Advanced features in AJO IP Warm-up Plans: Granular Controls for Real-World Deliverability

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Adobe Journey Optimizer's (AJO) dedicated IP Warm-up Plans go beyond simple volume ramping, offering sophisticated controls to fine-tune your sender reputation strategy. These capabilities empower you to manage your warm-up process with precision, adapting to real-world deliverability challenges. 

1. Domain Exclusion: Targeted Reputation Management 

 

Sometimes, your reputation with a specific Internet Service Provider (ISP) or a particular domain group might require special attention, even while your overall warm-up plan is in progress. AJO's Domain Exclusion feature allows you to temporarily exclude specific domains or custom domain groups from a warm-up phase. 

Practical Use Case: Imagine you're several days into your IP warm-up, and you notice a higher-than-expected bounce rate or lower engagement specifically with emails sent to Yahoo! Japan (yahoo.jp) or Yahoo! India (yahoo.co.in). Instead of pausing your entire warm-up, you can: 

1. Create a custom domain group in your IP warm-up plan template (e.g., "MyYahoo") that includes yahoo.jp, yahoo.co.in, etc and re-upload it.
   

    

2. Exclude this "MyYahoo" domain group from the current or upcoming warm-up phases. This allows you to address the specific deliverability issue with Yahoo! domains separately (e.g., by adjusting content or sending patterns to those domains outside the warm-up plan) without disrupting the overall warm-up for other ISPs. 
   

    

This granular control is invaluable for isolating and resolving reputation issues without halting your entire warm-up progression. 

2. Campaign Exclusion: Preventing Audience Overlap 

In a multi-phase warm-up, or if you need to restart a phase, ensuring that profiles previously contacted are not re-targeted is crucial for maintaining a healthy sender reputation and avoiding recipient fatigue. Campaign Exclusion feature addresses this directly. 

Practical Use Case: Suppose you're executing Phase 1 of your warm-up plan, but due to unforeseen circumstances (e.g., a critical content error), you need to "split" the run and re-execute part of Phase 1 or move to Phase 2 prematurely. To prevent profiles already contacted in the initial Phase 1 run from being re-targeted in the subsequent run or Phase 2, you can: 

1. Select the campaign(s) used in the problematic Phase 1 run in "Campaigns for exclusion of profiles"
   
2. The system then automatically excludes profiles that were part of the audiences of these campaigns from the current or next warm-up phase. 

This ensures that previously contacted profiles are not included again, preserving your sender reputation and optimizing the recipient experience. You can even exclude campaigns from other IP warm-up plans.  

3. Journey Exclusion: Holistic Profile Management 

Similar to campaign exclusion, Journey Exclusion allows you to prevent profiles that have been targeted in specific journeys from being included in a warm-up phase. This is particularly useful for ensuring consistency across all your customer interactions. 

Practical Use Case: If a customer is currently in a complex, high-value onboarding journey (e.g., for a new premium service) or a sensitive customer support resolution journey, you might want to ensure they are not simultaneously pulled into a general IP warm-up campaign. This prevents over-messaging during a crucial customer lifecycle stage and ensures the focus remains on the primary, high-priority experience. 

To prevent profiles already contacted in the given journey from being re-targeted in the subsequent run or Phase 2, you can: 

1. Select the Journey(s) in "Journeys for exclusion of profiles"
   

    

2. The system then automatically excludes profiles that were part of the audiences of these Journeys from the current or next warm-up phase. 

4. Split Phase: Adapting to Evolving Needs 

Flexibility is key in deliverability. The Split Phase capability in AJO's IP Warm-up Plans provides a powerful way to adapt your strategy on the fly without completely restarting. 

Practical Use Case: You've activated a warm-up run, but then realize you need to: 

• Change the associated campaign for the current phase. 
• Add new domain or campaign exclusions that weren't initially planned. 
• Adjust other phase-level properties. 

Since exclusions and campaigns cannot be modified once a run in a phase is activated, the "Split run to a new phase" option becomes invaluable. This allows you to effectively create a new, modified phase from your current point, incorporating any necessary changes and continuing your warm-up with updated parameters. 

By leveraging these advanced capabilities, AJO's IP Warm-up Plans offer a dynamic and responsive framework for building and maintaining a strong sender reputation, ensuring your emails consistently reach the inbox.