Work with journey step events work-with-journey-step-events
Journey step events are automatically generated events that capture detailed information about each step a profile takes as they progress through a journey in Adobe Journey Optimizer. These events provide comprehensive visibility into journey performance and enable powerful analytics capabilities.
What are journey step events? what-are-step-events
Journey step events are system-generated XDM (Experience Data Model) events that Adobe Journey Optimizer automatically creates and sends to Adobe Experience Platform whenever a profile moves from one node to another in a journey. Each event corresponds to a specific journey activity or transition in the customer’s journey experience.
There are two main types of journey step events:
- journeyStepEvent: Events related to individual profile progression through journey steps
- journeyStepProfileEvent: Events that include additional profile context information
What triggers journey step events? event-triggers
Journey step events are generated automatically for various journey activities:
- Entry events: When a profile enters a journey
- Action execution: When messages are sent or custom actions are performed
- Condition evaluation: When profiles pass through conditions and decision points
- Wait activities: When profiles enter and exit wait nodes
- Exit events: When profiles complete or exit a journey
- Error handling: When errors occur during journey execution
Learn more about journey step event schemas.
Why journey step events matter why-step-events-matter
Journey step events provide critical value for organizations using Adobe Journey Optimizer:
Real-time analytics and monitoring real-time-analytics
- Journey performance tracking: Monitor how profiles flow through your journeys in real-time using live reports
- Conversion analysis: Understand drop-off points and successful conversion paths with journey analytics
- Error detection: Identify and troubleshoot issues as they occur through monitoring and alerts
Data integration and insights data-integration
- Cross-platform analysis: Combine journey data with other Adobe Experience Platform data sources
- Customer 360 view: Create comprehensive customer profiles that include journey interactions
- Attribution modeling: Connect journey touch points to downstream business outcomes using Customer Journey Analytics
Optimization opportunities optimization
- A/B testing insights: Analyze the performance of different journey paths using experimentation
- Personalization enhancement: Use journey behavior data to improve future experiences with dynamic content
- Operational efficiency: Identify bottlenecks and optimize journey design
How to use journey step events how-to-use-step-events
Accessing journey step event data accessing-data
Journey step event data is automatically stored in Adobe Experience Platform and can be accessed through:
- Data Lake queries: Use SQL to query the
journey_step_eventsdataset with Query Service - Customer Journey Analytics: Analyze journey data through advanced analytics tools
- Real-time reporting: Access data through Journey Optimizer’s built-in reporting capabilities
- APIs: Programmatically access event data for custom applications
Learn more about accessing datasets.
Key data points available key-data-points
Journey step events capture comprehensive information including:
- Journey identification: Journey ID, version, and name
- Profile information: Profile ID and associated identities
- Step details: Node name, step type, and execution status
- Timestamps: Precise timing of each journey step
- Action results: Success/failure status and execution details
- Error information: Detailed error codes and descriptions when issues occur
Explore all available field definitions.
Common use cases common-use-cases
Performance monitoring
-- Example: Count profiles entering a journey in the last 24 hours
SELECT count(distinct _experience.journeyOrchestration.stepEvents.profileID)
FROM journey_step_events
WHERE _experience.journeyOrchestration.stepEvents.journeyVersionID = '<journey-id>'
AND _experience.journeyOrchestration.stepEvents.nodeType='start'
AND DATE(timestamp) > (now() - interval '24' hour);
Error analysis
-- Example: Identify errors by journey node
SELECT _experience.journeyOrchestration.stepEvents.nodeName,
count(distinct _experience.journeyOrchestration.stepEvents.profileID)
FROM journey_step_events
WHERE _experience.journeyOrchestration.stepEvents.actionExecutionError IS NOT NULL
GROUP BY _experience.journeyOrchestration.stepEvents.nodeName;
Journey funnel analysis
- Track conversion rates at each journey step
- Identify where profiles most commonly exit the journey
- Measure time spent in different journey phases
Learn more query techniques for funnel analysis.
Samples and resources samples-resources
Query examples and templates query-examples
Explore comprehensive query examples for common journey step event analysis:
- Journey step event query examples: Ready-to-use SQL queries for common analytics scenarios
- Dataset query samples: Examples of querying journey step event datasets
- Profile-based queries: Track individual profile journeys and interactions
Field documentation field-documentation
Understand the complete data structure of journey step events:
- Journey step event field list: Comprehensive reference of all available fields
- Common fields: Shared fields across journeyStepEvent and journeyStepProfileEvent
- Action execution fields: Fields specific to action execution tracking
- Journey fields: Journey-specific metadata and identifiers
Best practices and troubleshooting best-practices
Performance optimization
- Use
journeyVersionIDinstead ofjourneyVersionNamefor better query performance (learn more about journey properties) - Filter by date ranges to improve query speed on large datasets
- Leverage profile identities that match your journey namespace configuration
Data quality
- Regularly monitor for discarded events to identify data issues
- Validate that event schemas match your analysis requirements
- Implement proper error handling in custom queries
Analytics strategies
- Combine journey step events with message feedback data for complete attribution
- Use time-based analysis to understand journey velocity and bottlenecks
Advanced analytics capabilities advanced-analytics
Customer Journey Analytics integration
Journey step events can be analyzed using Customer Journey Analytics for:
- Advanced attribution modeling
- Cross-channel journey visualization
- Predictive analytics on journey outcomes
Learn how to configure Customer Journey Analytics for Journey Optimizer data.
Additional resources additional-resources
Documentation links documentation-links
- Journey step sharing overview: Understanding how journey data flows to Adobe Experience Platform
- Built-in schemas dictionary: Complete XDM schema reference
- Journey Optimizer reporting: Overview of reporting capabilities in Journey Optimizer
Integration guides integration-guides
- Adobe Customer Journey Analytics: Analyzing Journey Optimizer data in CJA
- Data management: Exporting and managing journey data
- Privacy and governance: Data governance considerations for journey events
Next steps:
- Start with creating your first journey reports
- Explore query examples for specific use cases
- Learn about journey management best practices