> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.hightouch.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Journeys overview

> A journey is a scheduled, multi-step workflow in Customer Studio. Members enter when they join an audience or perform an event. On each run, Hightouch reevaluates your warehouse data to determine who enters, advances, or exits.

> [!TIP]
>
> If your source isn't listed in the [Lightning sync engine
> docs](https://docs.hightouch.com/syncs/lightning-sync-engine.md), journeys aren't currently supported for
> that source. If you see "This source does not support journeys" in the app, 
>
> [contact Hightouch](#pylon-chat)
>
>  
>
> to confirm compatibility.

## Before you begin

* A defined [schema](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/schema.md) with a parent model
* [Lightning sync engine](https://docs.hightouch.com/syncs/lightning-sync-engine.md) enabled
* A connected [destination](https://docs.hightouch.com/getting-started/concepts.md#destinations), or a direct-send email or SMS channel enabled for your workspace

## Overview

Audiences and journeys work together to determine **who** enters a workflow and **what happens next**.

* **Audiences** define groups of members.
* **Journeys** move members through a sequence of tiles over time.
* **Journey tiles** can delay members, branch based on conditions, send email or SMS messages, or sync member data to a destination.

For example, a member can enter a cart-abandonment journey after abandoning a cart. After two hours, they receive an email. If they purchase, they exit the journey. Otherwise, they receive another message the next day.

![A built journey on the canvas: audience entry, a time delay, a three-way segment, and a per-branch email send, with the performance panel alongside](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/journeys/journey-intro.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=0be22c12b637c9c03c8ee0ca28162054)

## When to use a journey

If you only need to keep a group of members synced to a destination, [sync an audience](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/syncs.md) directly. Use a journey when the workflow changes over time based on timing, member behavior, or earlier tiles.

### Sync an audience directly when

| Use case | Example |
| - | - |
| **You only need one activation step.** | Keep everyone in your `high-value customers` audience synced to Meta Ads. |
| **Audience membership already defines the full rule.** | Sync everyone with `churn risk = high` to Salesforce. |
| **Everyone should receive the same treatment.** | Keep all members of a regional campaign audience synced to the same destination list. |

### Build a journey when

| Use case | Example |
| - | - |
| **Several actions happen over time.** | Send a welcome email, wait three days, then send a reminder. |
| **Members should take different paths.** | Send different follow-ups depending on whether a trial user activated. |
| **The workflow should stop when a goal is reached.** | Exit a cart-abandonment journey when the member purchases. |
| **Later tiles depend on earlier ones.** | Assign a coupon on one branch and use it in a later message. |
| **You need to coordinate actions across time or channels.** | Send an email, wait two days, check SMS eligibility, then send an SMS only to eligible members. |

## How journeys run

Entry, advancement, exits, and destination actions happen only when the journey runs, not immediately when the underlying data changes.

![A cart-abandonment journey on the canvas, from audience entry through an A/B Split to two destination sends](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/journeys/cs-journey-example-abandon-cart.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=02678f08748cf5f36a1a14b1e3e5c833)

### What happens on each run

![A cycle of one journey run — enter, exit, advance, send, record — that repeats on the journey's schedule](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/journeys/run-cycle.svg?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=6c55721bc2f4c267bf8134dfb6e4a200)

On each scheduled run, Hightouch:

1. Adds members who meet the **Start** condition.
2. Checks whether active members meet any exit criteria.
3. Evaluates each member's current tile and advances members whose conditions are met.
4. Sends messages or runs destination syncs for members who reach those tiles.
5. Records journey progress for monitoring and reporting.

### How the schedule affects timing

The schedule determines when Hightouch can detect a change and act on it:

* **Delays** — A one-day delay advances a member on the first run after 24 hours have elapsed. If the journey runs every six hours, the member waits between 24 and 30 hours.
* **Exit criteria** — If a member meets an exit condition between runs, they exit when the next run detects it.
* **Hold until** — The member advances on the first run that detects the condition.
* **Destination syncs** — Reaching a **Send to destination** tile doesn't trigger a separate destination schedule; the sync runs when the journey processes that tile.

If you need an action to happen immediately when an event occurs, account for the journey's evaluation schedule when designing the workflow.

## How journey membership works

Counts can differ between the entry audience, the journey, individual tiles, and the destination because each stage applies different conditions.

![A funnel showing membership narrowing across four stages — audience, journey, tile, and destination — as entry rules, branches, and destination-side filters remove members at each stage](https://mintcdn.com/hightouch-3c037897/L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo/images/hightouch-audiences/journeys/membership-funnel.svg?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=L_vQfA0JQEpeGUUo\&q=85\&s=a5899036229b90681e8981cbe18fd9c1)

* **Audience membership** — who currently qualifies for the entry audience or event.
* **Journey membership** — who the journey has actually enrolled. Entry rules, exclusions, and re-entry limits narrow it, and a member stays enrolled until they finish or meet an exit condition, even if they later leave the entry audience.
* **Tile membership** — who has reached a given tile. Branches send members down different paths, and Time delay and Hold until tiles hold members in place, so no single tile sees everyone.
* **Destination membership** — who the destination actually received. Destination rules, consent, priority lists, and the destination's own suppression or deduplication can each remove members at sync time.

Don't expect these counts to match. Compare counts at the same stage: use entry rules and exclusions to understand journey enrollment, tile conditions to understand path counts, and destination-side filters to explain delivery counts.

## Get started

1. [Create a journey](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/journeys/create.md) and configure who can enter.
2. [Add tiles](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/journeys/tiles.md) for delays, branches, messages, and destination syncs.
3. Configure exit criteria and the journey schedule.
4. [Test and launch](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/journeys/activate.md) with a small cohort.
5. [Monitor and troubleshoot](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/journeys/monitor.md) the active journey.

To control which audiences and journeys take precedence when a member qualifies for more than one, see [priority lists](https://docs.hightouch.com/customer-studio/priority-lists.md).