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Student question · AJO

Adobe Journey Optimizer: campaigns vs journeys

The difference between campaigns and journeys in Adobe Journey Optimizer, journey types you can build, and how data sources feed personalisation.

Quick answer

In Adobe Journey Optimizer, a campaign sends a one-time or scheduled message to an audience - a festive email blast, for example. A journey is an automated, multi-step flow that reacts to each person's behaviour, such as welcome, follow-up and reminder. Use campaigns for fixed-date broadcasts and journeys for event-based, always-on experiences.

Compare

CampaignJourney
ShapeSingle send or scheduleMulti-step flow per person
TriggerDate or APIEvent, audience qualification, read audience or business event
Best forBroadcasts and announcementsOnboarding, abandonment, lifecycle

Journey types

  • Unitary event journeys (real-time)
  • Audience qualification journeys
  • Read-audience (batch) journeys
  • Business event journeys
  • API-triggered campaigns

Using attributes in content and conditions

Any attribute — consent, preferences, loyalty, custom fields — can drive audience logic, journey conditions and personalisation, provided the field and its dataset are enabled for Profile. AJO data sources and configurations make external or profile data available to journeys; AEP source connections are how data is ingested into the platform.

Frequently asked questions

Can a journey send a broadcast?

A read-audience journey can, but if there is no per-person logic a campaign is simpler.

Why is my attribute missing in personalisation?

Check that the field is in a profile-enabled schema and dataset.

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