Best practices best-practices
Real-time use case and omnichannel personalization guidance real-time-guidance
The Identity Service 2.0 update evolves real-time identity stitching. ۶Ƶ Journey Optimizer uses Identity Service to merge profiles and personalize user experiences. This process ensures that brands deliver tailored experiences based on an individual’s behavior across channels. The identity graph maps devices associated with a person, enabling omnichannel personalization. For example, the graph links a Customer Relationship Management ID (CRMID), which represents a person, and an Experience Cloud ID (ECID), which represents a web browser or app session. Identity Service combines these identifiers into a merged profile, known as a “360-degree view” of a person. When someone browses your site and later logs in, data from their browsing session connects to their logged-in profile. The stitching process unfolds as follows:
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Initial stitching of identities
When someone logs in, the login identifier (CRMID) associates with the web browser identifier (ECID) from their session:- This process typically takes 30 minutes to 4 hours to complete.
- For example, if a user logs into your app, the identity graph links their CRMID (such as an email or login ID) with their ECID (browser session or app identifier).
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Real-time profile updates
After the initial stitching completes, any data sent with either identifier associates with the merged profile. This data becomes immediately available for personalization in Journey Optimizer. Behavioral updates to the profile usually process within one minute. For more details, refer to this page.
When building personalization use cases, consider these scenarios:
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Re-engaging a site visitor after abandonment
Imagine you want to send an abandoned cart email 30 minutes after a visitor leaves your site. Use the identity tied to their browsing session—ECID. If your goal is to capture all visitors who provided an email address or installed your app within the last 30 minutes, use the cookie-based ECID to initiate this journey. This approach assumes that the visitor’s contact information (such as an email or push token) associates with their ECID. -
Omnichannel engagement across channels
- Ensure that communication addresses (such as emails or push tokens) are available on the profile at the moment of engagement. To provide consistent and timely omnichannel experiences, confirm that data links to the relevant identity.
- If you need to combine information from a newly installed app or browser session with known profile data, wait for identity stitching to complete. Typically, this process takes at least 30 minutes, depending on customer metrics, to maximize the number of profiles available for engagement.
Scale with Journey guardrails scale
Scaling within ۶Ƶ Journey Optimizer involves managing system limitations while optimizing performance. This section explains how to handle journey complexity and system thresholds effectively:
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Activity Limit
Journey Optimizer restricts the number of activities within a journey canvas to 50. This limit improves readability, quality assurance, and troubleshooting. As you approach the limit (40+ activities), the interface displays the number of activities in the upper left corner of the canvas. -
Live Journey Limit
The system supports up to 100 live journeys in a sandbox simultaneously. When nearing this limit, an orange overlay and warning sign appear. If you need more than 100 live journeys, contact customer care for assistance.
Best Practices for Managing Guardrails
Follow these practices to stay within system limits and optimize journey performance:
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Monitor active journeys
Navigate to the Overview tab under Journeys to review journeys active in the last 24 hours. Analyze profiles entering and exiting each journey to identify usage patterns and ensure efficient operation.
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Stop outdated journeys
In the Journey inventory section, filter journeys by Status = “Live” and Type = “Read audience.” Sort by Publication date (oldest to newest), and stop any live journeys scheduled to run Once or As soon as Possible that are older than a day and include only one action.
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Use Campaigns for simple actions
If a Read audience journey includes only one action and lacks waits, decisions, or send time optimization, move it to Journey Optimizer Campaigns. Campaigns are better suited for single-step engagement, such as sending a one-time notification without listening for user responses. -
Refactor condition steps
Consolidate conditions into segment definitions or audience compositions to reduce the number of activities in a journey. For example, if multiple journeys include the condition “email address is not empty,” incorporate this check directly into the segment definition. -
Leverage reporting solutions for audience analysis
If journeys include several conditions to analyze audience metrics, use Customer Journey Analytics or other reporting tools suited for detailed analysis. -
Optimize node usage
Consolidate actions using dynamic parameters or personalized content to serve relevant experiences without adding explicit nodes for each variation. -
Streamline exclusion logic
If a Read Audience journey uses a batch segment (A) alongside a streaming segment (B) for exclusions (such as performing A-B), move this logic to the segmentation stage to simplify the journey canvas.
By following these guidelines, you can efficiently scale your journeys while maintaining system stability and achieving personalized engagement at scale.