Build an Ad Journey

An Ad Journey shows one subscriber a sequence of ads across separate newsletter opens: for example, introduce your brand, show proof, then make an offer. Each subscriber moves through the steps on their own.

For agencies

This page has no client picker. A journey you create here is saved on your agency account, not on a client.

Before you start

• You have 2 to 5 approved banner creatives, one per step. Journey steps run in banner ad units only, so native and interactive creatives won't serve.
• You have each creative's ID. In Creatives, the table shows the first characters. Hover over the ID to see all of it.
• Your wallet has funds.

Steps

1. Open Ad Journeys and select New Journey.
2. Enter the Journey name and Base CPM (USD).
3. To cap spend, enter a Total budget (USD). Leave it blank for no cap.
4. Set Start date and End date if you want them.
5. Keep Linear Steps selected. The CPM Breakdown by Step panel shows what each step will bid.
6. For each step, enter a Step name and its Creative ID. Select Add step for more, up to 5.
7. For step 2 onward, set Min wait after step in days. The default is 1.
8. Select Create journey. It is saved as a draft.
9. Find it in the list and select Activate.

How each step is priced

You set one base CPM. Later steps bid more, and you pay the CPM of the step that served.

Step	CPM	Example: $8.00 base
1	1× base	$8.00
2	1.5× base	$12.00
3	2× base	$16.00
4 and 5	2.5× base	$20.00

Total budget is one cap across all the steps together.

How subscribers move through it

• A subscriber sees step 1 the first time a journey ad wins on an open.
• After a step serves, they wait the Min wait days, then the next step becomes eligible.
• A click skips the wait.
• A subscriber sees at most one ad from a journey per day (UTC).
• After the last step, a subscriber can enter again 30 days later.

What happens next

Activating creates one line item per step, under a campaign named Journey Orders [auto].

Use the buttons in the list to control the journey:

Status	What you can do
Draft	Edit, Activate
Active	Pause
Paused	Resume, Archive
Archived	Nothing. Archiving stops the journey for good

Only a draft can be edited. To change a running journey, build a new one.

To see how it's doing, read your journey results.

If something goes wrong

• "All steps must have a creative ID". Fill in every step.
• "Base CPM must be positive". Enter a price above zero.
• "AD_STEP node … is missing creativeId in config". This is a graph journey, which can't be activated yet. Build it with Linear Steps instead.
• "Only DRAFT journeys can be edited". Pausing doesn't unlock editing. Build a new journey.
• Active, but a step gets no impressions. Check the creative ID is complete and correct, the creative is approved, and it's a banner size that newsletters accept. The app doesn't check the ID when you save.