What is the correct targeting criteria to build an AEP audience of profilers who were sent an email? | Community
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KeironWratt
Level 2
August 17, 2026
Question

What is the correct targeting criteria to build an AEP audience of profilers who were sent an email?

  • August 17, 2026
  • 0 replies
  • 2 views

Hi, this is my use case:

  • Build a AEP read-audience of profiles who were sent any of three-specific emails that will be used within a AJO journey as an exclusion list so that the next day after audience evaluation anyone not in the audience will be sent Direct Mail i.e. next day the data sent to mail house for all profiles never sent the email.
  • ‘Sent email’ is defined as anyone that was not excluded at run time due already being suppressed, any sort of failure, soft or hard bounce, etc. So ‘sent’ can incorporate Message Event Feedback Dataset status ‘sent’, ‘delivered’, ‘status’.

Questions about the Message Event Feedback Dataset status enumerations: is the following correct? 

Sent

  • Definition: The message was successfully dispatched from Adobe’s delivery infrastructure to the external channel provider or carrier network.

  • Relates to: Email, Push, SMS, WhatsApp, Direct Mail (all standard outbound channels).

Delay

  • Definition: Message delivery is temporarily postponed and the system is actively retrying, typically due to ISP throttling, temporary recipient server issues, or carrier congestion.

  • Relates to: Email, Push, and WhatsApp. (Note: not natively utilised or available for the SMS channel).

Error

  • Definition: A permanent or hard failure occurred during the processing or routing stage before or during dispatch (such as an invalid configuration, rejected API payload, or severe system error).

  • Relates to: All outbound channels (Email, Push, SMS, Direct Mail, Webhook/Custom Actions).

Exclude

  • Definition: The profile was intentionally skipped and the message was not sent. This happens due to journey throttling, frequency capping rules, unsubscribed/suppressed status, or missing contact data.

  • Relates to: All outbound communication channels.

Bounce

  • Definition: The receiving mail server or carrier permanently or softly rejected the delivered message after dispatch (e.g., invalid address, mailbox full, or domain blocklisted).

  • Relates to: Email and SMS/Push gateways where carrier receipt data is supported. (Note: Not applicable to non-feedback channels like Direct Mail).

  • Note: I have discovered there is an additional status out_of_band (in AJO Message Feedback Event Dataset, out_of_band is a specific value within the feedbackStatus enum that signifies an asynchronous email bounce) but I cannot seem to select this in the audience build UI.

 

The mismatch in terminology

  • "Sent" Equals "Delivered": When an ISP (like Gmail or Yahoo) successfully accepts an email from Adobe's servers, Adobe records this ISP feedback status directly as "sent" within the feedbackStatus field.

  • The "Delivered" Metric: The word "Delivered" only exists as a calculated visual metric in high-level user interface reports (such as Customer Journey Analytics or Campaign Live dashboards). Behind the scenes in the raw dataset, it maps back to the "sent" event value.

 

Questions about my audience:

  1. What are the correct statuses to target?
    • Note: My online research provides confusing information. I am unsure if statuses ‘message sent’ is sufficient, or whether I should also target ‘message delivered’, ‘message read’.
  2. Should I add any exclusions?
    • Note: when I add exclusions it does not generate different results, so maybe I am applying incorrect logic. 
  3. What is the most efficient audience criteria I can apply, I do not want to unnecessarily over-complicate the targeting criteria. 

This is the basic audience criteria I have tried, and several permutations. This criteria generates ~47.34 results. But I do not have confidence this is the correct targeting criteria (read on).

EVENT 1 (1x RULE)

journeyId = ad42fd0b-a740-46eb-a3e6-3236816e33a5



EVENT 2 (3x RULES)

Journey Action ID = ae198305-68d0-4fc5-b430-eacf3aec64b3 or e3dfdb71-647b-4743-9c28-301631b199ee or e910ebee-bbcf-4ff7-bdce-a76e399e1cac 

AND 

Feedback Status equals Message Delivered or Feedback Status equals Message sent

Full logic: 
(Include audience who have at least 1 Any event where (journeyId equals ad42fd0b-a740-46eb-a3e6-3236816e33a5) then have at least 1 Any event where ((Journey Action ID equals ae198305-68d0-4fc5-b430-eacf3aec64b3 or e3dfdb71-647b-4743-9c28-301631b199ee or e910ebee-bbcf-4ff7-bdce-a76e399e1cac and (Feedback Status equals Message Delivered or Feedback Status equals Message sent))) ) and occurs in last 30 day(s)

 

I have also tried this criteria and it generates the same number as the audience above ~47.34K:

(Include audience who have at least 1 Any event where (journeyId equals ad42fd0b-a740-46eb-a3e6-3236816e33a5) then have at least 1 Any event where (Journey Action ID equals ae198305-68d0-4fc5-b430-eacf3aec64b3 or e3dfdb71-647b-4743-9c28-301631b199ee or e910ebee-bbcf-4ff7-bdce-a76e399e1cac and Feedback Status does not equal Invalid destination skipped nor Duplicate message skipped nor Message delayed nor Message bounced nor Message profile filtered out nor Message processing failed) ) and occurs in last 30 day(s)

 

But when I create an audience of non-sent i.e. bounces etc. it generates an audience of ~2.94K. So this suggests my audience of “sent customers” is not pulling accurate numbers.

 

Can anyone help write the correct logic to generate a list of profiles sent/delivered/read the email i.e. all customers not reported as excluded, bounced, spam, failed, etc?

Many thanks!

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