DocumentationJourney OptimizerJourney Optimizer Guide

Add constraints to an offer add-constraints

Last update: Thu Jun 13 2024 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

CREATED FOR:

  • Intermediate
  • User

Constraints allow you to define the conditions under which an offer will be displayed.

  1. Configure the Offer eligibility. Learn more

  2. Define the Priority of the offer compared to other ones if the user qualifies for more than one offer. The higher an offer’s priority will be, the higher its priority will be compared to other offers.

    note note
    NOTE
    The offer priority must be an integer value (no decimals).

  3. Specify the offer’s Capping, meaning the number of times the offer will be presented. Learn more

  4. Click Next to confirm all the constraints you defined.

For example, if you set the following constraints:

  • The offer will be considered for users that match the “Gold Loyalty Customers” decision rule only.
  • The offer’s priority is set to “50”, meaning the offer will be presented before offers with a priority between 1 and 49, and after the ones with a priority of at least 51.
  • The offer will be presented only once a month per user accross all placements.

Eligibility eligibility

The Offer eligibility section allows you to restrict the offer to specific profiles that you define using audiences or decision rules.

NOTE
Learn more on using audiences versus decision rules in this section.

  • By default, the All visitors option is selected, meaning that any profile will be eligible to be presented the offer.

  • You can also limit the presentation of the offer to the members of one or several Adobe Experience Platform audiences.

    To do this, activate the Visitors who fall into one or multiple audiences option, then add one or several audiences from the left pane and combine them using the And / Or logical operators.

  • If you want to associate a specific decision rule to the offer, select By defined decision rule, then drag the desired rule from the left pane into the Decision rule area.

    note caution
    CAUTION
    Event-based offers are currently not supported in Journey Optimizer. If you create a decision rule based on an event, you will not be able to leverage it in an offer.

When you select audiences or decision rules, you can see information on the estimated qualified profiles. Click Refresh to update data.

NOTE
Profile estimates are unavailable when rule parameters include data not in the profile such as context data. For example, an eligibility rule that requires the current weather to be ≥80 degrees.

Using audiences vs decision rules segments-vs-decision-rules

To apply a constraint, you can restrict the selection of offers to the members of one or several Adobe Experience Platform audiences, or you can use a decision rule, both solutions corresponding to different usages.

Basically, the output of an audience is a list of profiles, whereas a decision rule is a function executed on demand against a single profile during the decisioning process. The difference between those two usages are detailed below.

  • Audiences

    On one hand, audiences are a group of Adobe Experience Platform profiles that match a certain logic based on profile attributes and experience events. However, Offer Management does not recompute the audience, which may not be up-to-date when presenting the offer.

    Learn more on audiences in this section.

  • Decision rules

    On the other hand, a decision rule is based on data available in Adobe Experience Platform and determines to whom an offer can be shown. Once selected in an offer or a decision for a given placement, the rule is executed every single time a decision is made, which ensures that each profile gets the latest and the best offer.

    Learn more on decision rules in this section.

Capping capping

Capping is used as a constraint to define the maximum number of times an offer can be presented. Limiting the number of times users get specific offers allows you to avoid over-solicitating your customers and thus to optimize each touchpoint with the best offer.

You can add up to 10 capping rules for a given offer. To set a capping rule, click the Create capping button then follow the steps below:

CAUTION
It is not possible to enable or disable frequency capping for previously created offers. To do so, you need to create a new offer.

  1. Define which Capping event will be taken into account to increase the counter. Learn more

  2. Choose if you want the capping to be applied to all users or just one profile. Learn more

  3. Set the number of times the offer can be presented. Learn more

  4. Set the Frequency to define how often the capping count is reset. Learn more

  5. If you have defined several representations for your offer, specify whether you want to apply capping across all placements or to each placement. Learn more

  6. Once saved and approved, if the offer has been presented the number of times you have specified in this field according to the criteria and the timeframe you defined, its delivery will stop.

The number of times an offer is proposed is calculated at email preparation time. For example, if you prepare an email with a number of offers, those numbers count towards your max cap regardless of whether or not the email is sent.

NOTE
Capping counters will reset when the offer expires or 2 years after the offer start date, whichever comes first. Learn how to define an offer’s date in this section.

Capping event capping-event

The Choose capping event field allows you to define which event will be taken into account to increase the counter:

  • Decision event (default value): Maximum number of times an offer can be presented.

  • Clicks: Maximum number of times the offer can be clicked by a user.

  • Impression: Maximum number of times the offer can be displayed to a user.

    note note
    NOTE
    The use of impressions as capping events is available for inbound channels only.

  • Custom event: You can define a custom event that will be used to cap the number of offers sent. For example, you can cap on the number of redemptions until they equal 10000, or until a given profile has redeemed 1 time. To do so, use Adobe Experience Platform XDM schemas to build a custom event rule.

    In the example below, you want to cap on the number of checkouts.

    1. Select Custom event from the list and use the Add custom event button.

    2. Use the Create custom event rules builder to select the relevant event. You can choose any user action that you want to cap offers on.

      Here choose Commerce > Checkouts > Value and select exists from the drop-down list.

    3. Once the rule is created, it displays in the Custom event query field.

CAUTION
For all capping events except decision event, the decision management feedback may not be automatically collected, which could result in the capping counter not being correctly incremented. Learn more
To make sure each capping event is tracked and accounted for in the capping counter, ensure that the schema used to collect experience events includes the correct field group for that event. Learn more

Capping type capping-type

You can specify if you want the capping to be applied accross all users or to one specific profile:

  • Select In total to define how many times an offer can be proposed across the combined target audience, meaning across all users.

    For example, if you are an electronics retailer having a ‘TV doorbuster deal’, you want the offer to be only returned 200 times across all profiles.

  • Select Per profile to define how many times an offer can be proposed to the same user.

    For example, if you are a bank with a ‘Platinum credit card’ offer, you don’t want this offer to be shown more than 5 times per profile. Indeed, you believe that if the user has seen the offer 5 times and not acted on it, they have a higher chance to act on the next best offer.

Capping count capping-count

The Capping count limit field allows you to specify the number of times the offer can be presented.

NOTE
The number must be an integer greater than 0.

For example, you defined a custom capping event such as the number of checkouts is taken into account. If you enter 10 in the Capping count limit field, no more offers will be sent after 10 checkouts.

Frequency capping frequency-capping

The Reset capping frequency field allows you to define how often the capping count is reset. To do so, define the time period for the counting (daily, weekly or monthly) and enter the number of days/weeks/months of your choice. For example, if you want the capping count to be reset every 2 weeks, select Weekly from the corresponding drop-down list and type 2 in the other field.

NOTE
The frequency capping counter reset happens at 12am UTC, on the day that you defined or on the first day of the week/month when applicable. The week start day is Sunday. Any duration you choose cannot exceed 2 years (i.e. the corresponding number of months, weeks or days).
After publishing your offer, you will not be able to change the time period (monthly, weekly or daily) you selected for the frequency. You can still edit the frequency capping if the offer has the Draft status and was never published before with frequency capping enabled.
Must-read: Frequency capping & Edge Decisioning API

The frequency capping counter is updated and available in an Edge Decisioning API decision in less than 3 seconds.

Each hub region is associated with one or more edge regions. Frequency capping rules are generated and exported from each hub region to its associated edge regions. Whenever a decision is made using the Edge Decisioning API, the system enforces the rules available in the same edge region:

  • If there is a matching rule, the profile’s frequency capping counter is incremented.
  • Otherwise, no counter is created for the profile, and the frequency capping rule does not apply. Consequently, the profile will continue to receive personalized offers even if the capping threshold is exceeded.

For instance, let’s consider your Organization’s hub region as NLD2, and you’re sending a decisioning request from Europe (IRL1 edge region). In this scenario, the decisioning request will increment the profile’s counter, as the rules are available in the (Ireland) IRL1 region. However, if the decisioning request originates from a region like Japan (JPN3), which is not an edge region tied to (Netherland) NLD2 hub region, no counter will be created, and the frequency capping rules will not be enforced.

For more information on which hub and edge regions are associated to your Organization, please reach out to your Adobe representative.

Capping and placements placements

If you have defined several representations for your offer, specify whether you want to apply capping across all placements or to each placement.

  • Apply capping across all placements: capping counts will total all decisions across the placements associated with the offer.

    For example, if an offer has an Email placement and a Web placement, and you set the capping at 2 per profile across all placements, then each profile could receive the offer up to 2 times in total, regardless of the placement mix.

  • Apply capping to each placement: capping counts will apply decision counts for each placement separately.

    For example, if an offer has an Email placement and a Web placement, and you set the capping at 2 per profile for each placement, then each profile could receive the offer up to 2 times for the email placement, and an additional 2 times for the web placement.

Impact of changing dates on capping capping-change-date

You must proceed with care when changing the date of an offer, because this can have an impact on capping if the following conditions are met:

  • The offer is approved.
  • Capping is already applied to the offer.
  • Capping is defined per profile.
NOTE
Learn how to define an offer’s date in this section.

Capping per profile stores the capping counts on each profile. When you change the start and end date of an approved offer, the capping count for some profiles could be impacted according to the different scenarios described below.

Here are the possible scenarios when changing an offer start date:

Scenario:
If…
What happens:
then…
Possible impact on the capping count
… the offer start date is updated before the original offer start date has begun,
… the capping count will begin on the new start date.
No
… the new start date is before the current end date,
… the capping will continue with a new start date and the previous capping count for each profile will carry forward.
No
… the new start date is after the current end date,
… the current capping will expire and the new capping count will start again from 0 for all profiles on the new start date.
Yes

Here are the possible scenarios when extending an offer end date:

Scenario:
If…
What happens:
then…
Possible impact on the capping count
… a decisioning request occurs before the original offer end date,
… the capping count will be updated and the previous capping count for each profile will carry forward.
No
… no decisioning request occurs before the original end date,
… the capping count will reset on the original end date for each profile. The new capping count will then start again from 0 for any new decisioning requests that will occur after the original end date.
Yes

Example

Let’s say you have an offer with an original start date set to January, 1, expiring on January, 31.

  1. Profiles X, Y and Z are presented the offer.

  2. On January, 10, the offer’s end date is changed to February, 15.

  3. From January 11 to January 31, only profile Z is presented the offer.

    • Because a decisioning request occurred before the original end date for profile Z, the offer’s end date can be extended to February, 15.
    • However, as no activity occurred before the original end date for profiles X and Y, their counters will expire and their capping counts will be reset to 0 on January, 31.

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