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Understanding Journey Progression, Audience Refresh Schedules, and Mid-transition Outcomes

How daily audience reprocessing, wait transitions, and relative date boundaries impact member journey execution and early exit behavior.

Orbee Journeys evaluate member eligibility against source audience criteria. Depending on the source audience's reprocess method, updates to the audience directly dictate whether a member advances to subsequent journey points or completes an early exit.

Key Concepts & System Mechanics

  • Audience Reprocess Methods (REPLACE vs. APPEND):
    • Add and Remove (REPLACE): The audience updates daily by adding newly qualified members and removing members who no longer meet criteria. In this mode, the audience acts as an active guardian. If a member drops out of the audience during a journey point, they are exited from the journey.
    • Append Only (APPEND): The audience continuously adds newly qualifying members but never removes existing members. Once a member enters an Append-Only audience, they remain in it indefinitely and will not be exited from a journey via audience removal.
  • Enrollment & Audience Refresh Timing: Members enter the journey immediately upon launch, and newly qualifying members are added continuously following each audience refresh.
  • Mid-Journey Re-Evaluation: Re-evaluation against REPLACE audience criteria occurs continuously whether a member is at a point or held inside a transition. If a member drops out of the source audience at any time, they are immediately evicted and routed to Exit rather than completing their current transition.
  • Journey Points vs. Transitions: Members arrive at Journey Points (action or decision nodes) and then enter Transitions, which determine whether they advance immediately or are held before moving to the next point.
    • Immediate Transitions: Trigger instantly upon a member's arrival at a point, immediately routing them to the subsequent point.
    • Time-Based Transitions (Waits): Hold members in a transition state for a set duration after arriving at a point before advancing them to the next point.
    • Reactive Transitions (Branches w/ Waits): Hold members in a transition state for a set duration while actively monitoring real-time interaction events (e.g., link clicks or email opens) to dictate which point they reach next.

Behavior & Diagnostic Matrix

Observed Behavior Primary Cause System Mechanics & Guidance
Member exited during a "Wait" point without receiving the next message or point Source Audience Disqualification (REPLACE Audiences) Member data updated or aged out while held in a wait transition between points. Because audience re-evaluation runs continuously, the system recognized the removal during the transition and routed them to Exit before they reached the next point.
Members enrolled later than expected or on unexpected dates Ingestion Timing or Relative Window Thresholds External CRM/DMS data feeds may sync records days after the event occurs, or member profile attributes naturally hit the audiences relative date boundary later than expected.
Variations in journey completion among members enrolled on the same date Expiration of Relative Date Windows (REPLACE Audiences) Members with older event dates enter near the tail end of a relative date boundary. If their event date ages past the filter threshold while holding in a "Wait" transition, they exit early while newer members complete the flow.

Best Practices for Journey & Audience Design

  • Match Reprocess Method to Journey Intent: Use REPLACE when journey participation must strictly depend on real-time eligibility (e.g., active status windows). Use APPEND when every member who ever qualified should complete all journey points regardless of future profile changes.
  • Buffer Rolling Date Windows: For REPLACE audiences, ensure date filters are broad enough to accommodate external data feed sync delays as well as the combined length of all "Wait" transitions in the journey.
  • Align "Wait" points with Eligibility Boundaries: If a journey with a REPLACE source audience contains a 2-day "Wait" point, set the relative date window to extend at least 4–5 days past the entry threshold to prevent premature mid-wait exits.
  • Auditing Journey Activity & Timelines: To trace individual member movements, navigate to Journey Details in the Orbee platform and select the Audit Log tab. The Audit Log records every transition state change (From point/transition -> To point/transition) along with exact event timestamps. Cross-reference these timestamps against your source record's created_at and updated_at dates to diagnose progression anomalies or exit timing.