified date and time.
- Date: Select the date the campaign should be executed.
- Time: Select the specific time the campaign should be executed.
accordion Daily Run the campaign every day or on selected days.
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Daily recurrence: Choose how often the campaign should run:
- Every day: Executes the campaign every day of the week, including weekends.
- On weekdays: Executes the campaign only from Monday to Friday.
- Through a specific period: Executes the campaign daily within a defined date range (e.g., from July 1 to July 15). The campaign will not run outside this range.
- On selected days of the week: Executes the campaign only on the specified days of the week (e.g., Monday, Wednesday, Friday).
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Start time: Define the time the campaign should execute each day.
accordion Several times a day Run the campaign multiple times within the same day. You can choose specific times or set a periodic frequency.
- Selected hours: Select the specific times the campaign should run and configure its daily recurrence (execute every day of the week or on certains days).
- Periodic: Choose to run the campaign every n minutes or hours. You can also define the time range within the day when executions are allowed.
accordion Weekly Run the campaign on a weekly basis, with options for specific days.
- Frequency: Choose how often the campaign should run (e.g., every week, every 2 weeks).
- Starting from date: Select the date the recurrence should begin.
- Daily recurrence: Choose specific days of the week for execution (e.g., every Monday and Thursday).
- Start time: Set the time the campaign should execute on selected days.
accordion Monthly Run the campaign on a monthly basis, with options for specific days.
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Monthly recurrence: Select whether the campaign runs every month or only during specific months.
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Daily recurrence:
- Every day: Executes the campaign on every calendar day of the month, including weekends.
- Last day of the month: Executes the campaign only on the final calendar day of each month (e.g., Jan 31, Feb 28/29).
- Specific day of the month (e.g., 15th): Executes the campaign on a specified day (e.g., the 15th of each month).
- First/last, or nth day of the week (e.g., first Monday): Executes the campaign on a specified weekday (e.g., the 15th of each week).
- Selected days of the week: Executes the campaign on a specified day.
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Start time: Set the time the campaign should execute.
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Use the Validity period setting to define a specific start and end date, restricting the campaign’s execution to a limited time window.
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For recurring schedules, click the Preview launch times button to preview the exact upcoming execution dates and times based on the current configuration. This helps validate the schedule before activation and ensures the campaign will run as expected.
In the following example, the activity is configured so that the Orchestrated campaign runs twice a day at 9 and 12 AM, every day of the week from October 1st, 2025 to January 1st, 2026.
Next steps next
Once your campaign settings and schedule are configured, you are ready to start orchestrating the differents tasks it will perform. Learn how to orchestrate campaign activities
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 create an Orchestrated campaign in Adobe Journey Optimizer and configure its execution schedule to run it immediately, at a specific date and time, or on a recurring basis.
Intents:
- Create an Orchestrated campaign and define its properties (name, description, merge policy, tags, custom metadata).
- Choose the Orchestration - Marketing and transactional campaign type.
- Configure a campaign execution schedule using Once, Daily, Several times a day, Weekly, or Monthly frequency.
- Define a validity period to restrict the campaign’s execution to a limited time window.
- Preview upcoming execution dates and times for a recurring schedule before activation.
- Proceed to orchestrate the campaign’s activities after properties and schedule are configured.
Glossary:
- Orchestrated campaign: a campaign created from the Orchestration tab of the Campaigns menu, configured with a schedule to control when it starts and how often it runs (product-specific)
- Orchestration - Marketing and transactional: the campaign type selected when creating an Orchestrated campaign; determines that each message’s marketing or transactional status is chosen when adding a channel activity (product-specific)
- Merge policy: a setting tied to each audience in Adobe Experience Platform that defines how profile information is combined to form a merged profile; only audiences based on the same merge policy as selected are available in the Read audience activity (product-specific)
- Validity period: a setting that defines a specific start and end date restricting the campaign’s execution to a limited time window (product-specific)
- Triggered by a signal: a scheduling option where the campaign starts when called from the REST API or from another Orchestrated campaign’s End activity, instead of running on a schedule (product-specific)
- Preview launch times: a button for recurring schedules that previews the exact upcoming execution dates and times based on the current configuration (product-specific)
Guardrails:
- Do not schedule an Orchestrated campaign to run more than every 15 minutes, as it may impede overall system performance and create blocks in the database (recommended).
- The recurring delivery activity does not allow you to define a schedule; use a Scheduling option and set the execution frequency for recurring messages instead.
- Custom metadata fields for Orchestrated campaigns are available in Limited Availability; contact your Adobe representative to gain access.
- Fields marked with an asterisk in the Metadata fields section are required.
- By default, Orchestrated campaigns start when activated manually and end once their associated activities have been executed, unless a schedule is defined.
- For recurring campaigns, if the initial scheduled time has already passed, the campaign rolls over to the next available time slot according to its recurrence rules.
Terminology:
- Canonical name: Orchestrated campaign — variants: campaign
- Do not confuse: “Once” frequency (runs the campaign a single time at a specified date and time) ≠ “Triggered by a signal” (starts when called from the REST API or from another Orchestrated campaign’s End activity)
- Do not confuse: “Daily recurrence” (frequency applied within Daily or Monthly scheduling) ≠ “Weekly” frequency (a separate top-level scheduling option with its own Frequency and Daily recurrence settings)
FAQ:
- Q: What campaign type is used to create an Orchestrated campaign? — The Orchestration - Marketing and transactional campaign type.
- Q: How do I assign a merge policy? — Select a Merge policy in the campaign properties; only audiences based on that same merge policy are available in the Read audience activity.
- Q: How often can an Orchestrated campaign be scheduled to run? — Do not schedule it to run more than every 15 minutes, as this may impede overall system performance and create blocks in the database.
- Q: Can the recurring delivery activity define its own schedule? — No, the recurring delivery activity does not allow you to define a schedule; use a Scheduling option and set the execution frequency instead.
- Q: What happens if a recurring campaign’s initial scheduled time has already passed? — The campaign rolls over to the next available time slot according to its recurrence rules.
- Q: How can I start a campaign without using a schedule? — Set it to be Triggered by a signal so it starts when called from the REST API or from another Orchestrated campaign’s End activity.
Related pages:
- For adding a channel activity and choosing marketing or transactional status: channel activity (orchestrated/activities/channels.md)
- For working with Adobe Experience Platform Unified Tags on a campaign: Learn how to work with tags (start/search-filter-categorize.md)
- For details on custom metadata fields: Learn more on custom metadata (administration/custom-metadata.md)
- For triggering a campaign using a signal instead of a schedule: Learn how to trigger an Orchestrated campaign using a signal (orchestrated/trigger-orchestrated-campaign.md)
- For orchestrating the campaign’s activities after setup: Learn how to orchestrate campaign activities (orchestrated/orchestrate-activities.md)
Personas:
- marketer: Can create an Orchestrated campaign from the Orchestration tab and select the Orchestration - Marketing and transactional campaign type. Can define the campaign name, description, merge policy, tags, and custom metadata fields in the campaign properties. Can schedule the campaign using Once, Daily, Several times a day, Weekly, or Monthly frequency, and preview launch times for recurring schedules. The page states that an Orchestrated campaign should not be scheduled to run more than every 15 minutes. Where: “Schedule the campaign”.
Onboarding:
- Level: Beginner
- First minimal step: Browse to the Campaigns menu and select the Orchestration tab.
- Success check: You can preview launch times to see the exact upcoming execution dates and times based on the current configuration.
- Next: Configuring the campaign to start when it receives a signal instead of running on a schedule: Trigger an Orchestrated campaign using a signal (orchestrated/trigger-orchestrated-campaign.md); Orchestrating the campaign’s activities after configuring settings and schedule: Create Orchestrated campaigns with Adobe Journey Optimizer (orchestrated/orchestrate-activities.md)