Journey Orchestration - Complete guide journey-orchestration-guide

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.

Journey designer interface with palette, canvas, and properties pane

Ready to start building? Learn how to create and design your first journey on this page.

Key capabilities capabilities

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Real-time & batch delivery

Send real-time unitary delivery triggered when an event is received, or in batch using Adobe Experience Platform audiences.

Learn about journey entry

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Contextual data

Leverage contextual data from events, information from Adobe Experience Platform, or data from third-party API services.

Work with data sources

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Built-in actions

Use built-in channel actions to send messages designed in Journey Optimizer across email, push, SMS/MMS, and more.

Send messages in journeys

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Custom actions

Create custom actions if you’re using a third-party system to send your messages or connect to external APIs.

Configure custom actions

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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.

Explore the journey designer

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Test & optimize

Test your journeys before publishing, monitor their performance, and optimize delivery with advanced features like send-time optimization.

Test and publish journeys

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.

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Learn through use cases

Explore comprehensive, end-to-end journey use cases that demonstrate real-world implementations and best practices.

Discover all use cases

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Welcome new subscribers

Send a personalized welcome journey when customers subscribe to your service, guiding them through onboarding steps.

Learn more

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Optimize email send times

Use AI-powered send-time optimization to deliver emails when each customer is most likely to engage.

Learn more

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Ramp up deliveries

Gradually increase message volume to warm up your sending reputation and avoid deliverability issues.

Learn more

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Target by weekday

Send different content based on the day of the week customers enter your journey.

Learn more

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Journey FAQ

Find answers to frequently asked questions about journey building, troubleshooting, and best practices.

View FAQ

Learning resources learning-resources

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Create & manage journeys

Step-by-step guidance on designing, testing, publishing, and tracking customer journeys to build personalized omnichannel campaigns.

Explore journey creation | Learn journey management | Journey workflow steps

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Journey activities

Discover how to configure and use activities like triggers, decision steps, audience management, and personalized messaging in journeys.

Explore activities

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Expressions & conditions

Master expression creation for dynamic workflows, data manipulation, and advanced journey orchestration using powerful tools and syntax.

Learn about expressions

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Troubleshoot & monitor

Diagnose and resolve journey execution issues with tools, error codes, and best practices for debugging and optimization.

Troubleshooting guide

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Journey designer overview

Understand the journey canvas, palette, and how to design your customer journeys using the visual interface.

Learn the designer

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Test & publish

Test your journeys thoroughly before publishing them to ensure they work as expected and deliver the right experience.

Testing guide

Video tutorial video

Discover the components of a journey and understand the basics of building a journey in the canvas.

Additional resources

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