Get started with journeys jo-general-principle
Journeys in Adobe Journey Optimizer empower you to create personalized, multistep customer journeys that adapt in real-time to your audience’s behavior and needs. Using an intuitive drag-and-drop canvas, you can orchestrate messages and actions across multiple channels, leveraging contextual data and audience targeting for maximum impact.
Whether you’re exploring real-time triggers, managing journey properties, or using advanced tools like custom actions and expressions, this guide provides a clear roadmap to confidently design and refine journeys that deliver meaningful, timely customer experiences.
What are journeys?
Use Journey Optimizer to build real-time orchestration use cases using contextual data stored in events or data sources. Design multistep advanced scenarios that respond to customer behavior and business events in real-time.
The Journey Optimizer journey designer provides everything marketers and journey practitioners need to orchestrate multi-step 1:1 journeys across channels. This includes an intuitive drag-and-drop canvas to orchestrate each step of the journey, define the target audience, and include the messages, offers, and content across channels that target audience members will see based on behavior, contextual data, and business events.
Ready to start building? Learn how to create and design your first journey on this page.
Key capabilities capabilities
Real-time & batch delivery
Send real-time unitary delivery triggered when an event is received, or in batch using Adobe Experience Platform audiences.
Contextual data
Leverage contextual data from events, information from Adobe Experience Platform, or data from third-party API services.
Built-in actions
Use built-in channel actions to send messages designed in Journey Optimizer across email, push, SMS/MMS, and more.
Custom actions
Create custom actions if you’re using a third-party system to send your messages or connect to external APIs.
Visual journey designer
With the journey designer, build your multistep use cases: easily drag and drop an entry event or a read audience activity, add conditions and send personalized messages.
Test & optimize
Test your journeys before publishing, monitor their performance, and optimize delivery with advanced features like send-time optimization.
Journeys Overview
Getting Started with Journey Creation
Step-by-step guidance on designing, testing, publishing, and tracking customer journeys to build personalized omnichannel campaigns.
Managing Your Journeys
Manage customer journeys efficiently with tools for filtering, profile management, time zones, and optimization techniques.
Journey Activities
Discover how to configure and use activities like triggers, decision steps, audience management, and personalized messaging in journeys.
Building Expressions
Master expression creation for dynamic workflows, data manipulation, and advanced journey orchestration using powerful tools and syntax.
Journey Use Cases
Explore real-world applications of Adobe Journey Optimizer, including multi-channel messaging and integration with external systems.
Use cases and examples use-cases
From within the journey designer, marketers can send real-time triggered 1:1 messages through any channel when an event occurs. For example, when a customer subscribes to a service, it can trigger a welcome email, encouraging them to log into the app for the first time and set their preferences. Actions like completing the purchase, opening the email, and logging into the app can be used to advance new customers through their journeys.
The journey designer provides built-in channel actions that support outbound messages, such as emails, push notifications, and SMS/MMS, as well as inbound channels, including mobile apps, websites, and code-based experiences built directly within Journey Optimizer. You can also use third-party systems to send messages — Journey Optimizer includes custom actions to allow these systems to be integrated into journeys directly from the journey designer.
Learn through use cases
Explore comprehensive, end-to-end journey use cases that demonstrate real-world implementations and best practices.
Welcome new subscribers
Send a personalized welcome journey when customers subscribe to your service, guiding them through onboarding steps.
Optimize email send times
Use AI-powered send-time optimization to deliver emails when each customer is most likely to engage.
Ramp up deliveries
Gradually increase message volume to warm up your sending reputation and avoid deliverability issues.
Target by weekday
Send different content based on the day of the week customers enter your journey.
Journey FAQ
Find answers to frequently asked questions about journey building, troubleshooting, and best practices.
Journey types
Adobe Journey Optimizer supports four journey types, each designed for different use cases and entry mechanisms. Choose the right type based on how you want profiles to enter and progress through your customer experiences.
Unitary journeys are triggered individually by an event when a specific action occurs, such as a purchase, app sign-in, or form submission. Profiles enter the journey one at a time in real-time when the event is received, making this ideal for personalized, behavior-driven experiences.
Key characteristics:
- Real-time, event-driven entry
- Individual profile processing
- Perfect for transactional messages and immediate responses
- Supports contextual data from the triggering event
Use cases:
- Order confirmation after purchase
- Welcome email when someone subscribes
- Cart abandonment triggered by browsing behavior
- Password reset notifications
➡️ Learn about event configuration | General events | Message to subscribers use case
Read Audience journeys start with an audience from Adobe Experience Platform and send messages in batch to all profiles in that audience. This journey type processes the entire audience at once, making it ideal for scheduled campaigns and recurring communications.
Key characteristics:
- Batch processing of audience segments
- Scheduled or one-time execution
- All profiles enter simultaneously
- Supports large-scale communications
Use cases:
- Monthly newsletters
- Promotional campaigns to target segments
- Product announcements to all customers
- Seasonal marketing campaigns
➡️ Learn about Read Audience activity | Get started with audiences | Multi-channel messaging use case
Audience Qualification journeys are triggered when profiles qualify for (or exit from) a specific audience segment. Profiles enter the journey individually as they meet the audience criteria in real-time, enabling immediate engagement when customer behavior changes.
Key characteristics:
- Real-time qualification-based entry
- Continuous monitoring of audience membership
- Individual profile processing as they qualify
- Best with streaming audiences
Use cases:
- VIP tier upgrade notifications
- Re-engagement when customers become inactive
- First purchase celebration messages
- Geographic targeting when customers move
➡️ Learn about Audience Qualification | Condition activity | Creating segment definitions
Business event journeys are triggered by business events (such as stock updates, weather alerts, or price changes) that affect multiple profiles simultaneously. Rather than reacting to individual customer actions, these journeys respond to broader business conditions or external factors.
Key characteristics:
- Triggered by business-level events, not individual actions
- Affects multiple profiles at once
- Targets a specific audience when the event occurs
- Combines event-driven timing with audience targeting
Use cases:
- Low inventory alerts to interested customers
- Flash sale announcements
- Weather-based promotions
- Price drop notifications
- Product back-in-stock alerts
➡️ Learn about business events | Configure business events | Entry management
Journey Designer journey-designer
The journey designer provides everything marketers and journey practitioners need to orchestrate multi-step 1:1 journeys across channels. This includes an intuitive drag-and-drop canvas to orchestrate each step of the journey, define the target audience, and include the messages, offers, and content across channels that target audience members will see based on behavior, contextual data, and business events.
The journey designer provides everything you need to design multi-step experiences:
- Built-in channel actions - Send messages through email, push notifications, SMS/MMS, in-app, web, code-based experiences, and more, all designed directly within Journey Optimizer
- Custom actions - Integrate third-party systems to send messages or trigger workflows in external platforms
- Orchestration activities - Add logic, conditions, wait times, and audience targeting to create sophisticated customer experiences
- Conditions - Branch your journey based on profile attributes, audience membership, or real-time events
- Expressions - Build advanced logic and personalization using the expression editor
Learn how to use the journey designer in these end-to-end use cases.
How-to video video
Discover the components of a journey and understand the basics of building a journey in the canvas.
Additional Resources additional-resources
- Troubleshooting Customer Journeys - Diagnose and resolve journey execution issues with tools, error codes, and best practices for debugging and optimization
- Journey FAQ - Frequently asked questions about journeys
- Journey Alerts - Set up alerts for journey monitoring and subscribe to notifications for real-time updates
- Error codes reference - Journey error codes and troubleshooting steps
- Troubleshooting - Common journey issues and solutions
- Journey Tutorials (videos) - Learn journey building through hands-on video tutorials covering features, capabilities, and best practices
- Journey guardrails & limitations - Check guardrails and limitations when using Adobe Journey Optimizer