On this page: Look up the essential Adobe Journey Optimizer terms and concepts so you can navigate the platform confidently and collaborate effectively with your team.
This reference guide defines the essential terms you’ll encounter when using Adobe Journey Optimizer. Understanding these concepts helps you navigate the platform confidently and collaborate effectively with your team.
For pairs of similar-sounding terms that are often confused — such as Decisioning vs Decision Management or Content Cards vs In-App messages — see When terms look similar at the bottom of this page.
NOTE
Adobe Journey Optimizer is built on Adobe Experience Platform. Many foundational concepts you will encounter — such as real-time customer profiles, sandboxes, schemas, and datasets — are Adobe Experience Platform concepts, not Journey Optimizer-specific ones. For definitions of those terms, refer to the Adobe Experience Platform glossary.
Journey & campaign terms journey-campaign-terms
Term
Definition
Journey
A series of connected steps that guide customers through experiences with your brand over time. Each step occurs based on customer actions or time triggers, enabling sequential, personalized interactions. Learn more
Campaign
A coordinated marketing action that delivers content to a specific audience across one or more channels. Unlike journeys, campaigns execute actions simultaneously. Journey Optimizer supports three campaign types: Action campaigns (scheduled batch sends), API-triggered campaigns (real-time, event-driven messaging via API), and Orchestrated campaigns (complex, multi-step workflows with a visual canvas). Learn more
Event
An action or occurrence that triggers or advances a journey. Events can be customer actions (making a purchase, abandoning a cart) or system events (date/time, data change). Learn more
Channel
The method used to communicate with customers: email, SMS, push notifications, in-app messages, web, or direct mail. Each channel requires specific configuration. Learn more
Customer & audience terms customer-audience-terms
Term
Definition
Audience
A group of customers who share common characteristics or behaviors, such as “customers who purchased in the last 30 days” or “loyalty program members.” Audiences are used to target specific customer segments. Learn more
Audience Qualification
The automatic process that occurs when a customer joins or leaves an audience. Journey Optimizer can trigger actions when someone enters or exits an audience, ensuring timely and relevant communications. Learn more
Engageable Profiles
The unique customer profiles engaged through journeys, campaigns, or decisioning activities over a rolling 12-month window. This is the key license metric for Journey Optimizer: each profile is counted once per sandbox regardless of how many journeys or campaigns it enters. Monitor the count at Administration > License Usage. Learn more
Test Profile
Fictitious profiles used for testing and previewing messages before sending to real customers. Test profiles help verify personalization, content, and journey logic. Learn more
Content & personalization terms content-terms
Term
Definition
Personalization
The process of tailoring content to individual customers using their profile data, preferences, and behaviors. For example, inserting a customer’s name or showing product recommendations based on browsing history. Learn more
Content Template
A reusable message design that can be used across multiple campaigns and journeys to maintain brand consistency and accelerate content creation. Learn more
Fragment
A reusable content block (such as a header, footer, or promotional banner) that can be used across multiple messages to ensure consistency and enable centralized updates. Learn more
Landing Page
A standalone web page where customers can opt-in or opt-out from communications, subscribe to services, or provide information through online forms. Learn more
Content experiment
An A/B testing framework that splits an audience into random groups and delivers different message variants (content, subject line, or offer) to each group, then identifies the best-performing variant based on a defined success metric. Learn more
Experimentation
The broader capability in Journey Optimizer for testing and optimizing decisions: content experiments test message variants in campaigns and journeys, while decisioning experimentation tests offer selection strategies. Both use statistical analysis to identify winning approaches. Learn more
Decision & offer terms decision-terms
Term
Definition
Decisioning
The current-generation decision framework in Journey Optimizer, recommended for new implementations. Offers schema-based item catalog management, flexible collection rules, reusable decision components, and experimentation capabilities. Available for Code-based Experience, Push, SMS, and Email. Learn more
Decision Management
The legacy offer decisioning feature in Journey Optimizer. Uses a central library of marketing offers and a rules-based decision engine that applies constraints to real-time customer profiles. Still supported for existing implementations, but new implementations should use Decisioning instead. Supports Email, In-App, Push, SMS, and Direct mail. Learn more
Offer
A marketing message, discount, or promotion that can be presented to customers. Offers include eligibility rules that determine which customers can receive them. Learn more
Decision Policy
A set of rules and strategies that determine which offer to show to which customer at what time, based on constraints like eligibility, priority, and capping rules. Learn more
Data & configuration terms data-config-terms
Term
Definition
Channel configuration
The settings that define how messages are delivered for a specific channel — including sender details, subdomain, IP pool, and message type (marketing or transactional). Previously referred to as “surface” or “preset” in older documentation. Learn more
Suppression list
A list of email addresses and domains automatically excluded from message delivery due to hard bounces, spam complaints, or manual additions. Sending to suppressed addresses is blocked to protect deliverability and sender reputation. Learn more
Conflict & prioritization terms conflict-terms
Term
Definition
Rule set
A named group of business rules applied to journeys and campaigns to govern messaging behavior. A rule set can combine frequency capping, journey entry limits, and quiet hours into a single reusable policy. Learn more
Frequency capping
A rule within a rule set that limits how many messages a profile can receive within a given time period, per channel or communication type (Sales, Promotional, etc.). Profiles that exceed the cap are automatically excluded from delivery. Learn more
When terms look similar: disambiguation guide disambiguation
Adobe Journey Optimizer has grown over several years, which means some feature areas share similar names. Use the tables below to quickly identify which capability fits your needs.
Decisioning vs Decision Management decisioning-vs-dm
Both capabilities select and deliver offers, but they serve different stages of the product lifecycle.
Decisioning
Decision Management
Status
Current — recommended for all new implementations
Legacy — still supported, but no longer recommended for new implementations
Item catalog
Schema-based, flexible metadata
Centralized offer library
Supported channels
Code-based Experience, Push, SMS, Email
Email, In-App, Push, SMS, Direct mail
Key differentiator
Reusable decision components, experimentation, broader channel roadmap
Proven constraints engine; migrate to Decisioning for new projects
If you are currently using Decision Management and want to switch, refer to the migration guide.
Campaign types campaign-types-disambiguation
Journey Optimizer offers three campaign types that are activated differently and serve distinct use cases.
Action campaigns (Scheduled campaigns)
API-triggered campaigns
Orchestrated campaigns
Activation
Manual or scheduled
External API call
Visual workflow canvas
Best for
One-off or recurring batch sends (newsletters, promotions)
Real-time, event-driven messaging (order confirmations, password resets)
Complex, multi-step cross-channel programs
Personalization source
Profile attributes
Profile attributes + API payload context
Profile attributes + relational data
For a full overview of all campaign types and when to use each, refer to Get started with campaigns.
Frequency capping vs journey arbitration capping-vs-arbitration
Both are rule-set mechanisms under the Conflict & prioritization toolset, but they address different problems.
Frequency capping
Journey arbitration
Problem it solves
A profile receives too many messages over time
A profile qualifies for multiple journeys simultaneously
Scope
Per channel and communication type (Sales, Promotional, etc.)
Journey enrollment — number of concurrent journeys, or which journey wins
Mechanism
Caps the number of messages per period; automatically excludes over-solicited profiles
Uses priority scores and capping rules to decide which journey a profile enters
Configured in
Rule sets → Frequency capping
Rule sets → Journey capping & arbitration
Content cards vs in-app messages content-cards-vs-in-app
Both channels deliver messages inside a mobile or web application, but they have different rendering models and persistence behaviors.
Content Cards
In-App messages
Display model
Persistent cards embedded in the app UI (feed, inbox, or custom surface)
Transient overlays, banners, or modals shown on top of the app
Persistence
Stays visible until explicitly dismissed or expired
Disappears after the user interacts or closes it
Trigger
SDK renders on load; rules control display and dismissal
A real-time event in the journey or campaign triggers delivery
Best for
Ongoing promotions, loyalty status, persistent alerts
Onboarding tips, limited-time offers, transient notifications
NOTE
Adobe Journey Optimizer vs Journey Optimizer B2B Edition: These are two separate products in the same brand family. Adobe Journey Optimizer (this documentation) targets B2C customer journeys. Journey Optimizer B2B Edition is purpose-built for account-based marketing, working with buying groups and account audiences. If you are looking for B2B Edition documentation, visit the Journey Optimizer B2B Edition guide.
Related topics related-topics
- Understanding how Journey Optimizer works — See how journeys, campaigns, profiles, and channels fit together in the product architecture.
- Get started with decision capabilities — Compare Decisioning and Decision Management side by side and choose the right approach for your implementation.
- Get started with journeys — Learn how to build event-triggered, sequential customer experiences step by step.
- Get started with campaigns — Understand the three campaign types (Action, API-triggered, Orchestrated) and when to use each.
- Conflict management & prioritization — Learn how to use rule sets, frequency capping, priority scores, and quiet hours to avoid over-messaging.
- Get started with communication channels — Browse all available channels, their prerequisites, and how to configure them.
AI Knowledge Reference
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 reference guide defines the essential Journey Optimizer terms and disambiguates pairs of similar-sounding capabilities.
Intents:
- Look up definitions for core Journey Optimizer journey, campaign, audience, content, decision, and data terms
- Disambiguate Decisioning versus Decision Management
- Disambiguate the three campaign types (Action, API-triggered, Orchestrated)
- Disambiguate Frequency capping versus journey arbitration
- Disambiguate Content Cards versus In-App messages
Glossary:
- Journey: A series of connected steps that guide customers through experiences over time, where each step occurs based on customer actions or time triggers (product-specific)
- Campaign: A coordinated marketing action delivering content to a specific audience across one or more channels; unlike journeys, campaigns execute actions simultaneously (product-specific)
- Engageable Profiles: The unique customer profiles engaged through journeys, campaigns, or decisioning activities over a rolling 12-month window; this is the key license metric, and each profile is counted once per sandbox (product-specific)
- Test Profile: Fictitious profiles used for testing and previewing messages before sending to real customers (product-specific)
- Decisioning: The current-generation decision framework, recommended for new implementations, available for Code-based Experience, Push, SMS, and Email (product-specific)
- Decision Management: The legacy offer decisioning feature, still supported for existing implementations, supporting Email, In-App, Push, SMS, and Direct mail (product-specific)
- Rule set: A named group of business rules applied to journeys and campaigns, combining frequency capping, journey entry limits, and quiet hours into a single reusable policy (product-specific)
Guardrails:
- Many foundational concepts (real-time customer profiles, sandboxes, schemas, datasets) are Adobe Experience Platform concepts, not Journey Optimizer-specific ones.
- Engageable Profiles is measured over a rolling 12-month window and each profile is counted once per sandbox regardless of how many journeys or campaigns it enters.
- Decisioning is recommended for all new implementations; Decision Management is legacy and no longer recommended for new implementations.
- Adobe Journey Optimizer and Journey Optimizer B2B Edition are two separate products; this documentation covers Adobe Journey Optimizer (B2C customer journeys).
Terminology:
- Canonical name: Decisioning — Acronym: n/a — variants: current-generation decision framework
- Synonyms: “Action campaigns” = “Scheduled campaigns”
- Do not confuse: “Decisioning” (current, recommended; Code-based Experience, Push, SMS, Email) ≠ “Decision Management” (legacy; Email, In-App, Push, SMS, Direct mail)
- Do not confuse: “Frequency capping” (a profile receives too many messages over time) ≠ “Journey arbitration” (a profile qualifies for multiple journeys simultaneously)
- Do not confuse: “Content Cards” (persistent cards embedded in the app UI) ≠ “In-App messages” (transient overlays, banners, or modals)
- Do not confuse: “Action campaigns” (scheduled batch sends) ≠ “API-triggered campaigns” (real-time, event-driven) ≠ “Orchestrated campaigns” (complex, multi-step workflows with a visual canvas)
FAQ:
- Q: Should new implementations use Decisioning or Decision Management? — Decisioning is the current-generation framework recommended for all new implementations; Decision Management is legacy and still supported but no longer recommended for new implementations.
- Q: How is a journey different from a campaign? — A journey guides customers through connected steps over time based on actions or time triggers, whereas campaigns execute actions simultaneously to a specific audience across one or more channels.
- Q: What is the key license metric for Journey Optimizer? — Engageable Profiles, the unique profiles engaged over a rolling 12-month window, counted once per sandbox.
- Q: What are the three campaign types? — Action campaigns (scheduled batch sends), API-triggered campaigns (real-time, event-driven messaging via API), and Orchestrated campaigns (complex, multi-step workflows with a visual canvas).
- Q: Are real-time customer profiles, sandboxes, and schemas defined here? — No. Those are Adobe Experience Platform concepts; refer to the Adobe Experience Platform glossary for their definitions.
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