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canesfan
Level 1
April 28, 2026
Solved

Cohort Test with Different Entry Cadences in a Single Journey

  • April 28, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 49 views

Hi community. I am seeking some help regarding journey capabilities. 

In a lapsed traveler win-back journey I want to test the impact of entry cadence by splitting the audience into two cohorts within the same journey:

  • Cohort A – Enters on a bi-weekly schedule (current setup)
  • Cohort B – Enters on a daily schedule (proposed)

All other journey elements would be identical — same messaging, same wait times between emails, same structure. The only variable being tested is how frequently users can enter the journey. Both cohorts would also share a 30-day re-entry suppression window.

I was advised internally that this is not feasible in AJO because the two entry cadences represent distinct qualification paths and cannot exist within a single flow.

My questions for the community:

  1. Is there any native way in AJO to support two different entry cadences within a single journey for a cohort test?
  2. If not, would the recommended workaround be to build two separate journeys — one per cohort — and split the audience upstream before entry? Is this even advisable?
  3. If two separate journeys is the approach, how do we best ensure the audience split is clean and controlled so there is no overlap between cohorts?
  4. Are there any best practices for managing re-entry suppression across two parallel journeys to avoid over-emailing?

Any guidance or examples from similar tests would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Best answer by SatheeskannaK

​@canesfan I would suggest consider having a overall strategy like duration of the Cohort test, Business rules, messaging, KPI’s before starting setting up the technical journey. Here are my response to your questions,

  • Is there any native way in AJO to support two different entry cadences within a single journey for a cohort test? - This is a hard platform constraint, not a configuration issue. A Read Audience activity, the journey's entry point, adds profiles from a selected AEP/AJO audience. A journey has only one schedule (one Read Audience per journey, one audience per activity). You cannot set different entry schedules (e.g., bi-weekly for Cohort A, daily for Cohort B) within the same journey canvas. The schedule is a journey property, and no branching workaround exists. Two journeys are required.
  • If not, would the recommended workaround be to build two separate journeys — one per cohort — and split the audience upstream before entry? Is this even advisable? - 
    • To create Journey B as a clean cadence test from Journey A, simply duplicate Journey A. Then, update only the schedule and the entry audience (to Cohort B), keeping all identical messaging, waits, and logic for the desired messaging structure.
  • If two separate journeys is the approach, how do we best ensure the audience split is clean and controlled so there is no overlap between cohorts? - 
    • To ensure an equal split and proper exclusion for the A/B test, I recommend the following:
      • Audience Split: Use the audience composition of the base lapsed audience to divide the group equally into Cohort A and Cohort B.
      • Exclusion Setup: Set up an exclusion on Cohort B so that it does not include members of Cohort A.
      • Cohort Maintenance: At the end of each journey (Cohort A vs. Cohort B), update a profile attribute. This action will ensure members remain in their original Cohort for future targeting by baking the attribute into the audience criteria.
  • Are there any best practices for managing re-entry suppression across two parallel journeys to avoid over-emailing? - Audience-Level Suppression (Recommended)
    • Implement the suppression logic directly within the AEP/AJO entry audiences for both journeys. Define exclusion criteria to filter out any profile that has received an email from either journey in the last 30 days.
    • Since both journeys consume profiles from AEP/AJO audiences, this suppression is evaluated before the profile enters AJO, eliminating the need for complex journey-level re-entry configurations.

 

 

2 replies

SatheeskannaK
Community Advisor
SatheeskannaKCommunity AdvisorAccepted solution
Community Advisor
April 29, 2026

​@canesfan I would suggest consider having a overall strategy like duration of the Cohort test, Business rules, messaging, KPI’s before starting setting up the technical journey. Here are my response to your questions,

  • Is there any native way in AJO to support two different entry cadences within a single journey for a cohort test? - This is a hard platform constraint, not a configuration issue. A Read Audience activity, the journey's entry point, adds profiles from a selected AEP/AJO audience. A journey has only one schedule (one Read Audience per journey, one audience per activity). You cannot set different entry schedules (e.g., bi-weekly for Cohort A, daily for Cohort B) within the same journey canvas. The schedule is a journey property, and no branching workaround exists. Two journeys are required.
  • If not, would the recommended workaround be to build two separate journeys — one per cohort — and split the audience upstream before entry? Is this even advisable? - 
    • To create Journey B as a clean cadence test from Journey A, simply duplicate Journey A. Then, update only the schedule and the entry audience (to Cohort B), keeping all identical messaging, waits, and logic for the desired messaging structure.
  • If two separate journeys is the approach, how do we best ensure the audience split is clean and controlled so there is no overlap between cohorts? - 
    • To ensure an equal split and proper exclusion for the A/B test, I recommend the following:
      • Audience Split: Use the audience composition of the base lapsed audience to divide the group equally into Cohort A and Cohort B.
      • Exclusion Setup: Set up an exclusion on Cohort B so that it does not include members of Cohort A.
      • Cohort Maintenance: At the end of each journey (Cohort A vs. Cohort B), update a profile attribute. This action will ensure members remain in their original Cohort for future targeting by baking the attribute into the audience criteria.
  • Are there any best practices for managing re-entry suppression across two parallel journeys to avoid over-emailing? - Audience-Level Suppression (Recommended)
    • Implement the suppression logic directly within the AEP/AJO entry audiences for both journeys. Define exclusion criteria to filter out any profile that has received an email from either journey in the last 30 days.
    • Since both journeys consume profiles from AEP/AJO audiences, this suppression is evaluated before the profile enters AJO, eliminating the need for complex journey-level re-entry configurations.

 

 

Thanks, Sathees
    C
    canesfanAuthor
    Level 1
    May 5, 2026

    Hi ​@SatheeskannaK thanks for your reply. I’ve been advised that the audience cannot be split upstream, but according to your explanation it seems this can be done. Can you provide specific details on how I would go about doing this? Thanks.

     

    To ensure an equal split and proper exclusion for the A/B test, I recommend the following:

    • Audience Split: Use the audience composition of the base lapsed audience to divide the group equally into Cohort A and Cohort B.
    SatheeskannaK
    Community Advisor
    SatheeskannaKCommunity Advisor
    Community Advisor
    May 6, 2026

    ​@canesfan Goto customer → audiences → create audience → choose “compose audience” and use the split activity to split into two cohorts.

    Follow this documentation: https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-platform/segmentation/ui/audience-composition

     

     

    Thanks, Sathees
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